Apr 01 2009
Driving with Teens
There I was, calmly dining on our favorite family cuisine. I’ve always been a firm believer in families dining together. In the course of a day, it’s hard to get the kids to stop for five minutes and tell you what’s on their minds.
And here it came from my 15-year old, “Hey! I just thought of this! I’ll be driving in a year!”
That innocent remark kept me awake for eight weeks. I couldn’t get out of my head the terrifying prospect of him driving a car. Last Saturday I was looking out my window when, riding by on his bicycle, he popped a wheelie and plowed right into our mail box.
My wife suggested we sign him up for Driver’s Education. I agreed with her that that was a good idea. I made the call and found out they now charge $250 for Driver’s Ed! Are you kidding me! Two hundred and fifty dollars! No way, I told my wife. I will teach the lad.
One hour with him, and I came in the house with a tic on both sides of my face. I hit that imaginary brake so many times, I wore a hole in the carpet. It was as if I had some kind of mantra going, I kept repeating the same thing over and over again: “Tell me you saw the truck, tell me you saw the kid on the bike, tell me you saw the office building!”
When we finally got home, I fell out of the car and kissed the ground. (I imagined this must have been what Columbus felt like finding dry land.)
When I walked in, Tami ran up all excited, “How was it!?”
He ran up to his mom and gave her a hug, and said it was “awesome” and ran to call one of his chums.
She took one look at me and said, “That bad, huh?”
I went and got my checkbook and wrote a check for five hundred dollars to the Driver’s Ed department. Believe me, those people are grossly under paid.
With his Learner’s Permit, we let him drive us to church on Sunday. We figure that way we could get our prayer time in before we get there.
Sometimes there are so many miracles, we skip church and go straight to Cracker Barrel.
Got any good stories about Driving with Teens? If so, click on the “responses” link and share them with us!
Consider yourself lucky….in Hawaii, the minimum price for drivers ed is $450 and it is required – no class, no licence. And classes can run up to $1200 depending on how much extra instruction your kids may “need”. Ack!
When I first taught my teen to drive, I was hugging the door the whole time. I finally shelled out the $350 for Drivers Ed, too. Now that he is 26, I still don’t like to be in the passenger seat when he drives.
My SECOND was ‘learning’ to drive. We allowed her to drive home from church. She over shot the side street, over compensated, went up into the home owners yard, shot back out across the street in front of a car, across the road on to the oppisite sholder and then back into her lane. Then she had the gaul to say, “Stop screaming I can’t drive when you are screaming!” Ironically that is the only time I do scream
Charlie
I have to admit that I remember my mom and dad teaching me how to drive. The in their mid 30’s and I will be paying someone to teach our children …I know my limitations. It seems the older I get the less money things like drivers ed really cost.
Sort of like moving, when we bought our house 12 years ago, we moved ourselves in. Next time, if there is a next time, I am hiring someone to move me !!! I just wanted to say that I enjoy your comedy and I that I can be as blessed with a sense of humor as yours.
Thank You
I was 18 and I had just got my permit. My mom, my brother and I were on our way home from a long drive with me as the driver. I was exhausted, because I was so nervous. We were coming up on a turn where I needed to slow down to take the corner. Well I wasn’t slowing down fast enough for my mom. She kept saying “Brake, brake!” And of course the closer we got to the corner, the more nervouse I got. She got louder and more persistant that I brake. Well instead of braking I accedentialy pushed on the gas, and we took a 5- 10 mile per hour curve at 30 miles per hour. My brother was in the back screaming “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die!” My mom, well she was white knuckling the door! Needless to say, everything turned out ok, I was shaken for a day or two and my mom said “That’s it! No more driving for you.” She was so mad at me for almost getting us killed!!! 19 years later, that is the funniest moment that I had when I was taking Drivers Ed training.
It very funny sometimes when we see how our children see situations and we as parents see the same situation years later.
The story/incident my son told actually work out very well for him. He got private driving lessons!
My husband wouldn’t even get in the car with our sons when they were learning. They went straight into driving school. Talk about God providing, that was a big expense for us.! After that I was the one who got to do the 50 hours of practice on the road driving. After haveing Grandma in the car with my boy driving, I commented that she had been very nervouse and figitty. He said, “yeah thats what you do.” EEEK
When I was learning to drive, my dad let me get behind the wheel of his brand new 1986 Nissan 300ZX. While driving down the street in our neighborhood, I saw our nextdoor neighbors. Next thing I knew, my dad was pushing the syearing wheel to the left because I was about to drive right into the sidewalk where said neighbers were walking.
I’ve got twin boys. In Missouri, kids can get their permits at 15, but I was able to play the “I think you have to be 15 and a half” game until my wonderful father gave them a “Missouri Driver’s Manual” for Christmas. (Thanks, Dad) Anyway, they studied the booklet and asked, no, demanded that I take them the the DMV to take the written test. They both passed with flying colors. (It’s amazing how well they can study when they want to.) So with brand new permits in hand and big grins on their faces, they looked at me and said, “When can we start driving?”
Fortunately, we were in my car with a manual transmission, so my sanity was spared one more day. But the next day, they hit me at breakfast with the “When?” question, and I reluctantly agreed. The only problem is that our other vehicle is a 15-passenger Chevy Express Van. Imagine brand spanking new drivers learning to drive in a vehicle just a shade smaller than a UPS delivery van. My only consolation was that we were bigger than 95% of the cars on the back roads we started out on, so other drivers got out of the way when the twins floated into the wrong lane!
When we finally got home, the twins strutted into the house with puffed out chests and swelled heads. Their mom greeted them with a proud smile and greeted me with a Bud Light and a Jack Daniels chaser. Two more rounds later, my nerves returned and I stupidly volunteered to teach the boys how to drive a stick the next weekend. (Fortunately, the new clutch only cost $750.)
If you have only one new driver at a time, consider yourself fortunate. Have a great time helping your teens obtain this giant milestone in their life!
I could teach my niece and my friends son to drive,but when it came to teaching my son FORGET IT! I tried believe me I did.
We started out fine,but then he wanted control.I told him the speed limit was 45 he slowly started going a little bit faster.
Then we are apporching a curve goes way to fast runs into a pot hole looks at me and says, mom we need music.I turn on the radio to his liking,then he goes and says, mom it’s not loud enough.That was it for me….had it….done it …gone!
We adults need others to teach our teens.I agree Driver Ed teachers are way under paid…lol.