Actually, it does… for some people. Hell, I’m 43 and I wouldn’t drive around a bunch of drunk guys I didn’t know.
No I would not allow my seventeen year old to sit outside in parking lots and wait for others to drink in bars. It’s not about how you and your friends would treat him (turn him?) it’s the possibility for danger in general.
If he (or she, in my case) was eighteen and legally allowed to serve the country as well as a case of beer at a gas station, it would be his (or her) choice.
(my apologies if this posts twice. board is behaving strangely today)
That’s why he would be getting paid.
I was thrown by the OP’s use of the phrase “chat him up”–was anyone else? And I’m not even British. In UK, that means “conversation aimed at getting a date or better as in some sort of sexual contact”.
So, the rest of it confused me…
As a mom of a 17 year old boy, I can say I see both sides. I probably wouldn’t have come at you with both barrels, but I would have made some kind of contact and told you NO. If it’s a situation where you have mostly talked to the teen and I don’t really know you from Adam-- my suspicions would have been stronger and my demeanor a bit, well, meaner.
For me, it’s not so much “my precious snowflake” as much as it’s “I don’t know this guy and I don’t know his friends and I have some experience with guys and cars and alcohol mixed together and it’s not often good…”
Try to build bridges with them. Remain the nice neighbor with the dog. Get to know them better (if she’ll let you), but even if you become fast friends, don’t expect them (or the 17 y/o) to be your driver unless you break your leg.
My kids are 14 and 20, and if someone offered my hypothetical 17 year old an opportunity like this without talking to me first, I would be pissed off. Now it’s up to me to say no, and you’ve just put me into the position of being the evil, overprotective mom.
A 17 year old driver isn’t the safest person on the road. It takes years and experience to hone your reflexes and learn to drive under different circumstances (fog, rain, drunken middle aged dudes in the car with you). A 17 year old is still working on using good judgment. Sitting in a bar or club parking lot and reading a book? Yeah, that’s realistic.
You’ve known him for a few months, and you didn’t mention knowing his parents. Even if they trust you, thay obviously wouldn’t know anything about your friends at all. Once you throw that in the mix, there is no way I would agree to my kid driving a bunch of guys around, most of whom he has never met. I would question your motives, and wonder why one of you couldn’t just be the designated driver, or why you wouldn’t hire a cab. Even if you explained that you wanted to help him earn some money, I wouldn’t believe you.
I’m not criticizing you personally; I don’t know you. I’m just trying to explain the mom point of view. It was nice of you to think of him, but the potential risks outweigh the benefits here.
For the record, put me down as one who thinks the original request was unreasonable and not very well thought out. For one thing, neither kid nor mom knows what you and your buddies are like when you’re drinking, or how you can be expected to behave. Do you get rowdy? violent? out of control? And even if you guys are all cool—well, I don’t know the Dallas bar scene, but I wouldn’t think sitting around alone in the parking lots of bars late at night was the safest place for a young, possibly not very streetwise kid to be.
I don’t mean to sound rude, but from the mother’s standpoint it sounds like “Driving around a bunch of old men who ought to know better.” (Not meant as a slam but that is how it comes across)
Spring for a limo and get a real licensed driver.
I’m all for your effort to do the kid a solid and offer him some good money for helping you out, but I’m with most others here- the particular job you had in mind is a poor one considering the circumstances, and you went about it all wrong. If nothing else, asking his parents first is a sign of respect. As a parent, among other things I’d want to know what you have up your sleeve by asking my (17-year old, relatively inexperienced driving-wise) son to do something you could and should hire a professional to do instead.
If you want to help the kid out, ask him to paint your house or something.
Yeah. It’s the “not knowing you very well” part that I think is important.
It’s part of my job as a parent to make sure my kid doesn’t accidentally get himself into a bad situation. If I knew you and your friends well and knew you would be relatively well-behaved … then, sure, why not?
But some guys like to raise hell when they’re drunk. They get in fights, act like jerks, do really stupid stuff. I don’t want to sit at home worrying that my kid’s in the back of a cop car after getting in a fight in the parking lot of a bar. Maybe you and your friends don’t get in fights in bar parking lots … but I don’t know you well enough to know that.
