He wasn’t ever taught. He’s grown up in a house where you take it to the shop for major part repair. Dad was disabled, and I never seemed to have the time, or the inclination. But I used to work on my car when I was young.
He’s also been at work while the car was being worked on. With no experience, it would have taken him forever to fix everything we are having repaired.
Am I doing a good job of rationalizing how bad I’ve spoiled my kid? 
Excuse me, but where is the carbon monoxide going to come from if the engine is stalled? And no, I was not going to die from being stalled out in a flooded street. The flooded area was maybe thirty feet across and one foot deep. I feel confident I could have walked out. Remember, this wasn’t moving water, just moderate deep standing water on the road.
He drieves a Firebird? I didn’t know any of those still ran! Could he find a car that sits lower to the ground to drive through water?
Firebird. heh.
Why would your car stall in 1 foot of water? Most cars have their intakes at least 18-24 inches high.
And Dolores Reborn you’re lucky the damage was so low. Hydrolock is generally fatal for most engines and cases massive damage to all sorts of parts.
The reason I asked his age Dolores, is because I could understand you paying for his repairs, driving him to and from work, him still living at home after he dropped out of school (well, that depends, was it high school or college?), ect, if he was underage.
But 19?
I may get flamed for this, but, have you ever wondered how this kids gonna learn how to stand on his own two feet when you keep cleaning up his messes for him?
I’m not trying to attack you at all, please believe that. I was just suprised when no one commented on your post describing your sons situation, as it made my mouth drop open.
I realize he’s trying to get his life back on track, and that’s awesome. Kudos to you for being supportive. But he’s legally an adult, and this:
Kinda shows that he might just be taking what appears to be a pretty cushy situation for a 19 year old adult to be in, for granted. Perhaps if he was forced to clean up his own messes for awhile, he might be a little more appreciative of his current situation.
Sorry, for intruding. It’s just, spoiled kids that take their parents for granted is a little bit of a hot button issue for me.
I don’t know, but I will quote the article directly for you.
"Sharpstown High School seniors Karla Quezada and Carlos Rodriguez were still within sight of their school campus when disaster struck as they tried to drive through high water.
The flooding from Monday’s torrential rains crept inside their van, rising up to the seats and touching their thighs.
“We thought we were gonna get through it,” Rodriguez said. Then they became trapped.
Their predicament attracted little notice at first - tinted windows obscured the view inside - but when others looked in minutes later, Quezada, 17, had fallen facedown into the 8 or 9 inches of water flooding the vehicle and was unresponsive, one witness said.
Her 18-year-old boyfriend was unconscious in the driver’s seat with his head thrown back. The car’s engine was running, a witness said.
Rodriguez survived, but Quezada did not. She became the first and only known victim killed in Monday’s storms, Harris County Medical Examiner’s officials said.
An autopsy Tuesday showed Quezada drowned, said Rudy Flores, spokesman with the medical examiner’s office. Toxicology results, to be released in another three days, will indicate if she became unconscious from the car’s exhaust fumes. "
From The Houston Chronicle, Wed. Nov. 19, 2003. by Peggy O’Hare and Jo Ann Zuniga.
The engine was still running, not stalled - that’s where the exhaust fumes came from. Those kids’ car was still working, just not able to move. If your car actually stalled because of the floodwaters, you would not be in danger of carbon monoxide poisoning.
I would have turned the motor off if I got stuck and couldn’t move and didn’t feel that it was safe to get out. I don’t know why they didn’t.
I followed the Isabel thread with interest, believe me. I am trying to make him do what he is supposed to do.
It’s a long story, but his dad died in January. Dad was a control freak who wouldn’t let him drive at 16, or hardly go out with friends. He was homeschooled for 4 years by him. I cut him much slack, letting him experience freedom. So was I, actually. He was a very abusive man, mostly verbal but physical, too. Especially with Pete (my son.) All of a sudden I was forced to be the disciplinarian, when all along I had been his buddy, the one who felt sorry for his dad’s excesses.
Anyway, I found out too late he had skipped enough high school to not be able to make it up in summer school. I feel guilty that I didn;t pay enough attention to his depression at the time. I was busy trying to figure out how to do everything by myself, and still work and do all the normal things. I trusted him to do the right thing.
So here we are 10 months later. He started to get his GED, but then has decided he wants to go back to high school and graduate, so that he can go to Texas A&M next fall. He knows that he will have to get student loans to pay for it.
Like I said, he is trying to turn his life around, and it’s hard for me to be a cold bitch to him all the time. He is selfish, and spoiled, which is (partly) my fault. But I am trying to turn all my mistakes around, too.
Does that cover it?
The spray/wave from driving through the water can be more than enough to stall an engine. I’ve seen it happen, even when the intake was “above” the actual water line.
Yes it does. Thank you for being so open. I’m so sorry for everything both you and your son have had to go through. And I wish you the best of luck and strength.
Was anybody else bothered by the phrase “my dumbass son”? That seems like a pretty callous way to talk about your kids.
aaslatten, some people just talk that way. My parents called me dumbass all the time, but never in a hateful way, more in a joking way. Same way I call my son knucklehead when he pulls something boneheaded, and when I do, he calls me a knucklehead right back.
Some families and parents just operate differently from yours. Mine, for instance, has a snarky sense of humor.
Gundy is right. I didn’t mean it literally. I call him that sometimes but never in mean way, and I didn’t call him a dumbass for this incident. Not to his face anyway! He can kid me about doing airheaded things, too.
I did pretty much say I told you so, several times.
(You know, I read personal threads like this all the time. It is very difficult to include enough information so that people understand the situation fully, without thinking ill of you.)
Speaking of floods in Albuquerque, back in 1990 or maybe 91 or 92. I was picking my sister up at the airport and taking her to our parents house there was a really huge rain storm. At the big I there was this place where I-25 north bound curves with a pretty high bank. It probably is not that way anymore now that they have finished rebuilding the big I. All but the left most lane had filled up with water. Everybody was going slow in that left lane when this jerk in a jacked up Toyota pickup truck decides he does not need to wait in the slow lane. He took the right most lane and stalled the truck. What a goob. He probably would have been fine if he just went around us one or two lanes in but he had to go in the deepest spot and got stuck.