One of the Most Dangerous Jobs in the World: Teaching Your Teenager to Drive

I remember talking to other mothers on the playground when my children were in grammer school, happily exchanging our views about our kids growing up, dating, going away to college and getting married. The one subject that was only talked about in hushed whispers with dread, was teaching your child to drive. Everyone would be quiet a if a bomb had been dropped at our feet.

I survived teaching two teenagers and learned much in the process as you will see below.

Choose one parent to teach driving. Both parents teaching a child can be too confusing. For instance, when I was learning to drive, my mother would take me out, wanting me to ride as close to the white line in the middle of the road as possible and to wait until I got fairly close to an intersection before braking. My father would instruct me to ride close to the curb and to break well before an intersection. Both insisted they were right. No two people are going to agree about every aspect of teaching.

Each new driver needs patience and consistency. The instructor needs iron nerves and steely resolve to see this through.

Set some ground rules as to how long the lesson will be. Most teenagers would stay out driving forever. Setting rules ahead of time is best. No music will be allowed. Every ounce of attention span will be for driving.

Before driving, have your teenager sit behind the steering wheel. You may want to point out the speedometer first and just how fast he or she will be traveling on this adventure. I say adventure because I have been known to close my eyes or jerk my body away from a car I am sure we will soon crash into. Parents should really have a brake pedal on their side of the car in my opinion.

Review how to turn the wheel so the car will go left or right. Point out the brake pedal and the gas pedal. Have your teen practice, with one foot only, pressing the gas and the brake. Teenagers give the impression that they know everything. Don't trust that knowledge extends to driving a car. Go over how to put the car in drive, park and reverse. The use of directionals, two hands on the wheelat eleven o'clock and two o'clock.