How to Teach Your Children to Drive Safely and Courteously - Article 1 of 2

If you have a child in his early teens, chances are you've already begun to hear about his desire to start driving. For both boys and girls, driving is a rite of passage. It represents freedom, independence, responsibility; the first and most conspicuous sign of adulthood and autonomy. But for parents it may also represent sheer terror!

Insurance company statistics show us that there is plenty for parents to be apprehensive about. The number of citations, accidents and fatalities for drivers under the age of 25, particularly boys, is so much higher than that for the rest of the population, insurance rates can be double, even triple the cost of that for seasoned drivers.

Certainly, inexperience with the mechanics of driving accounts for a great number of these mishaps and improvement in that area can come only with practice, practice, practice. But, more significant still, is the young driver's attitude toward cars and driving. Here though, fortunately, is where we parents can have the greatest impact!

Without even thinking about it, we parents are teaching our children how to drive from the first time we strap them into a car seat.During these early years, our young passengers are learning how it "feels" to be in a car; driving in a residential area, on a freeway, in a parking lot; dealing with traffic, being in a hurry, driving when tired, angry or distracted.

Are you a tailgater? If your little girl has always seen the car in front of her just three feet from your bumper when going 60 mph on the freeway, this distance will seem "normal" to her. Chances are she will do the same when she gets behind the wheel, only without the 15, 20 or 30 or more years of experience and trained reflex that you have to help you avoid an accident.

Do you routinely speed, weave in and out of traffic or cut people off when in a hurry? Most likely, your teenaged son, additionally fueled by raging hormones, loud music and his newly endowed transportation autonomy, will take these patterns to the next level.

If you're angry or stressed, do you transfer those feelings to the road, criticizing other drivers, cursing them for their driving faux pas or even attempting to intimidate or "punish" them with your driving when they offend you? This behavior, too, will seem "normal" to your children, and when that girlfriend or boyfriend rejects them, or they don't make the team, your young, inexperienced driver will take their powerful and confused emotions and your poor example with them behind the wheel of a car.

Do you drive when you've had too much to drink? Do you have a little too much wine with dinner, then drive your family home? Do you have a few beers at the game? A friends house? A bar-b-que? While boating? Then do you get in the drivers seat with your children watching? If you've found yourself insisting that you're "okay" and "I can drive", chances are you are not and should not. But not only is it important that you not endanger your children's and other people's lives by drinking and driving, it is critically important that you not model this behavior before your kids, because when the pressure to drink comes their way - and it will - the message that will resound in their heads will no doubt be, "I'm okay" and "I can drive".

Nearly all of us have been guilty of at least some if not all of these bad driving behaviors at one time or another. But, as parents, it's important to remember that you are no longer alone in your car. You are being watched. There is truly no greater way to teach your children to become safe, courteous drivers than to model that behavior yourself. If you are aware of poor or unsafe driving habits or attitudes that you possess - habits or attitudes that you would not want your children to emulate - begin right now to correct them. Even talk about them with your kids. Let them help you become a better, safer and more courteous driver so that they, too, can become better, safer more courteous drivers one day as well.