How to Stay Sane While Teaching Teens to Drive

Teaching a teenager to drive a car is a challenge you must face as a parent. You need to offer a supportive, instructional atmosphere despite the fear and apprehension you may feel. This is one of the biggest steps your child takes while still in your care. Keep your senses so you can facilitate a smooth transition.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Send your teen to a certified driver's training course before you allow her to drive your car. Ensure that she has a basic understanding of the driving laws and take her on a dry run through the operation of your vehicle before you hand her the keys.

2. Focus your attention on the positive things your teen does behind the wheel. Correct the mistakes in a calm, reassuring manner and don't let him see the death grip you have on your door handle if he does something that makes you uncomfortable.

3. Realize that you can't really stop your vehicle when you stomp on the imaginary brake pedal on the passenger side of your car. Your teen is in control when you're in the co-pilot's seat. Relax and trust that he doesn't want to be involved in an accident any more than you do. Allow him to get comfortable in the driver's seat with the help of your patience and faith in his abilities.

4. Drive with your teen often so that both of you get comfortable with her role as a new driver. Start out in a big, empty parking lot so she can get a feel for your vehicle. Teach her to drive a manual transmission here, too, so she can experience "killing" an engine in a secluded area, with no other cars to distract her.

5. Look forward to the time when your teen can drive himself to everything from football practice and church activities to school and social functions. Plan for the extra time you can spend on your own ventures.

[GilinAtlanta]

on 4/10/2009 I took drivers' ed in high school and will NEVER forget my instructor telling me and all the others in the car the same question a million times. It has stayed with me and comes back to me even to this day, some 35 years later. "Where's your car going?" When we veered into another lane unexpectedly or got too close to other cars, he'd ask that question like the sounding of an alarm. Although we quickly adjusted after it, our incentive was to keep control so we wouldn't hear it again. Now, we who graduated from that class and have been driving safer all these years wear that on our memories like a proverbial badge of honor. If you don't have a phrase like that, maybe you would want to use it. Either way, lots of prayer to you who teach and watch the teen to drive. God bless.