On Thursday, my daughter wrecked her car. She was very upset. Her car was her baby. When I picked her up at the site of the accident, I said, among other things, “this is why we have insurance.”

Last evening, I suddenly realized that she didn’t understand what insurance is, and thought that, having her chance at having a car, this was, literally, the end of the road until she got a job and earned enough to replace it. She was perfectly willing to do this, having been at fault in the accident and taking responsibility for that, but it was, understandably, very disheartening.

Once we explained to her how insurance works, the differences between liability insurance and comprehensive insurance, and how the process was going to work, she was much less despondent.

So, parents of new drivers, take a moment to explain to your kids how insurance works. There’s a lot of things that we might assume they understand, which they don’t, because they’ve never had to.