The Definitive Guide to Teaching Your Teenager to Drive
This article originally appeared on Fatherly:
The moment your kid has anticipated as long as you’ve dreaded it has finally arrived: it’s driver’s license time. Assuming you’ve already figured out that the passenger side brake doesn’t exist, you might be feeling a bit anxious about how to best direct your kid — beyond, “don’t leave the driveway.” If so, take a deep breath and read up on instruction skills from a fighter pilot trainer, coping skills from a psychologist and author, and sample driving test questions that’ll determine if you should still be allowed on the road. It’s a toolkit with everything you need to calm you down and get your teenage driver proceeding with caution. Except that brake. Smash the floorboard all you want, it still won’t be there.
A Former Air Force Pilot Trainer On How To Train Them
For tactical advice on how to teach your kid to drive like a pro, steel your nerves, and maybe even exude a little confidence while doing so, you could do worse than Michael “Moose” Moore. He’s uniquely suited to counsel you as a 20-year veteran Air Force flight instructor who simultaneously taught fighter pilots and his own 3 teenage drivers. It also doesn’t hurt that you can say, “Talk to me, Moose” when asking for said advice, which includes gems like these:
Meticulously planning, reviewing, and visualizing the route (and repeating that process multiple times) works equally in an F-18 and your old station wagon. Pilotspeak is optional but encouraged. “Okay, now put it in reverse — WATCH YOUR 6!”
Always end on a positive, even if it’s simply stopping and putting it in park. Be confident; fake it if necessary. This isn’t like when Moose was learning in ‘Nam. There are rules.
They have to fail to learn, so that first hydroplane is inevitable. Try to use failures as teaching moments and move on quickly. Carefully, but quickly.
Driving is serious business, and you should let them know it. In that vein, it’s okay to be scared. Hell, if Moose was, who wouldn’t be?
A Certified Shrink On How To Let Go Of The Wheel (Figuratively And Literally)
GIPHY
Getting their driver’s license doesn’t just put your kid on the road to the mall, it starts them down the road to full-blown, thanks-for-birthing-me-but-I-no-longer-need-you-people independence. If that thought scares you even more than your first time letting them drive you down the freeway, meet psychologist and author of Emotional First Aid Guy Winch, who has some tips to get you through this bittersweet milestone, including:
Decide what you’re willing to let go. They’re 17 — if they haven’t heard your pleas for them to shower regularly by now, they never will. Let it go and stick to bugging them over the important stuff. You know, like safely operating a 1-ton machine at high speeds.
You now have a built-in chauffeur. Play your cards right and those drives will be bonding experiences and productive critiques of their skills.
Show a united front. The rules don’t matter as much as both parents agreeing on them.
A Mock Written Test To See If You Still Know What The Hell You’re Talking About
Experience and confidence go a long way towards getting your license, but one scenario where, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right” doesn’t quite cut it is the dreaded written test. You might be surprised to find out that the odds of earning a passing 80 percent grade are about the same for your been-driving-for-2-decades self as your been-driving-for-2-days kid. These 10 questions represent some of the most difficult to figure from written driving tests around the country. You’d have a prayer of getting your license today if you know things like:
What to do when you drive into a dust storm.
The precise speed at which partial hydroplaning begins.
Who has the right of way when you meet another vehicle head-on on a steep mountain pass.
Good luck.
(Top Photo: Paramount Pictures)
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