You are responsible for your teen having the necessary skills to become a great driver. Unfortunately, not enough parents take the time to ensure that their children understand these skills. Thankfully, it is possible to teach a myriad of unique abilities to make this process easier to understand.
Teach Proper Mirror Balancing
Did you know most people don’t correctly balance their car side mirrors to eliminate blind spots? It’s true! When you position your side mirrors just right, you should have a full view of the road behind you. Teach your teens this trick and get them to put their mirrors in the right places properly.
Each mirror should be level with the road and pulled out to the point where you can’t just see the vehicle. Now, teach your children how to check behind them when changing lanes using the rearview mirror first and progressing to the side mirrors as the traffic patterns change around them.
Put Away Your Cell Phone
Nobody should be using their cell phone while driving. However, millions of people likely do it every day, particularly teens, as around 400,000 people in the U.S. get hurt every year due to distracted driving. As a result, you need to put your phone away and model the best behavior for your children.
If you know that they aren’t likely to listen when they get on the road, you might want to either confiscate their phone while driving (which makes it harder for them to contact you) or lock the phone until they get to where they are going. Such actions help to make driving safer.
Teach Habitual Driving Behaviors
Many driving behaviors are based on muscle memory, meaning that you do them without even thinking. This simple fact is something that should be taught to your children to make their driving even safer. Start by discussing these elements and doing what you can to emphasize them on the road.
For instance, you should get good at turning on your light whenever you get into the car and emphasize why this is so important to your child’s safety. You should also model strong turn-signal use, turning them on even when you’re turning out of your driveway or in parking lots.
Always Lock Up Your Vehicle
Did you know that a car is stolen every 41 seconds in this country? You should, and so should your children. They need to understand the importance of locking up a vehicle and keeping it from invasion. Thankfully, it should be pretty easy to teach your children this skill in most situations.
For instance, you need to make sure that they keep their keys on them at all times, getting into the habit of putting their keys in their pocket or a safe place when they are at home. Doing so helps to minimize the potential driving dangers that they may experience if they aren’t careful.
Model Safe Behaviors on the Road
Your children need to see you drive to get an idea of what is the best approach. You may not think that they pay attention to you, but everything you model to your children, even as teens, is picked up and may be used to learn. As a result, it is essential to behave correctly when you’re on the road.
For instance, you should make sure that your teen understands safe driving methods for getting to school, as this is where they’ll spend much of their time. After all, there are about 34,576 million private schools in the nation, each with different rules for the 5.7 million students attending.
If you follow these tips and constantly look out for your teen, they should learn excellent driving skills. Ensure that you don’t push too heavily against them because this may cause driving anxiety that may be hard to overcome. Instead, give them the advice and attention that they need to stay focused.