The majority of people learning to drive in the UK are teens or young adults, and most will have parents who are willing – if a little reluctantly – to teach them. There are certainly advantages to having parents teaching teens to drive, but there are some big potential pitfalls too.
In Praise of Parents
Clearly driving lessons from a parent are a whole lot less expensive than driving lessons from a professional. Most parents will do this without expecting any money in return; it’s what parents do.
Parents are also uniquely positioned to know their teen and to understand how best to get information across to them. When a teen learner driver has emotional wobbles, as they will, a parent can negotiate these with ease and re-instil confidence faster than a driving teacher can.
Another big advantage of the parent-teacher can be frequency of lessons. Parents are much more likely to be willing to take a teen out several times a week or even every day, resulting in more experience and more practice.
So yes, being taught to drive by a parent can seem like an attractive proposition. But it’s not all roses.
Professional Prowess
The biggest problem with a parent being a teen’s main or exclusive driving instructor is that most parents passed their test light years ago. The concept of a theory test, show and tell questions and eco-driving marks are completely alien to those who passed their tests back in the happy days when virtually all you had to do was navigate from A to B without crashing the thing. Hence parents are usually simply not up to date enough to be able to coach a teen through the test without professional help.
There’s also the slightly thorny issue that a parent might not be the best driver themselves. Years of driving tends to produce bad habits, which are all too easy to pass on. A professional driving instructor models good driving practice at all times (even if their halos may slip a little when unaccompanied by a learner).
Learning to drive can be stressful, and a parent-teen situation can easily degenerate into a row, which helps nobody and could even be dangerous. A professional instructor will keep things impersonal and constructive in the way that a parent might not always be able to.
If you are taught by a parent, the car will not have dual controls, which can make nervous learners feel insecure or worried. Your parents’ car is also unlikely to be the car you actually take the test in. It doesn’t make sense to not get used to the car you’ll be using on the big day.
The Best of Both Worlds
In reality, most young people learn to drive with a professional driving instructor AND practice with their parents. Parents are certainly invaluable for helping learner drivers rack up the practice hours, and for getting out in all weathers and all conditions. It’s crucial, however, that parents respect and adapt to the advice and training being given by the instructor, even if it’s different to how they themselves drive.
Interestingly, to address the gulf between the tests most parents remember and today’s tests, parents themselves can now take a course in how to teach teens to drive. If a parent plans to be the main or sole instructor for their teen, this seems like an eminently sensible idea, and will ease the mind of both parent and student.
(Image source: DLGPA)
Tags: Learning to drive