I don’t think it was a terrible idea, but it’s not a good one.
You would be responsible for him even though you were drunk and out to have fun.
He can’t be (by his age) a very experienced driver.
There’s a greater risk of an accident even when the driver himself isn’t drunk - at least, logically there would be, since a carful of drunk guys are going to be more distracting and clumsy than the same guys sober.
Drunk people are more likely to give themselves minor injuries leading to a trip to the hospital, and you wouldn’t want to have to admit there that the only sober one among you, the one taking charge of you all, is 17 years old.
Drunk people are more likely to get into fights even if they’re total pacifists - there’s just more chance of bumping into total arseholes at bars than elsewhere. Again, you wouldn’t want to explain to the police that you’re being looked after by a minor.
All in all, a taxi would be way easier.
I presume he means that he’s not trying to turn him gay.
Though the phrase ‘chatting each other up’ does unintentionally make it seem like the boy doesn’t need turning! 
It was a bad idea. I’m not a parent, but if my neighbor made me a similar offer when I was 17, my parents would have had me turn it down. And they weren’t restrictive in any sense of the word. I had pretty generous driving privileges and a full license at 17. But it was that 17 is underage for going to bars, even if you’re sitting outside in the vehicle. And as an adult, I wouldn’t even think of asking. The original taxi idea was the better idea. You should have stuck with it. Either that or find a 21 year old friend who can legally sit at the bar with you and buy him Coke or ginger ale all night.
Yeah, between that and mentioning how no strapping young lad (who could squash me like a grape tee hee!) could be sexually molested “against his will”, I was wondering if that mighta been one of them Freudian slips . . .
I’m a mom and my first thought was “over my dead and prostrate body”. Upon further reflection, my final thought is “over my dead and prostrate body”. This is a bad idea. It might have been OK years ago, but not now. Find another solution.
Another point is that 17 year olds are not legally allowed to drive between midnight and 5:00 (with certain exceptions).
In my state, where I grew up (Pennsylvania), it is possible to get a full adult license at 17 if you have parents’ permission and pass a state-certified drivers’ education course. I passed Drivers’ Ed at my high school and got the necessary parental approval and had my senior license at 17.
For $60-$100, it’s not that much sitting around. He can read a book or play Gameboy or something.
I agree that you should have asked his mother first, SHAKES, and while I don’t think what you asked him to do is that unreasonable, I can easily see his mother picturing you/your friends coming back to the truck and sneaking him a drink or something.
This. (Except I’m not a parent.)
A girlfriend of mine did just this thing, though. She was maid-of-honor for a mutual friend and I was a bridesmaid. For the bachelorette party the MOH hired her brother (around 18 at the time, I think) to ferry us all around all night. I think he was paid like $50. I remember he made a sign on a stick that said NO PUKING IN THE WAGONEER. And yeah, he just waited in the parking lot(s) while we pub crawled.
But the difference is: He was the party planner’s brother. Running it by his parents only involved running it by hers. He knew most of us and most of us knew him. And we were a bunch of mid-twenties women, not a bunch of middle-aged men.
The moral of the story is: find your own 18-year-old boy. 
Since Really Not All That Bright resurrected this thread I guess I’ll give an update.
We wound up hiring a (van) Taxi. It wasn’t all that bad. Dude kept a clean cab and he gave us his direct phone number so we wouldn’t have to wait that long when we were ready to go. (Plus I don’t mind waiting if I know I got a good driver.)
I happened to catch the Dad out front one day, told him I was sorry, he said not to worry about it. I occasionally see the mom, we don’t talk but we do the polite hand wave thing when we pass each other by.
Oh and for those of you wondering what I meant by “Turn him” I meant turn him into a booze guzzling freak. Heh, you guys crack me up sometimes.
As it was resurrected I shall chime in-
I did, at 17, with a friend of mine, drive several old dudes around to get liquored up for money or meals…
We had little or nothing to do, and no income.
Parents were not involved, and when my own kid is 17, the answer from me would be a resounding HELLS no.