Dumb Decision

Let me set the stage, as the story (and my aggravation/amazement) has much more meaning knowing all that happened leading up to the Singer's poor decision.
The Singer's best friend from college lives just north of Ft Lauderdale (across the state). The friend had knee surgery at the beginning of May and has been laid up. So many of her friends have gone to visit to keep her occupied and upbeat. So Mid-May the Singer hops in her new car and putt-putts over there. Not home but a few days and she was requesting to go again. She's telling me all about which friends are going when and in that conversation mentions that the boyfriend (and we'll not go into all my thoughts on that one) has to go visit again so he can go to court in Collier county because on each of his previous 2 trips to see her he got a speeding ticket on Alligator Alley. At this same time she's asking to go, she and I sat down to come up with her summer budget. She has most of what she earned in high school saved up, but told me she wanted to spend less than she was scheduled to make this summer. So we sat down and figured out things she'd want to spend money on this summer (movies, clothes, gas). And made a nice little budget and had a great talk about budgeting. It ended with me telling her how proud I was she was not planning on spending any of her savings and would end the summer ahead of where she began. As you can predict, she blew it. She got a speeding ticket on Alligator Alley.


I get a call, "Mom....I got a speeding ticket." "How fast were you going?" "Ummm, 15 miles over." "What?!" "But the good news is the cop only wrote me up for seat belt violation, so there's no points and it's only [only?] $98. I sort of got caught up in my music and wasn't paying attention." As if telling me she's not paying attention while she's racing in her car will make me feel better!
After counting to 20 (10 wasn't going to handle it) and biting my tongue so I won't scream into the phone, "And you didn't think that maybe Alligator Alley was a speed trap after hearing about the other tickets?" I think her ticket was given within 10 miles of the boyfriends'. I mentioned she'd have to adjust her budget to accommodate the $98 she was now spending. She tells me she'll just use her savings. Ugh!
Overall, I think she gets it...budgeting and being responsible, but she gets it only as much as a teenager can. Oh how I hate seeing my kids make dumb mistakes.