Isn't Your Teen Driver Worth It?
Article By: Scott Marshall
Scott Marshall is Director of Training for Young Drivers of Canada. He was a judge on the first 3 seasons of Canada’s Worst Driver on Discovery Network. Scott started writing columns on driving for his community paper since 2005. Since then his columns have been printed in several publications including newspaper, magazines and various web-sites. You can visit his own blog at http://safedriving.wordpress.com.
Who was your role model growing up? Was it a parent, sibling, teacher or coach? Regardless of whom it was you pretty much did what they suggested to you. You may have admired them and wanted to be like them. Many kids admire their parents and want to be just like them when they grow up. One of my sons wanted to be a driving instructor because I am. Aw, isn’t that sweet. I guess I made an impression on him. Do you think your driving also makes an impression on your kids?
It was once believed that parents would be the best people to teach their kids how to drive. After all, we have our driver’s licences and it should be easy, right? Wrong. Just because we may have a licence to drive, doesn’t mean we’re the best people to teach our kids how to drive. As another example, just because you know how to brush your teeth and floss, doesn’t mean you should be the one filling your kid’s cavity. You let a professional do that. So, let a professional do the hard work of teaching your teen the basics of learning how to drive and you provide the practice time.
I have friends who learned to drive from their parents and feel they can teach their own kids; a common practice across our society. The problem with this is they’ll most likely pass on their bad habits to their kids. Although most parents of teens feel they don’t have any real bad driving habits, that’s not always true. They may also not be current with any new rules of the road and proper teaching techniques that have occurred since they learned to drive. Why take that risk of giving out wrong advice when teaching your own kids?
The benefit of proper training by a professional for your teen means the pressure is off you. The professional can break down each skill that is required to not only pass their road test, but become a safe driver on the road. Isn’t that what you really want? Once your teen is taught how to do a skill, it’s important that you go out with them and help them build it into a habit. It’s just like anything else they have to learn. You need to acquire the knowledge first and then build that newly found knowledge into skill.
Having your teen practice something that is incorrect can also build into a habit. Practice doesn’t make perfect as the saying goes. Practice makes permanent. As an example, if you show them how to make a left turn at a traffic light incorrectly and they practice it that way, it too becomes a habit for them. Keep in mind that proper practice also makes permanent. Learning to drive safely and not just how to pass a road test is important for them and for you. Isn’t that a good reason to send them to a professional? Yeah, I thought so.