Getting Behind the Wheel: A Parent’s Guide to Teen Driving

Young drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 accounted for 5.3% of all drivers in the United States and were involved in 7.8% of all fatal crashes in 2019. Because driving can be so dangerous, parents must teach their children to drive safely.

Do you want to learn more about buying a teen driver their first car, driving safety resources, and more?

Keep reading this guide for the top resources, tips, and insights for teen driving.

Start With a Vehicle Tour

Before you start driving lessons with your teen, you must start with a tour of your vehicle. This will allow you to explain the basics to your child and can help them make adjustments to improve their safety while driving.

For example, you can teach your child how to adjust the steering wheel, seats, and mirrors.

You can also teach them more about the controls on the dashboard, safety features, and more. This will allow your teen to get a feel for the vehicle before they begin to drive.

Start Small

Once your child is familiar with the vehicle, you must start small. If it is your child’s first time driving, you need to start in a safe location without any traffic, like an empty parking lot.

This will allow them to practice using the gas and breaks without other cars around to overwhelm them. They can also practice backing up and pulling into parking spots.

After they are more used to this, you can take them out on the road. They can practice driving in areas with low-speed limits and limited traffic. As they get more comfortable, you can slowly start to take them to other areas with higher traffic.

Remember Driving Is Not Common Sense

It is also important to realize that driving is not always common sense for a teen driver. If they have no familiarity with the controls of a vehicle, it can be difficult to immediately jump into the role of driver.

Even if they have gone to driving schools for teens, it can be difficult to adjust to driving with a parent.

Because of this, you must be always clear in your instructions. For example, if you are driving with your child and say something like “watch out”, they may not realize that you are telling them to slow down.

Make sure your instructions are clear to prevent dangerous misunderstandings while you are driving with your teen.

Be Patient

Teaching your child to drive is often difficult and overwhelming. However, you must learn to be patient and keep your cool, even when your child is making mistakes on the road.

If you overreact while your child is driving, it will lower your child’s confidence and will make it even more difficult to teach them in the future. Being patient and gently explaining how your child can improve will make the entire process go much more smoothly.

Plan Your Routes

You should also always plan out your route when you are driving with your teen. If you are not prepared, you may end up directing your new driver to roads that are more dangerous for beginner drivers.

Planning your route ahead of time will also make it easier to provide good instructions for your child.

Help Them Anticipate Directions

When you are driving with your child, you should also help them anticipate your directions. If you tell them to turn immediately, it may cause extra stress and can even result in an accident.

To improve this, you can tell your child what to expect. For example, you can say “we will be turning right at the next stoplight.”

Anticipating these directions will help them feel prepared and confident in their driving abilities.

Fulfill All Required Driving Hours

When it comes to driving, practice makes perfect. You need to make sure your teen is completely familiar with the rules of the road before they get their license.

By practicing a lot with your teen, you can feel confident that they will be as safe as possible when they begin driving on the road. To ensure that you get enough practice, you must fulfill all required driving hours.

Make sure you are strict with your children when it comes to how often and how long they practice driving.

Get Familiar With Driving Test Course

You should also get more familiar with the driving test course when you have a teen driver. There are many driver’s education videos that outline the course, which makes it easy for you and your child to practice it before the test.

This is especially helpful for children who are apprehensive about driving. By creating a similar course, your child will be more prepared for their driving test.

Don’t Use Fancy Gadgets

If you have a newer car, you may have a lot of fancy gadgets that make it easier to drive. However, these gadgets may make it difficult for your child to concentrate on the road. They may also prevent your child from relying on their own skills when driving.

Because of this, you should not allow your child to use the fancy gadgets in your car when they are learning to drive. This includes rear cameras, warning lights on the mirror, and even the radio, which can cause teen drivers to tune out.

Be Aware of the Surroundings

When you have a teen driver, you must be constantly aware of your surroundings. Because teens are so new to driving, they will not be able to focus on their newly learned skills while being aware of everything going on around their vehicle.

Until they have more practice driving, you will need to be in charge of keeping an eye out for your surroundings.

Your teen can also begin to practice this skill, but they will have you as a safety net in case they make a mistake.

Ask Good Questions

Something else that can help your teen learn more about the rules of the road is asking them good questions. This is especially important if you need to correct them.

For example, you may not want to tell your teen to slow down. Instead, you can ask them what the speed limit is to encourage them to be more aware of their surroundings while driving.

Model Good Behavior

As the parent of a teen driver, the most important thing you can do is model good driving behavior. Once your teen starts to drive, they will become much more observant of your driving habits.

Because of this, you must be strict to observe all the rules of the road. This includes using your blinker, wearing your seatbelt, and speeding. You must obey all traffic laws!

When you follow each of these rules yourself, you will be able to help your teen become a safer driver and can reduce their likelihood of developing dangerous driving habits as well.

Buy the Right Car

Once your child is completely prepared for the road, you may want to buy them their own car. While many parents do not want to buy their child their first car, you may not want your child driving your own vehicle.

Instead, you may want to work out a deal with your child to pay off their car or to save up for one on their own.

Some things that you may want to consider when purchasing a car for your teens are the cost, whether you want a new or used car, and who will pay for the insurance coverage.

It is also important to consider the safety features of a car for your teen. Young drivers are much more likely to get into crashes, which are often fatal. Investing in a safe car for your teen is well worth the money.

Get Insurance Coverage

Finally, it is essential to get insurance coverage when you are preparing for a teen driver. No matter how much you prepare your child for the road, accidents can always happen.

By investing in enough insurance coverage, you and your child will be protected if they are involved in an accident. You can add a teen driver to your current policy or you can choose a new policy for your teen and their new car.

Teen insurance rates can vary significantly, so make sure you compare car insurance options from several different companies so you can get high-quality insurance coverage with cheap auto insurance rates.

Need Help Preparing for Teen Driving?

Teen driving can be stressful for both parents and their children. To protect your teen driver and prepare them for the road, you must follow each of these tips!

These driving tips can help you teach your child about automotive safety in the most effective way. Do you want to learn more about driving lessons and how to protect your child? We can help!

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