You Never Really Learn To Swear Until You Teach Your Kid To Drive!

Oh, Gawd!!!  It's that time again.  Grandson now has his permit.  I got my first ride with him the other day, and he actually did quite well.  Of course, we were only driving around in two or three empty parking lots that all link together at a nearby medical complex and it WAS 3 a.m. in the morning!

Well, okay!  It was really only 9 p.m.  I cannot believe what it costs to teach a kid to drive these days though.  Long gone are the driver's education classes in school.  Now, parents have to pay $375 and up at a driving school.  If the kid doesn't take a driver's education class, however,  the insurance rates are more than the cost of his first car.

Grandson will be driving next week with his instructor.  Daughter and  I are cowards.  We'll let the instructor take him out on the interstates. The instructor has a brake on his side.

All we have are our nerves; and, quite frankly, teaching my own kids to drive almost led to a nervous breakdown--not to mention an early end to a promising life (mine--not theirs!!!)  I was the one having cardiac arrhythmia!

Grandson's mother's first driving lesson with me was a swing through the neighborhood.  We had a curving drive in front of our house.  I backed the car out, pulled into the curved drive, gave her a few basic tips and put her behind the wheel. That was my first big mistake!!

She hit the gas and the next thing I knew we were plowing through our neighbor's yard at sixty per.

"Slow down! Slow down!  Get back on the road!"

She cut the car hard to the left, we bounced off the curb and headed straight for the curb on the opposite side.

"Hit the brake!"  I screamed.  "Hit the brake!"  Well, she did! As we came to a screeching halt, I braced myself to go right through the windshield.

Naturally, I hadn't fastened my seat belt, thinking we were just going for a slow 25 to 30 mph. cruise through a quiet neighborhood with very little traffic.  That was my second big mistake! But, I thought I might need to reach over and steer if she made a bad decision.

Well, let me tell you.  There was no time to reach for anything. I was grabbing thin air trying to brace myself.

We finally got straightened out, I cautioned her to barely push the accelerator--that a little goes a long way--and to take me home!!!

"That's it!!   I muttered as I headed in to change my pants.  Your dad can teach YOU to drive!"  And that was her one and only driving lesson from me!

As for Holly,  Kenna actually gave her the first driving lesson she had.  On Holly's 13th birthday, we had bought her a drum set, which she had been wanting from the time she was old enough to realize she could actually GET things by constant whining, nagging, crying, and intimidation.

I had held firm, though, making her take two years of instruction in percussion before I bought them.  I had promised if she finished the two years, I would get the drums for her 13th birthday. 

Kenna was seventeen, so I told her to take Holly somewhere for a couple of hours while we got the drum set assembled.

When they returned, they were laughing about their little adventure.  It seems Kenna had asked Holly if she would like to drive her car as a birthday present.  Well, naturally, Holly was "gung-ho" for that.

Kenna did have enough sense at least to take her outside town on a country road.  Evidently, Holly was doing just fine until Kenna told her it was time to turn around.

As Holly was negotiating the art of backing up, she came perilously close to steering them right off the edge of a bridge into a creek.

Remembering Kenna's first attempt at driving, I just couldn't believe she had done that.  Kids!  They all believe they are immortal!