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DD "Mom, I am doing SO great driving in a big city! I can't wait to tell my friends I drove in Chicago! And I was not nervous at ALL! "
Well, that makes one of us...
What have I learned on this trip? Just quietly sit in the passenger seat, and play with your Blackberry or other task. Don't look at the road, or say a word.
I taught my oldest daughter to drive by taking her off road. By the time she got her learners permit at 15 and a half she had already had many hours behind the wheel over two years. Now granted it was off road but we where able to practice lots of different driving skills valid on road. Biggest benefit which is the biggest problem with new drivers: CONFIDENCE. She has no lack of that.
As a matter of fact she probably had a little too much confidence but that was easily cured.
Location: Los Angeles>Little Rock>Houston>Little Rock
6,489 posts, read 8,808,426 times
Reputation: 17514
BTW, my son has had 10 hours of private driving instruction from a licensed instructor in addition to certification of completing the alcohol and drug awareness course that results in reduced insurance rates for young drivers. My part in the whole thing is purely practice to prepare for the road test for his license.
Another night of my son not speaking to me after going driving! And we also have a driving instructor and are now completing our required driving hours.
Ugh. I am so sick of this.
He thinks he knows everything and he does not. He doesn't slow down when I say slow down!
He worries excessively about what the cars behind him are thinking if he is going under the speed limit. I kept telling him to slow down because there was a bicyclist riding in the travel lane. But he got right up on him like you would do if you were going to pass another vehicle (2 lane road). AND it was a no -passing zone with a van in the oncoming lane!
I kept telling him to stay away from the cyclist and he kept getting closer and closer. And then HE gets mad at ME - slamming the doors and throwing the keys down.
The only time I am comfortable riding with him is when he drives to and from practice. He is so familiar with that route (and it's in town at 35 mph) that he drives with confidence and I feel confident.
But on unfamiliar roads at higher speeds . . No. It will be months before he does anything but drive to and from practice. He simply is not ready for anything other than that.
Am I not supposed to say anything when he is less than a car length away from a bicyclist???
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
4,640 posts, read 11,930,296 times
Reputation: 9885
Oh, I so feel your pain. My son is actually pretty good, but it is soooo stressful for me. Objects DO appear closer when you're in the passenger seat. I cannot handle the interstates (I'm near DC) so I told my husband that he has to take my son out for that experience. I just can't do it. Although I have to admit some of the back country roads (think no shoulder, windy roads, low visibility) may take years off my life. The worst part, though, is that you can't stress or the driver stresses so I just sit there calmly and pray.
Another night of my son not speaking to me after going driving! And we also have a driving instructor and are now completing our required driving hours.
Ugh. I am so sick of this.
He thinks he knows everything and he does not. He doesn't slow down when I say slow down!
He worries excessively about what the cars behind him are thinking if he is going under the speed limit. I kept telling him to slow down because there was a bicyclist riding in the travel lane. But he got right up on him like you would do if you were going to pass another vehicle (2 lane road). AND it was a no -passing zone with a van in the oncoming lane!
I kept telling him to stay away from the cyclist and he kept getting closer and closer. And then HE gets mad at ME - slamming the doors and throwing the keys down.
The only time I am comfortable riding with him is when he drives to and from practice. He is so familiar with that route (and it's in town at 35 mph) that he drives with confidence and I feel confident.
But on unfamiliar roads at higher speeds . . No. It will be months before he does anything but drive to and from practice. He simply is not ready for anything other than that.
Am I not supposed to say anything when he is less than a car length away from a bicyclist???
Did you ever consider that maybe he just isn,t mentally or emotionally mature enough to drive? I would explain to him that driving is not a right it,s a priviledge. If he can,t except constructive criticism about his driving w/o "slamming doors and throwing keys down" then I would hate to see how he reacts on the road with 4000lbs of metal at his command.
Before I let my daughter even begin driving we spent months before doing q&a while I was driving. Sometimes I made her explain how I should backup before I did it, or asked her how many times I checked my mirrors in a minute. We talked about how to change lanes, and all the other million little things they do not know before we put them in the car to drive.
Teaching her to drive was a breeze once we got past the first day of figuring out how hard to press the pedals. She understood most of it before she did it and only had to learn the mechanics.
Did you ever consider that maybe he just isn,t mentally or emotionally mature enough to drive? I would explain to him that driving is not a right it,s a priviledge. If he can,t except constructive criticism about his driving w/o "slamming doors and throwing keys down" then I would hate to see how he reacts on the road with 4000lbs of metal at his command.
Yes, I have considered this. I think he can handle driving to his practice and back. That's it. No other roads or trips.
I also think that if his paid driving instructor said the exact same things that I did - he would be fine with it.
Another night of my son not speaking to me after going driving! And we also have a driving instructor and are now completing our required driving hours.
Ugh. I am so sick of this.
He thinks he knows everything and he does not. He doesn't slow down when I say slow down!
He worries excessively about what the cars behind him are thinking if he is going under the speed limit. I kept telling him to slow down because there was a bicyclist riding in the travel lane. But he got right up on him like you would do if you were going to pass another vehicle (2 lane road). AND it was a no -passing zone with a van in the oncoming lane!
I kept telling him to stay away from the cyclist and he kept getting closer and closer. And then HE gets mad at ME - slamming the doors and throwing the keys down.
The only time I am comfortable riding with him is when he drives to and from practice. He is so familiar with that route (and it's in town at 35 mph) that he drives with confidence and I feel confident.
But on unfamiliar roads at higher speeds . . No. It will be months before he does anything but drive to and from practice. He simply is not ready for anything other than that.
Am I not supposed to say anything when he is less than a car length away from a bicyclist???
I hear you, I've gotten tired of telling my son to slow down and he just not do it. I tried to talk to him about it but he said if he thinks he should slow down he will. Uh no I don't think it's going to work that way. Then he went on to explain to me what the speed limit is and I counted with a "well if there is a child, animal, car doing anything questionable then I don't care what the speed limit is, SLOW DOWN.
I taught both of my kids how to drive. I showed my oldest how to drive a standard in an old F-150, she picked up on it pretty fast.
When my youngest ran into a tree on the riding mower I knew it wasn't going to be as easy.
Oh yeah this one of mine ran the go cart into a pole for the clothes line, tried to run it up a tree, wrecked his ATV and broke his arm.
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