Travel With Teens and Tweens

Driving lessons give a new meaning to travels with teens

     Teaching a 16 year old to drive gives new meaning to travel with teens and tweens.  After years of requiring parents to enforced all manner of childhood safety practices from car seats and bike helmets to seat belts and anti bullying programs, the moment your teen turns 16 the government requires you to put both your teen’s and your own life in danger in order to supervise the training of a newly minted driver.

Rules of the Road

     Irony aside, teaching a new teen driver the rules of the road is a true act of parental devotion.  In our state, the mandates include 30 hours of classroom training for the student plus 2 hours for the parents.  Teens are then required to participate in 12 hours of supervised driving with a licensed driving instructor and observe an additional 6 hours of another youth driving, plus 40 hours of driving supervised and documented by parents.  Once they get their license there is a 6 month period where they are limited to driving family members and must stay off the roads during certain late night hours.  In our state, due to funding cuts at many high schools, the classroom and instructor led pieces of the process can come at a price tag of $1000 and we won’t even talk about the 50% increase we are expecting in our car insurance rates once he gets his license.

Savour the Together Time

Nonetheless, it is hard to argue with the need to instill safe driving practices and a healthy respect for the destructive potential of a motor vehicle. We strongly believe parents need to be involved in vetting whether their kids are ready to take the wheel.  So, the analytical, intellectual side of my brain fully supports all these requirements and we take them very seriously in my house. 

     Beyond the safety lessons, however, when I’m out on the road, willing my teen to stay in his lane, turn corners without going over the curbs, and make left hand turns while dodging oncoming traffic, I can’t help but reflect on what a rite of passage this whole process is for both of us.  For him, a license signifies another important step toward independence.  For me, it is another major sign that it will soon be time to let him travel out into the world on his own. 

     Soon he will take himself to school, to friends’ homes, to a job and even on dates.  And in a few years time, he can drive himself to college.  The limited visibility I’ve had into his personal life as I drive him and his friends from place to place will cease to exist.  More than ever, driving lessons remind me how I hope we have done a good job training him to make appropriate decisions with regards to alcohol, drugs, and many other temptations.

     Driving lessons are truly one of the last parent/child activities that guarantee lots of focused one on one time.  When we are done with this process I am sure I’ll look back on those 40 required hours as a precious time.  In the meantime, however, the need for seat belts, airbags and patience has never been more compelling.  

Please comment

     Are you going through the same process?  Please leave a comment about your thoughts and reflections. Or look back, and tell us what you remember from going through this as a teen.  We encourage a discussion.