What NOT to do when Teaching Your Teen To Drive
It can be a scary time when your child becomes old enough to drive. Yet with setting a good example, enrolling them in a great driving classes, and avoiding these mistakes listed below; your teen can be learn to be an intelligent driver through his or her lifetime.
6 Deadly Mistakes Parents Make When Teaching their Teens to Drive
More than 2/3 of parents teach their teens to drive. If you’re one of them, make sure you do it right. Their lives depend on it. Here are six of the biggest mistakes parents make when teaching their teens to drive:
1. They take a “do as I say, not as I do” approach to driving. If you don’t want your teen to talk on their cell or text while driving, hang up your cell first.
Take a mental inventory of all your driving behaviors and decide which ones you’d like to see your son or daughter copy. Then change the others. The sooner you become a role model as an alert, defensive driver, the better. Don’t wait until they get their learner’s license. They’re watching now.
2. They don’t have the vehicle checked out first. Make sure your car is in excellent working condition. Pay special attention to the brakes, tires and windshield wipers. New drivers need all the help they can get.
3. Parents hand over the keys and let the teen drive on public roads without practicing basic skills in a deserted parking lot first. New drivers need to learn basic vehicle handling skills before they’re ready to interact with other traffic.
Under no circumstances, allow a new driver to drive home from the licensing office after getting their first level license. They don’t have the skills and in their excitement, they won’t be concentrating on the road either. I read about one mom who did this and then complained when other drivers became impatient and honked at them. Duh!
Keep in mind that allowing teen drivers to rush into situations they aren’t prepared for could endanger you both or scare them so much they become overly nervous drivers. Let your teen driver progress and build confidence gradually. Sometimes that means saying ‘no’.
4. They don’t schedule their driving practice. We’re all busy and if it’s not on the schedule, something else will always pop up. Be flexible but try to stick to your schedule as much as possible. Teens need 70 to 100 hours of driving practice in the first year. (That’s about 2 hours per week.) It’s hard to find the time (I speak from experience) but really critical to helping them develop the survival skills they need.
Note : At least 10 hours of that driving practice should be at night.
5. Have them practice at night, and in different weather conditions too. A lot of parents concentrate the driving lessons during the long, sunny days of summer. That’s great but don’t forget to extend the lessons to cover driving in all conditions including rain, snow, high winds, etc.
6. After the first few lessons, parents ride along but stop coaching. Maintaining that 360-degree awareness around the vehicle is one of the toughest skills new drivers have to learn. Parent-coaches must continue to watch and coach until the new driver is capable of safely driving on their own – even though they think they can.
Courtesy of teens learn to drive
Frequently asked questions
How many hours of practice driving do teens need in their first year?
70 to 100 hours, which works out to roughly 2 hours per week if you spread it evenly. At least 10 of those hours should be at night. Most state graduated licensing rules require a specific minimum of supervised practice, but the safer benchmark is hitting the upper end of that range and including a variety of conditions: rain, snow, dusk, highway, residential streets, parking lots, and busy commercial areas. Teens who get more hours and more varied conditions are measurably safer once they're driving solo. Schedule the practice on the calendar like any other commitment, because if it's not scheduled, it won't happen.
Why shouldn't I let my teen drive home from the licensing office?
Because they don't have the skills yet and they'll be too excited to focus. Passing the licensing test confirms a minimum competency, not real-world readiness. New drivers haven't built the scanning habits, hazard anticipation, or vehicle handling that develop over the first few months of solo driving. Drive home yourself, then start solo trips in low-stakes environments like familiar neighborhoods or empty lots before working up to busy roads. Top Driver instructors hear stories regularly of parents who handed over the keys at the DMV and ended up in a stressful situation within minutes. Don't be that story.
What driving behaviors do parents most need to model for their teens?
All of them, because teens have been watching for 15 years before they ever take the wheel. If you don't want your teen texting and driving, hang up your own phone first. Take a mental inventory of every habit you've shown them: speeding, rolling stops, lane changes without signals, eating behind the wheel, tailgating, road rage. Pick the ones you don't want copied and stop doing them now, before they get their learner's permit. The 'do as I say, not as I do' approach doesn't work because they've already absorbed your actual behavior. The good news is they'll copy the improvements too.
Should teens practice driving only in good weather?
No. Concentrating practice during summer's long sunny days is convenient but leaves teens unprepared for the conditions they'll face the rest of the year. Extend practice into rain, light snow, high winds, and night. At least 10 of their total practice hours should be after dark. Start with easier versions: a light drizzle on a familiar route, dusk in a quiet area, then build up. The goal is for them to encounter their first real winter drive or first heavy thunderstorm with a parent in the passenger seat, not alone on the highway after they've been licensed for two months.
When should parents stop actively coaching during teen practice drives?
Not until the teen is genuinely ready to drive alone, which is later than most parents think. After the first few lessons, it's tempting to relax and let the teen 'just drive,' but maintaining 360-degree awareness around the vehicle is one of the hardest skills to develop and the easiest to let slip. Keep narrating hazards you spot, asking what they see in their mirrors, and calling out following distance, speed, and lane position. Stop coaching only when the teen can consistently identify the same hazards on their own, manage speed without prompting, and handle merges, turns, and stops smoothly across varied conditions.
What should parents check on the vehicle before teen practice sessions?
Treat the car as if it's headed into a driving test, because for a new driver, every session is one. Pay special attention to brakes, tires, and windshield wipers. Brakes need to grip firmly with no pulsing or pulling. Tires should have proper inflation and adequate tread depth. Wipers should clear the windshield in a single sweep without streaking. Also check headlights, taillights, turn signals, and brake lights, since teens are still building the habit of using them and need them to work reliably. A car with marginal equipment turns small new-driver mistakes into serious incidents.
