This is Unbelievable!

Over the summer, my daughter turned 16, legal age to get her G1 and start learning to drive. Not something I have been looking forward to as I literally just finished cleaning being a driving instructor to my son in July when he passed his driving test. My daughter asked if she could write the test after her birthday and before school started up again. Although I was hesitant only for the reason I have just mentioned, I agreed. She read the drivers handbook and tried the online tests about 6 or 7 times, which she tells me she passed each and every time. So we decided to wait till the week before school thinking that most kids would already have gone to write their test earlier in the summer! Boy was I wrong.......we got to the driving Center at 9:30am.....fortunately to my surprise I found a parking spot quickly, at which time I thought, 'oh, maybe it won't be too long of a wait!' I was wrong again. The line up was about 2 blocks long. We walked up to the front of the line to inquire how long the wait would be. "At least 4 hours if you have all the correct paperwork!" I had left the gathering of documents to my daughter and had brought her birth certificate with us also. Apparently we needed proof of her signature. Seriously where do you get proof of a 16 year old signature?

As chance would have it we had brought the application to get her new health card which is required as they turn 16. So we decided that it was not worth the wait in 40f degree heat, to stand in line for a G1 for over 4 hours. We decided we would go get the health card application done and come back another day for the G1. So off we go to Service Ontario, stood in line with her current health card and her birth certificate for well over an hour, only yo find out when we got to the counter that we actually needed proof of her address! Really how does a 16 year old have that. Wasn't the fact that the government had sent her the application firm in her name to her address not proof enough that it was indeed her address....apparently not! "Go home and get her report card from last school year then come back!" I laughed at this because I know parents who lie about their child's address in order to keep them in the school of their choice, not the school that their children are supposed to attend. What do these parents to prove their 16 year old address? What a joke!!!

The following week the grade 9s were starting school a day before the other high school grades so we decided we go back to get the G 1 on that day. Again we get there at 9:30am, get the exact same parking space. Look at the building entrance and see no line up. Bonus I thought, this should be a breeze. Wrong again! When you enter you take a number from the ticket machine, our number was 707.....they were only serving number 625. "That's a lot of people ahead of us, maybe we should leave and come back on a PA day," I suggested to my daughter. That of course didn't go over too well! So we waited, and waited, and waited for hours, in a makeshift building with one toilet, 20 chairs in total, no bottles of water, no food, vending machines or even any restaurants within walking distance. The ticket machine was now at over 800, people continued to com in and line up. I figured out that it would take one hour to serve 30 people at 3 wickets open.....nightmare!!!

Finally after hours we are processed, pay our money and then told to wait in another line to then write the test. 10 people were permitted in the test room at a time and then had to stay there and wait till their exam was marked manually by ONE employee. Could this get any worse? I joked with my daughter that if she failed it would not be a pretty sight!!! "Way to put pressure on me" was my answer! So there I waited another hour and a half while my daughter entered the test room, completed the exam which took about 10 minutes, then waited to have it marked!
Thankfully she passed, but some didn't! How frustrating that must have been for kids and parents! We walked out of there at 3:20pm!!! The things we do for our kids!!!