According to a study conducted by the AAA Foundation, not as many teens are as interested in getting their driver’s license as in previous years. In fact, only 44 percent of teenagers reported getting their driver’s license within 12 months of becoming eligible to get it. But of course, your teen falls in the other 56 percent.
Although it can be scary to see your son or daughter behind the wheel, it’s best that parents force themselves to stay as calm, cool and collected as possible.
The following tips can help even the most Nervous Nellie of a parent remain relaxed when teaching Junior or Juniorette to drive:
Be a Knowledgeable Co-Pilot
Before taking your teen out for a driving lesson, have your spouse or a friend take you out for a ride in your own car. It’s important to know and remember that everything looks a lot different from the passenger side of a car. As Metlife points out, doing this ahead of time will help parents realize that the parked car at the side of the road is probably not as close to your car as you think. Since you spend so much time behind the wheel, your perspective will be from the driver’s seat, so it’s important to have an experienced driver show you how the safely-centered car will look on the road when you are in the passenger seat.
Be Knowledgeable About State Driving Laws
As All State Foundation notes, it’s important for parents to be up-to-date on their state’s driving rules and regulations. After all, it will be hard to accurately counsel your teen on certain traffic signs and safe driving distances if you are not up-to-date on the rules yourself. A great way to do this is to download and take some practice driving permit tests for your state. You probably helped your teen do this before he or she took the permit test. If you do it too, you can easily learn or re-learn what you need to know about driving in your state, which in turn will help you to become a more calm and focused teacher.
Be Knowledgeable About How Teens Think
As Forbes notes, sometimes parents assume their teens have more common sense and inherent knowledge behind the wheel than they actually do. And as the classic saying reminds us, we all know what happens when we assume. When teaching your child to drive, remember that they might not automatically know to come to a complete stop when leaving a parking lot and before pulling out into traffic, or that they have to check their blind spots when changing lanes. Remembering that your teen will need to be taught just about everything regarding driving—even the things you think they’ve seen you do a million times—will help you to stay relaxed and out of potentially dangerous situations.
Be Knowledgeable and Respectful of Your Own Comfort Level
Your teen might be asking to go practice on the freeway, but it doesn’t mean you have to do it—at least, not today. Learning to drive takes time and lots of practice, and teens are not instantly ready to tackle any and all driving conditions. Start out in empty parking lots and side streets with very little traffic, and ease your teen into driving. Over time, have them go out on busier thoroughfares.
About The Author
Laura Campbell – Parent, flight attendant, bookworm
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