Learning To Drive: How To Make It Easier For Your Son Or Daughter.

I was reminiscing the other day about the time I was learning to drive. How I got behind the wheel of my dad’s shining old V8 gas guzzler – I could barely see over the steering wheel! The mirror was all wrong so it had to be adjusted, the seats were way to far from the steering wheel, so my feet couldn’t reach the pedals. And when I turned the key I heard a sound that at that moment sounded to me like the beginning of Armageddon. Yet, deep down there was a rising feeling of excitement, a knowledge of things to come, roads to conquer.

The tips below are for you, the parent, so you can help your teenage son or daughter during the learning process, and make it something he/she will always remember with a smile.

A crucial tip is not to try and do everything at once. If you take it one skill at a time, it will take a lot of the tension out of the process for him. It’s very important that you should not allow the student to drive the car under any circumstances before he is fully trained in the position and function of all the major controls of the car. It can cause his death if he should one day end up in a crisis, and can’t remember how to switch on the lights, or where to switch on the windscreen wipers. Also make sure he knows the rules of road by heart before switching on the car for the first time.

After that, take him to an empty parking lot after hours, and start practicing. And practicing is the word. As far as learning a skill like driving is concerned, practice really makes perfect. So even if he complains non-stop, make him practice all the basic things over and over.

Starting off with parking skills is not a bad idea. This will give the student a feeling for how the car reacts to turning the wheel, braking etc. Reverse parking is never easy for a learner driver, so let him practice this many times over, even if he gets bored.

I will never forget approaching the first curve I encountered in the road at a speed that must have scared my father brainless, because I can still hear his shouts: “Slow down!….. Slow Dooooooown!” It takes time to get a feeling for the way in which a car responds to different road conditions and speeds, and to applying the brakes – especially when you have already entered a curve. Stopping at a stop street should not involve driving right up to the stop sign and then stepping on the brakes. None of this is obvious to a new driver, so discuss this with him before he encounters the actual circumstances.

People walking across the street, bicycles and other cars swerving right in front of you, and if you are in India, cows grazing on the side of the road is something else that can cause a learner driver to react in a way that nobody expected, with disastrous consequences. Once again talk about this with him before the time, ask him how he would react, and then discuss that.

Finally, while learning to drive the student also has to be prepared for driving in adverse conditions, like rain, bad light, snowstorms etc. A training video could be very helpful in this regard – you can watch it together and discuss the appropriate reaction to the different situations.

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