Teaching Your Child To Drive

As soon as your child becomes the legal age to drive, they’ll no doubt be begging to be added to your insurance and taught to drive.

The challenge can be daunting and stressful, but it could also turn out to be a great bonding experience for the two of you.

The difficulty with teaching your child something new comes when they do something wrong. Homelife and teaching life can intertwine, but arguments, bad days, or other stresses should be left outside the car.

There’s also more chance of arguing. While none of us would shout or argue with a professional driving instructor, we are more likely to raise our voice at someone we are close to. This can create a lot of tension during the lesson – which isn’t ideal for anyone.

To help you help them,  here are 4 tips for teaching your child to drive.

You’ll first need to get them insured provisionally on your car. Alternatively, if you’ve promised to buy or contribute to a car when they pass, why not start the process now? Auto Finance Online can provide financing for pretty much any car you’re interested in, and this will be a great motivator for your child to focus on their driving.

Start off with a quiet road

Quiet roads give you plenty of space and time to teach the basics and let them try. With less traffic to worry about, there’ll be much less stress in the situation. It also means if something does go wrong, nobody is in danger, and your child won’t feel as embarrassed.

When they’re feeling a little more confident, you can move onto busier roads.

Be calm and patient

Raising your voice because they’ve not done as you’ve told them won’t help anyone. It’ll only make the lesson much more stressful. Instead, it’s important to stay calm and if there’s been a misunderstanding, try to reword or rephrase what you’re trying to say.

Patience will be key throughout the process too. Not everyone learns at the same speed. And while some might master clutch control immediately but can’t seem to get reversing right, others will be a whizz at maneuvers and struggle with hill starts.

Choose roads you already know 

Familiarity is a great tool for you as an instructor and your child as a driver. Working with roads they already know will give them the confidence they need and give you more trust in their abilities.

Stay by the book

As we become more accustomed to driving, it can be easy to build up bad habits, but don’t pass these onto your child. How many of us are certain we’d pass the driving test again if we did it tomorrow? Those bad habits of not checking the blind spot or indicating too late could cost your child their pass!

As mentioned above, teaching your child to drive can be a great experience for both of you. And how good will it feel if you’re the person that gets them their license? It’s important, however, to stay calm and go at a pace that works for both of you.