# Driver Training - What's a parent to do? (Parents and teens invited.) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 13, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driver-training-whats-a-parent-to-do-parents-and-teens-invited/194843 "2003-08-13T05:29:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driver-training-whats-a-parent-to-do-parents-and-teens-invited/194843/21 "2003-08-14T01:55:40Z")
I’m reminded of things that I learned / were enforced upon me. I took driver’s ed in my high school, and took private lessons for about a month before taking my driver’s test. From my private lessons, I remember the instructor telling me that when you’re not sure if another driver is slowing down or not, to look at their wheels and try to gauge whether the rotations are slowing down or not. Another thing was I was stopped at a red light one time, and she had me look ahead and assess what I saw. What I didn’t point out was the person loading the trunk of their car that was parked on the street. Her point being that when I pass that guy, that he might not see me coming and I have to be ready for him to perhaps step out into the road. Do this with TSA once in a while, make sure he sees some potential danger/accident that you do. **For AFTER tsa gets his license** - Enforce a different curfew time. I got my license in my senior year, when my curfew was normally about 1:30. For the first month or two after I got my license, my curfew was raised to 12 because my parents didn’t want to chance me driving tired. After a little bit it became 12:30, and so on until it was back to normal time. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driver-training-whats-a-parent-to-do-parents-and-teens-invited/194843/22 "2003-08-14T02:23:47Z")
**Dogzilla** 2000 lb lecture idea noted. You’re right there’s never snow here in Houston, at least never the kind that lands on the ground. We have had a lot of rain and it hadn’t occured to me to make this a specific thing to practice. **Phatlewt** He’s a racer by nature and would love it, but it’s financially not feasible. **emilyforce** Noted on the two parent thing. If we’re ever both in the car, I will keep my mouth shut. In fact I really liked all of your bullet points. **Rick** He was talking about a ‘trick’ the instructor talked about tonight to judge distances for parking and backing. Something to do with the mirrors, I asked him to show me when we drive this weekend. **Voyager** I believe the permit (practice) period is six months here as well. **Maneb** we can do long road trips. We live in Houston and have family in the DFW area. It’s 4 1/2 or 5 hours depending on traffic and departure times. **Kakofonous** Not a problem. I don’t particularly like to drive so I am the passenger everytime the opportunity presents itself. **dewizeowl** I’ll add your ideas to the parking lot practice times. \*\* burundi\*\* Basic car care and maintence is covered. He’s been helping his dad with routine maintence for years and he’s completed [these skills](http://www.meritbadge.com/bsa/mb/127.htm). **saramamlana** His curfew is midnight weekends and ten school nights. He never bumps up against it though. He swims competitively and is up most mornings by five, which means after early morning religon class, swim practice, school, homework, basketball and other activities, he’s pretty much worn out and ready to come home about 9 or 9:30. Thanks everyone, these are great comments and give me much to keep in mind as we go through this together. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driver-training-whats-a-parent-to-do-parents-and-teens-invited/194843/23 "2003-08-15T06:21:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AbbySthrnAccent \* > Mudshark After you arrived home and your grandmother mentioned things she felt you needed to work on, did you remember the instances she was talking about with you? Basically, she said that I needed to approach the speed limit. I would never drive past 20 miles an hour, and most of the roads around here are 45 or 55 mph. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driver-training-whats-a-parent-to-do-parents-and-teens-invited/194843/24 "2003-08-15T06:21:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AbbySthrnAccent \* > Mudshark After you arrived home and your grandmother mentioned things she felt you needed to work on, did you remember the instances she was talking about with you? Basically, she said that I needed to approach the speed limit. I would never drive past 20 miles an hour, and most of the roads around here are 45 or 55 mph. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driver-training-whats-a-parent-to-do-parents-and-teens-invited/194843/25 "2003-08-15T06:23:07Z")
I should also mention, this was after I had been practicing for about 9 months already. I just didn’t like to drive the speed limit for a long time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driver-training-whats-a-parent-to-do-parents-and-teens-invited/194843.md?page=1)