Driver's Ed update

[TerryJ2]

difficult child has had his permit for 3 weeks now.
We are all still alive.
No dents on the car.
Two bottles of wine sipped and slurped by moi.
Only one argument from difficult child, which earned him a week with no driving.
Mostly back roads, but yesterday went 9 miles and did 10 signal lights.
He loves having me pick him up from school, so his friends can see us changing places, and him getting behind the wheel.

He insists he hasn't seen anything for himself that would fulfill my constant statement, "Just wait until you can drive and you'll understand." But yesterday, when someone decided to cross the street in the middle of a crowded 6-lane thoroughfare and stand in between the cars, only 20 yards from a pedestrian crossing, difficult child said, "What is he doing?"
I answered, "Apparently, trying to kill himself."
This is one of my pet peeves, which difficult child has heard millions of times from me, both in regard to the pedestrian and the drivers. It nearly killed me not to say, "I told you so."

 

[pasajes4]

You are far braver and much more patient then I could ever be.

 

[SuZir]

You are far braver than I would. difficult child was living three hours from us at a time of his driver's ed, but there will be no chance we would try to teach even easy child ourself. Not even though it would save us closer to 2 000 dollars. We are willing to pay that same 3500 dollars for his education in driving school it took us to have difficult child go through it. Simply no chance we would have patience to teach even easy child ourselves (well, partly some parts are mandatory to go to driving school to.) And our legal driving age is even 18 so kids are bit more mature. But still, no way in hades I could do it.

 

[Wiped Out]

Kudos to you! I also have to say you are braver than me as well. Even with easy child, I made husband take her out most of the time. I'm not sure when difficult child might be ready to try to learn. He wants to learn but we know he isn't ready.

 

[cubsgirl]

You are brave.

difficult child wants to drive more than anything. The school driver's ed team agreed to do an assessment to see if he was even capable of driving and difficult child understood that if they said no, then the answer was no. I never thought he would pass his assessment but he did (!!!) - he is taking driver's ed next semester. I'm a wreck about it.

 

[KTMom91]

I never thought Miss KT would pass her driving test, even though we had paid for drivers' training and she'd done all the supervised driving required. The first day she drove to school, she hit the entrance gate to the school parking lot.

I feel your pain.

 

[svengandhi]

easy child failed his motorcycle test the other day. He was shocked and humiliated and furious at H, who spent more time on Facebook than practicing figure 8's with the kid. on the other hand, he is a very good driver, the best of my 4 who are driving even though he's the youngest of the group. I'd much rather drive with him than with oldest boy, who actually drives for a living!

At one point, oldest boy was the only student in his alternative HS who actually had a driver's license so he was very popular. He was charging kids $10 to drive them home so they wouldn't have to take the bus when we learned about his enterprise and put a halt to it for insurance purposes.

I know your feelings...

 

[Liahona]

I dread difficult child 1 and difficult child 2 driving. Glad it is working out for you.

 

[Californiablonde]

difficult child is terrified of driving. She turns 16 in three weeks and she is in no hurry to get her license, which is absolutely fine with me. I dread the day my kids start driving. I am a natural born worrier as it is when it comes to them, and just thinking about them out on the road makes me anxious. Of course I know it has to happen sooner or later, but I'd rather it be later!

 

[TerryJ2]

KTMom, I'm sorry, but I had to chuckle about that. I'm waiting for that moment.
Svengandi, CLEVER child!

difficult child failed his written test twice, but was quite gracious about it. Never yelled (at me) or at all. Just asked the clerk how long he had to wait to retake it.
I knew he'd passed it the third time because he took a very long time, which meant he was still taking the test and THINKING before he got kicked off the computer. (It shuts down immediately once you've failed too many questions.)

Luckily, my dad was a sports car racer, and he taught me well. It was not fun. He was also in the army. He'd shout, "CUT TO THE LEFT, G-DMMIT!" or "SHIFT!" even though we had an automatic transmission. If I'd race the engine to get up to the speed limit too fast, I'd have to let up on the gas and then hit the gas pedal again with-my foot to get the car to shift. I was always, always in tears by the time we finished our lessons. I was terrified. My hands were so sweaty I could barely hold the steering wheel.
A few yrs ago, I bought a day at the BMW track in S. Carolina for husband's and my anniversary. He took the sports car class and I took the safe driving class. It was a great time and a great learning experience. If it hadn't been for my dad and the added BMW class, I don't think I would be able to teach difficult child.

So far, difficult child has only had one panic attack, 1/2 hr after we got out of the car. I have been pretty good about not yelling (nothing compared to my dad!) but one time when difficult child was going 40 mph and then didn't slow down when he went into the left turn lane, behind 3 cars at a red light, I yelled "STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!!!!" and we got into an argument. He stopped but had to really hit the brakes hard. "I was stopping. I didn't hit anything!"
"That's NOT how you determine if you're doing it right!"
The panic attack was the result of not knowing a friend's address and having to go around the block, then in and out of a couple of driveways in the dark, backing out into a busy street. I SO wanted to get out and trade places with him but he finally did it. (I treated myself to a margarita that night. He got a clonidine. )

In general, he's way better than I expected him to be.

husband is not volunteering very much, partly because he's trying to stall difficult child's license as long as possible. We both want him to have his permit for a long, long time. People need way more time behind the wheel than state laws suggest. Makes me sick.

This winter we will take him out to an empty parking lot and do a few spins on the ice. I did that with-easy child in the school admin pkng lot, and a cop drove over and asked us what we were doing. I told him we were practicing on the ice and he said it was a good idea but we weren't allowed to do that in the school admin pkng lot. We'll find someplace new this time. It's going to be more difficult, though, because both husband and I have automatic anti-lock brakes. You can still spin, but not as easily. A good thing and a bad thing.

 

[TerryJ2]

Didn't drive with-difficult child for a week. He was disrespectful and we both needed a break. I caved today and let him drive from school to the dentist's office. It seemed like 50 miles but it was only 2.1. Luckily, the traffic was very light.