Teaching a Teenage to Drive Safely -

Details for Teaching a Teenage to Drive Safely

ID:	12403
Author:	tomselwick09
Title:	Teaching a Teenage to Drive Safely
Article:	As a parent, it can be difficult to know how to teach a teen to drive safely at all times. Teenagers in general have a poor reputation for being able to drive safely. The result of this is that parents are scared to trust their teenager with the car. However, there are many things that you can do to encourage safe driving practices. The first thing you should do is practice and exemplify good driving yourself. If you are not doing it yourself, then your child will not understand why he or she would need to follow that rule. It is not fair to tell your child one thing and expect it of them when you are not following the rule yourself. This means that you should avoid speeding, texting, eating, and other poor habits. Make sure you do these at all times so that you do not accidentally forget and do it in front of your child. Some parents try to live dually and break all of the rules when they do not have the new driver with them. If your child sees you driving recklessly because you trust your experience, he or she will begin doing the same thing. He or she will automatically assume that everyone breaks the rule and it is something you can usually avoid getting in trouble for. However, by doing the right thing yourself, you will show your son or daughter how important the rules are to you. They will automatically become more meaningful for your child. The second thing you will want to make sure you do is talk to your child about various dangers and what to watch out for as they navigate the road. Many teenagers simply are unaware of all of the dangers they could face because they have so little experience. It is easy for parents to assume they are familiar with all of the dangers simply because they have grown up being driven around in a car. However, this is not the case. Make sure that you talk about how serious a crash can be. Let him or her know that car crashes cause a large percentage of teen deaths. While a conversation before you hand him or her the keys for the first time may be effective. There are many other teaching moments that you should take advantage of as well. Many people simply do not remember a piece of advice by only hearing it once. It is important to repeat the message multiple times for it to sink in fully. As your children grow, point out reckless drivers to them. Talk about what the driver did poorly and why it was dangerous. By doing this, you will teach them to not favor reckless drivers. When they frown on the bad actions of others, they will be more likely to incorporate good actions into their own lives. The third thing you will need to make sure you give your teenager is a lot of practice. During the period of time in which the insurance requires a parent to be in a car driven by the teenager, make sure that you allow your son or daughter to drive as much as possible. This will help him or her get supervised experienced. The more experience a teen has before he or she is behind the wheel without, the better. As you coach your son or daughter, make sure that you point out different things and explain things that they may not have noticed. Make sure that you take him or her out for practice on parallel parking and turning around as well. It is important that your teen learns defensive driving skills and how to predict what other drivers are going to do, even if they do not use their blinkers. In addition to the regular driving rules, it is important to set family rules as well. For example, you may want to limit how many friends your son or daughter can have in the car at a time. You may also want to limit how far he or she can travel from home. In addition, you should make it clear that you discourage speeding, reckless driving, and texting. Let him or her know that if these things happen, they will lose their privilege to drive the car for a while. With these rules in place it is important to punish your child when they break them. This way they will learn, but make sure that you reward good behavior with more trust as well. About the author of this article: tom selwick is a public safety representative for 25 years and has authored hundreds of articles relating to public safety and road signs. he has worked in public safety for years promoting safe transportation practices. contact info: tom selwick tomselwick09@gmail.com http://www.interwestsafety.com
Category:	Home: Family
Date:	April 06, 2011 04:03:02 AM

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