Teaching your teen how to drive is one of the hardest thing’s you’ll ever do when parenting. 3 years ago I taught my daughter how to drive and in less then a year I will be teaching my son. I’m honestly not looking forward to doing this again as I’m not fully recovered from teaching my daughter.
Below are my best tips for getting through this.
Disclaimer: I live in Canada so this is based off of Canada’s laws
Learners
Have them study months in preparation for their learners. There’s tons of tests online they can practice with. This is the one we use in our Province.
For my daughters 16th birthday I let her take the morning off of school and out for breakfast before taking her to do her learners test. After she passed her test I let her drive around a parking lot for 30 min before taking her to school.
Driving School
I cannot stress enough how much enrolling your teen in driving school is worth it. I know it’s expensive but in the end it’s worth it. The one we use saved her money on insurance, would take her through stressful things first before she attempted it with me (highways, roundabouts, etc) and took her driving an hour before her test and let her use their car for the test.
Before Taking Them on the Road
Before I took my daughter on the road I had her get comfortable with the car in a parking lot. It allowed her to get used to turning the steering wheel, breaking, and using the gas pedal. I had her also practice pulling in to parking stalls and pulling out.
Taking Them on the Road
The first attempt on driving on the road I had her drive around our street and neighbouring streets. She got used to stopping at stop signs, driving past pedestrians, and going through a school zone. I honestly had her do this for about a week until I was comfortable with her being on bigger roads.
Once I was more comfortable with being on bigger and busier roads I used her a ton for errands. Grocery shopping, going to hair appointments, etc.
After her driving school took her on the highway I then started getting more serious with driving lessons.
Keep Calm When in the Vehicle With Them
Teaching teens how to drive is STRESSFUL!!! My anxiety was through the roof when teaching her. The number one thing you need to remember is if you’re over panicking or yelling you’re stressing them out. Stressed out drivers make mistakes so you don’t want that. You want them to be calm and aware of their surroundings.
Do you have any tips or tricks for teaching your teen how to drive? I’d love to hear about them in the comment section.
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