Teen struggling with driving

[Anonymous]

Anyone else have this issue? She's just a bad driver. Period. I'm starting to wonder if she will ever really catch on. She has had drivers ed and has put in many many hours driving with us over the past seceral months. It is STILL terrifying to ride with her every single time. Has anyone else experienced this with their teen? What did you do about it? She has no concept of when to speed up on slow down. She can't seem to be awarw of her surroundings. For example, she will be focused on thw car in front of her but will pay no attention to the cars behind or beside her. It's hard to explain. She just doesn't get it.

[Anonymous]

kids don't care about getting licences these days.

just get an uber account and live in a city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:kids don't care about getting licences these days.

just get an uber account and live in a city.

I wish our situation made that possible! We are counting on her being a full-on driver by September. That means driving herself to work and driving her siblings to school. Of ciyrse we won't force it if she's not ready by then, but I am really starting to wonder if she will ever be ready. She really is that bad!

[Anonymous]

Does "she" feel anxious? Or just you as a passenger? It is a learning curve, and the more you can get her out there, the better.

I needed concrete indicators of when I was supposed to do something. Like being told to leave 3 car lengths between me and the car ahead of me. And to shift (manual) when the speedometer hit a certain MPH. I know that's not the intuitive way to drive, but I needed these concrete indicators before it "became" intuitive. Maybe she needs something similar.

But the more you can get her out there driving, the better. Obviously not in rush hour or bad weather to begin with. But more hours helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:kids don't care about getting licences these days.

just get an uber account and live in a city.

I wish our situation made that possible! We are counting on her being a full-on driver by September. That means driving herself to work and driving her siblings to school. Of ciyrse we won't force it if she's not ready by then, but I am really starting to wonder if she will ever be ready. She really is that bad!

Driving siblings to school?! Isn't there a prohibition on her license for that? Mine said no minors in my car until I was 18.

What about driving school? Are there driving classes at her high school?

[Anonymous]

When I started driving I didn't have a good sense of when to begin stopping so as to not hit the car in front of me. My mother had me stop the car, guess how many feet I was from a car on the street, and then get out of the car and walk forward counting how many steps it took me.

My parents had to tell me "Each time you're about to do THIS driving maneuver, check side and rear-view mirrors, and if you're going straight, check them every four seconds."

That's not stuff they teach in driver's ed - you're expected to just pick it up, but I didn't.

[Anonymous]

My middle sister was like this. After countless hours in the car with my parents (post driver's ed) my parents hired a driving school instructor to sit with her for about 45 hours going all over town. Driving in the burbs, downtown, the highway, all over. This instructor was great with her and her driving improved in a way we never thought possible. I'm not sure what the difference was between the instructor and my parents (probably patience and maybe just different tips / advice) but maybe you can look into this for her?

[Anonymous]

My 37 year old sister is stilllike this.

[Anonymous]

Does she have an in car driving instructor? I did not to do well learning from my parents.

I also was not ready to drive at 16. I always lived in urban areas for college and my early twenties where I didn't need to drive, so it was fine. I ended up getting my license in my mid-twenties with no issues after driving lessons from a qualified instructor

[Anonymous]

If you can afford it, sign her up for more instruction with I Drive Smart, or similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does "she" feel anxious? Or just you as a passenger? It is a learning curve, and the more you can get her out there, the better.

I needed concrete indicators of when I was supposed to do something. Like being told to leave 3 car lengths between me and the car ahead of me. And to shift (manual) when the speedometer hit a certain MPH. I know that's not the intuitive way to drive, but I needed these concrete indicators before it "became" intuitive. Maybe she needs something similar.

But the more you can get her out there driving, the better. Obviously not in rush hour or bad weather to begin with. But more hours helps.

She doee not feel anxious enough! She has come close to having accidents several times. She doesn't seem to learn from it or feel the desire to do better next time. She just has such a casual attitude about it.

We could do more concrete indicators. That's a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:kids don't care about getting licences these days.

just get an uber account and live in a city.

I wish our situation made that possible! We are counting on her being a full-on driver by September. That means driving herself to work and driving her siblings to school. Of ciyrse we won't force it if she's not ready by then, but I am really starting to wonder if she will ever be ready. She really is that bad!

Driving siblings to school?! Isn't there a prohibition on her license for that? Mine said no minors in my car until I was 18.

What about driving school? Are there driving classes at her high school?

Not where we live. She can have siblings in the car when she is 16. Their schools are less than a mile away and are next door to each other. So she would just have to drive a short distance and park. She wouldn't have to deal with drop off and pick up lines.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. If she doesn't make vast improvements by summer, I think we might need to hire an instructor. She did take drivers ed, which included several hours with an instructor. It clearly just wasn't enough!

[Anonymous]

Son with learning disabilities didn't get his license until after college at 22. He just was not ready. I could not ride with him. We paid for hours and hours of individual driving lessons. The best was an outfit called EZ Method.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. If she doesn't make vast improvements by summer, I think we might need to hire an instructor. She did take drivers ed, which included several hours with an instructor. It clearly just wasn't enough!

Some kids just learn more slowly than others. I bet there will be a point where it just clicks into place for her.