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Start your engine, slooooooowly

January 9th, 2014 at 11:22 pm

How do I justify the rush to get my teens driving with my environmental conscience! The good news: yesterday was my oldest first day behind the wheel. It went well. But mostly not with the official driving teacher.

He is in a AAA driving class: 8 lectures, and 6 one hour car sessions. The lectures are looooong and truthfully a little overboard with the details. But all the driving schools are $300+ and this one results in a reduction of insuring him in the amount of about $180. That sold me right there.

So yesterday was the first time the teacher gets him in the car. Well really SHE sat in the driver seat and talked for at least 12 minutes. (Oh the torture for the teen!) Then (I was sneaking peeks from a hidden spot) he finally gets to sit in the driver seat and I see him start the car. And they don't move for at least another 10 minutes!!

Sheeeeesh. I left after that.

Turns out they went around the parking lot. A little. That's it!! He said he never even touched the accelerator. Oh good grief.

On the way home I took him to the BIG BIG BIIIIG empty fairgrounds parking lot. It was dusk but we spend at least 15 minutes going here and there. Parking and restarting. Left and rights. Driving out the fairgrounds area and back in (a teeny tiny bit of street traffic).

Then after home and a little dinner, I took him out again around the neighborhood. He wasn't crazy to rush into it because it was dark out. But there was very light traffic.

So we drove past two of his friend's house, to the grocery store about a mile away, etc. Did his first traffic light. He did fine.

Do you remember your first day behind the wheel? Was it with a parent?

Truthfully, I am very happy inside. After all the teen drama and stress in my last months, this will be a good memory for hopefully most of his life.

SWEET! Now how to convince myself pushing another gasoline car on the road is ok....

BTW, my brother ordered this 3-strand silver weave necklace for his wife's birthday the first hours I showed it on facebook:


Graceful silver loops with a lemon-lime cubic zirconium round charm.

5 Responses to “Start your engine, slooooooowly”

  1. MonkeyMama Says:
    1389312672

    Exciting (scary) times!

    My driving teacher was totally opposite. I think my parents gave me *one* lesson in a parking lot. I feel like the instructor immediately put me on the freeway (big giant scary Bay Area freeway). But for my personality, I think that is just what I needed. Get the scary part over and done with - then it never seemed like that big of a deal.

    I mostly remember practicing the 3-point turn, which I have rarely ever had to do, since. It was like the "3 point turn" was the big deal on the test, so I remember doing that like 50 times. Driving lessons, in general, are NOT very exciting. Big Grin


  2. scfr Says:
    1389313160

    You were very smart to choose a big empty parking lot. Prior to my first driver's ed driving lesson, my mom took me out to drive for the first time around the neighborhood. I took a turn waaaaaay too wide and put the car in a neighbor's front yard. Fortunately no damage to people or property. At the time I was mortified. In later years it was and has continued to be a source of amusement.

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    1389313479

    I know my first time was in a parking lot. At one point hit the gas instead of the break and when slightly up on a curb. Oops. No damage that I remember. I have taken my daughter around the schools parking lot, we have a large campus which includes four elementary, two middle schools and the high school, so almost like driving in a mini city! She's been out on roads now too, but she scares me...and it's not because she's a bad driver, it's because I'm not in control and I don't know how she is going to react. I figured driver's ed wasn't really for actually learning step one since I've seen the kids out on the road with the instructor.

  4. snafu Says:
    1389320289

    Oh what memories. My brother got me up several Sundays at 5 AM for driving lessons using older brother's stick shift car. He took big trash cans and had me practice parallel parking for hours at the big mall's parking lot. Once I got a 'learners' permit we did 5 AM lessons on every serious hill again focussed on parallel parking. I took a defensive driving course after getting my license.

    I wanted DSs to understand that driving was a privilege so they were required to earn sufficient sums to pay for lessons offered in high school. Their experience was somewhat like you've described but there were two students per car and they either sat through the lesson for student one or having completed their lesson sat in the back while student two completed their lesson. I supported the lessons with a couple of hours driving in our neighbourhood. Oddly they needed to learn stick shift as they were to share my car which was not automatic. I found the Driver Ed program to be too loosy goosey so I paid for each to take the AMA Defensive Driving course, It went a long way to assuage my fear of two teens out driving with both my car and DH's monster van.

  5. pretty cheap jewelry Says:
    1389325518

    Love to read all these anecdotes, thx!

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