Driver’s education has begun. The many tight-fisted hours teens spend behind the wheel of a car with their driver’s education teacher can be among some of the most boring (hopefully not exciting) for many teens. But learning how to drive takes more than classroom and driver’s education experience, especially after learning that in 2011 teen driver’s deaths actually increased. Already surviving one round of teen driving, I take on my second round and hope that the stress won’t scare me off of teen drivers three and four. But there is more to driving than getting behind the wheel and putting your foot on the gas. What are some things we can do to help our teens learn to be responsible and safe drivers?
Power down. If you have recently flown you have heard the instructions to turn off all electronic devices, and that for many airlines that does not mean “airplane mode” it means turn it off entirely. The same can be said for teen drivers. Cell phones, MP3 players and other electronics need to be not only put away but powered off. Airplane mode is acceptable in our family, because it still gets the job done. Simply putting the phone away is not enough because your teen may not always encounter “good vibrations” and even the most experienced driver finds themselves wanting to look at the phone after a ring or text tone.
I’m sorry, this car is full. It’s no fun to hear this . . .
Continue reading Tips to help you make the most of your teen’s driver’s education after all, you are paying for it! And it’s not cheap as we recently found out.
