Teaching your teen to drive can be scary for everyone involved. Your child might be nervous about messing up, and you might be worried about the car and your and their safety.
But your teen needs to learn. Driving is an important rite of passage into adulthood, and not learning to drive could seriously impact their future options for work and their overall development.
If you’re scared about your kid damaging your car, the best thing you can do is get them temporary driver learner insurance. It will cover them while they still don’t have their driver’s license.
Otherwise, you can help prevent your teen driver from getting into an accident by being a good driving teacher. Just because you know how to drive yourself, however, doesn’t mean you know how to teach someone to drive.
To be a good driving instructor and mentor for your teen, follow these tips:
1. Go over basic traffic laws.
Every teen driver should learn basic traffic laws before they ever get into the driver’s seat. Basic traffic laws include things like yielding to vehicles who have right of way, using your blinkers, staying under the speed limit, stopping for stop signs and red lights, and more.
Encourage your teen to remain attentive while riding as a passenger so that they can get a hang of the rules more quickly.
2. Review the vehicle’s features.
Give your teen a general orientation to the car they will be driving. Just because they’ve been in it as a passenger doesn’t mean they’ll know all of its functions. Go over all of the following:
- How to turn on the lights, brights, blinkers, and hazard lights
- The different pedals: gas, brake, and clutch if it’s a manual transmission
- The dashboard, including the speedometer, gas tank level, and warning lights (e.g. oil change, engine light, etc.)
- The emergency brake
- Anything else essential to driving the car
Having a solid understanding of the vehicle’s features will allow your teen to focus on the road while driving.
3. Do a cockpit drill.
Teach your teen driver how to do a cockpit drill before every drive. The cockpit drill should consist of:
- Making sure all the doors are closed
- Adjusting the seat
- Putting the steering wheel in position
- Adjusting the rearview and side view mirrors
Going through the above in a systematic way will help ensure your teen has a successful drive.
4. Map an easy route.
Don’t start your teen driving on a road that’s busy or windy and definitely don’t start them on the highway. Instead, you want to make their first driving experience as low-pressure as possible.
To do this, start in an empty parking lot where there is little risk of running into anything. Then move on to slow, familiar roads that get little traffic. This way, your teen can get comfortable with driving a vehicle alone before driving with a lot of other cars around.
5. Choose skills to hone.
Instead of going out on the road with your teen without a plan, choose in advance what skills to have them work on. This could be making safe left and right turns, shifting gears (if in a manual transmission), coming to a stop, backing up, or parallel parking.
The key is to work on one thing at a time. Once you feel your teen has mastered one driving skill, you can move on to the next one.
6. Eliminate distractions.
Distractions are everywhere. As a parent, you should minimize them as much as possible, so your child can focus on the road without getting sidetracked. Have them put away their phone, turn off any music, and get rid of any food or drink.
In 2020, distracted driving killed 3,142 people. Don’t let your teen become another statistic.
7. Stay calm.
With your teen in the driver’s seat, you might panic at times. But this will only make them more nervous. So try to remain calm by speaking in a calm voice and addressing potential hazards before they come up. That way, you and your teen will feel more relaxed and able to deal with the situation.
8. Show confidence in your teen.
It can be hard to give up control of your car and put it in the hands of your inexperienced teen. But if you show confidence in them, they’ll have more self-confidence and will drive better as a result.
9. Practice driving in different conditions.
Once your teen feels comfortable driving during the day and in good weather, have them try driving at night or when it’s raining (but not both at the same time). This will help prepare them for the different weather conditions they’ll encounter on a regular basis.
10. Be patient.
Learning to drive takes time. So don’t rush your teen or make them feel like they are doing poorly. Show patience by giving them the time they need to practice and feel confident about driving. They deserve it.
The bottom line
When it comes down to it, teaching your teen how to drive is all about providing quality instruction while being there for support. You want your teen to learn the required driving skills while developing confidence at the same time.
If you can do that, your teen will be driving like a pro in no time. Start small and work your way up gradually. There’s no rush when it comes to driving safely.
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This post is made possible by Larry Alton.
Photo credit: Shutterstock