Your kids want to learn to drive but you don’t fancy shelling out a fortune to get them lessons. Can you do it yourself? It’s a tempting solution to an expensive problem. The day you dreaded has arrived, and your offspring deliver the chilling phrase: “Dad, can you teach me how to drive?”
It’s scary enough to realise that those children who were in nappies only yesterday are now eligible to hold a licence, but you also have to be prepared for them to enter the big, bad world of driving. So what can you do to help? You have to start by looking at your own driving. Assessing our own driving skills is not something most people are good at, but be brutally honest: if your kids drove the way you did, would you be happy about it?
Even big kids learn by copying and, given that they’ve probably spent more time sat in a car with you than anyone, else you are largely respons-ible for any bad habits they might have picked up.
So do it right yourself; use your mirrors properly, signal appropriately and most importantly of all stick to the speed limits – all things that tend to go by the wayside once you’re qualified.
As a parent with access to a car, you can help your children by allowing them to practise manoeuvres, as things like parallel parking and the three-point turn need practice to achieve proficiency and confidence.
However tempting it is, you should try to avoid giving them too much advice while they’re doing it. Driving instructors are taught how to teach, and by giving them contrary advice you can hinder rather than help. And not everyone is cut out for teaching – it requires a lot of patience and steady nerves, which is easier said than done when it’s your own children.
If you do decide to teach your children, start by brushing up on your knowledge by looking at the Highway Code – it’s probably been a few years since you last looked at it. Also make sure you’re eligible to teach. And most crucially of all, make sure the insurance is in place.
You might only be able to offer limited help with the mechanics of driving, but you can teach important motoring skills when it comes to the wider issues of driving and running a car. Explain how the key parts of the car work and simple maintenance tasks such as changing a wheel, checking oil and water and checking tyre pressure.