My son is driving!

Generally, teens are excited to be driving. Their parents, however, may not feel the same way. However, with my impending knee replacement (Sep 23rd), we have to get my son comfortable so that he can be my chauffeur to/from physical therapy if hubby can't take me.

The first couple of times he drove in circles around a parking lot for a couple hours to get familiar with controls, how the minivan handles, etc. By the end of that, my eyes were glazing over, and I resorted to watching Jon Stewart on my phone as he drove approximately 7.2 mph.

Today, we ventured out on REAL LIVE ROADS. My eyes were anything but glazed this time, although half the time I wanted to cover them and pray. I think I might have said a Hail Mary at some point. I'm not even Catholic, but I figured we could use the help of any angels in the general vicinity of North America.

We learned about speed bumps, discovered a trailer park full of folks who were fascinated by a strange van driving slowly in their area, and explored the right shoulder of the road more times than I care to remember (keep the steering wheel in the middle of the lane! Middle of lane! Middle of the lane!). He managed not to clip off any mirrors of parked cars or run stoplights, and he studiously avoided all children and pets.

Since I don't have an IV bag full of valium at home, I think a shot of 151 rum in my coffee tonight might be in order.

In the immortal words of Sieyes, "I survived." :D

I have never driven a car myself in the entirety of my life, but that sounds very scary. Isn't it great being a parent! Good to see you alive and you got through it lol :) In order to get a license in my town you have to take a full driver's ed course regardless of what age you are, at least it spares parents from wanting to shrink into the passenger seat in sheer terror. Hang in there though he did good if he didn't hit anything on the first try!

I'm going through exactly the same thing! Teaching my son to drive and all that you said is very familiar. I grew up in England and it is rare for parents to teach their children to drive, normal way is to hire a driving instructor that comes to your house and you go on lessons with them in their dual control car, and we learn in manual not automatic usually. 

However, I taught my daughter to drive last year and it went pretty smoothly the driving test in most states in the US is no where near as difficult as in the UK.

Good luck let us know how it goes!

ok the first thing you need to do is stay calm. the second thing you need to do is get a fake break pedal (like a game one) and put it on your side cause dear lord your going to need it to keep calm. believe it or not that pedal will keep you sane (and teach him when to break as he'll start when he hears your foot slamming that thing down:) also I would suggest finding some old dirt road and tell him to go as fast as he feels like as that lets him gain confidence and allows him to learn how to tell speed by feel.

well those are my 2 cents, good luck and try not to have a stroke we would miss you:)

Yeah, you probably don't have fields to go one either.  I learned how to drive on slick stuff driving around the edge of a field during rain storm with my dad saying, "you can get further up this hill than that."  ::chuckles::  So I was pretty good with trucks and farm equipment all on the backroads and farm, but....

I almsot failed the driving test due to hitting the curb during parellel parking, which you get to do once in a blue moon wherever I've lived.  =)  Just a couple places hubby and I go where we even have to do that.

Anyway, better teach him about weather conditions, too.  That way he might wind up surviving and then getting a good laugh once it's over.  Not sure where you live, but I've seen snow and ice screw up a lot of people, so help him with that when the time comes.  Too bad we don't freeze like we used to, we used to drive cars are on our large pond and spin them out.  =)

Gotta love doing donuts! :D

Pennsylvania law requires kids to have 10 hours of night driving and 10 hours of 'driving under adverse conditions', e.g. rain, snow, etc. Most people around here freak out at any mention of snow, because the snow removal is not what it is in WI where I grew up. We get snow maybe a few times a year here.

I had a terrible time with parallel parking until my step-sister brought out some big cardboard boxes and said "pretend these are cars". If I hit the box, I started over. It was a much more stress-free way to learn than practicing with real cars around.

(keep the steering wheel in the middle of the lane! Middle of lane! Middle of the lane!)

Did you mention to him to look way down the road? The Oregon Driver's Manual, and both my parents, say that new drivers have a tendency to go where they look, and if you look down the road, you'll go in a straight line.

I've only been a licensed driver for a couple months, and for those who don't remember, learning to drive is really scary too!!! My mom and dad both shouted at me... a lot... usually it involved the word "stop" ... Lol

Good luck Jae =)

Oh, and parallel parking isn't required here. I just had to drive up next to a curb and back up.

If I may; when you are driving around with him, find a comfortable position for you to keep an eye on the road / situation ahead and an eye on your son (i used to have the seat as far back as possible). If there is someone bound to make a mistake it will be him. If you can identify it early, it will allow you to tell him and give him time to correct himself. This way, you will have relax drives.

If something has scared you, ask him to pull up somewhere safe, soon after the happening and discuss the matter. It is better to talk about something while it is clear in peoples mind, talking about it at the end has a lesser effect.

Plenty of praise too.  

Ok, i stop right there as i could talk about it for hours.

I was a driving and riding instructor in the UK for 6 years before moving out of Europe.

The best job i have ever had. I loved every single minutes of it.  

Ahh such fun...  So far 3 of our 5 are freely driving, one is just getting into it (gad he needs to brake sooner), and the last will be starting in a couple years.  I feel yer pain.  Not much one can do to ease it though unfortunately.  One less child to taxi around to football, baseball, soccer, school, movies, etc... and one more thing to worry about :P Still, it IS one step closer to freedom!  (Four more years for me, woot!)