Waterloo Automotive

The next month and a half is supposed to be considered the most wonderful time of the year because of the holidays. But we all know that also means a lot of time with your family. For those of you college students coming home for Thanksgiving and winter break, you may have a big wake up call in regards to your personal space and your freedom. Here are some tips to help balance your expectations with your parents’ expectations. Prioritize – You will want to see your friends during the holidays but you also need to prioritize family time. If you go to a local college, prioritize seeing friends who may have moved out of state and are back for a short amount of time. If you went far away from home for college, consider getting a group of friends together so you get to see many people at once to limit the amount of time you are away from home.
Remember that your family will want to see you just as much, if not more, as your friends do. Your parents are u
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Every year, teens across the country celebrate Halloween in one of two ways: innocent and fun or reckless and dangerous. Once they outgrow the desire to dress up like their favorite cartoon characters and go trick-or-treating, they often develop a spirit of adventure—one that can lead them into trouble if they’re not careful. That’s why, when it comes to making sure their teens stay safe on October 31, it’s important for parents to talk to their teens about all the evening will entail. The first and most important thing to do is to get the details. Know where your teen will be and when, who will be with them and how they can be reached. Other details including the presence of alcohol and method of transportation are also key. Parents, it’s your right and responsibility to establish rules for and with your teen in order to ensure their safety, so don’t be afraid to put your foot down if you feel uncomfortable with any situation. Remember, they’ll thank you for it later ... read more

Fresh information hit the news last month when Liberty Mutual Insurance and Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) revealed the results of a survey regarding the amount of influence a parent’s driving habits has on the ones of their teenage drivers. According to the survey, which polled 1,700 teens from across the nation, adults are engaging in poor and risky driving habits while their teens are in the car and, in the process, doing more than just putting their families at risk. By engaging in behaviors such as texting, speeding and driving while intoxicated, parents are setting poor examples for their teenage drivers and causing them to follow suit by repeating the actions in nearly equal amounts. Not surprisingly, the most common destructive driving behavior modeled by parents was talking on a cell phone while driving. The second-most repeated offense was speeding, followed by texting, driving without a seatbelt, driving while intoxicated and, finally, drivin ... read more