How do you cope with the sheer terror of going out with your learner driver DC?

[fairyhouse]

Or is it just me? He's had 6 lessons of 2 hours each and seems to be making good progress. But I just cannot relax in the car with him driving! I'll admit to being a control freak, and I seem unable to stop myself clutching the sides or shooting my brake foot out! Poor DS. But he just seems very erratic still and it's making those quick decisions that experienced drivers don't even think about. My DH is calmer with him but works away a lot so I do need to somehow get over it!

Dd just passed and only had 6 lessons - no more were available, driving instructor said she could drive and just needed practice so I got on with it. We have a few raw moments but eventually she got it. Now I am teaching ds - which is harder because he struggles to listen and drive, but I'm getting around that by gradually increasing the difficulty level.
We have rule that I am in charge, because the teens like to argue - if they don't like it, they can find a driving instructor who does - I'll even pay, I don't mind but there aren't many around with lessons available. We go out 10mins everyday, any stress and we cut the lesson short, if it's going well we keep going but never longer than 30mins. I think the worst thing about not having dual controls is that I can't allow ds to take as many risks so learning is slower but we're getting there.

My eldest passed in May. And i haven’t been with her yet. She had her own car during lockdown and refused to go in it for lessons. She’s always out with her car. I have no real reason to go with her. I hardly see her.

DD 2 is learning and ive been with her a lot. She started im May and ready to test said her instructor. But cant pass her theory.

@fairyhouse

For those saying get over yourself (at least twice on this thread) Just to make you aware, more than one type of personality exists in the world.

Absolutely

fairy Yes you probably do have to pay extra as it counts as an adaptation/alteration for insurance. We didn't set out to buy a car already with dual controls for DD1, it just happened to be available.

This is the kind of thing we expect to get for DD2: www.d-ss.co.uk/19-dual-control-kits-self-install though we'd probably get a garage to install it.

I did most of the parental passengering and all of them said I was better at it than dh.
Which is odd as I am by far the least laid back parent!

I had one rule, and that was if I said STOP they MUST without question stop the car, i never had to implement that!

Other than that I got them to chatter about what they were doing, what the instructor had said to do, and why, use the taught techniques and not to do what I did as it is taught very differently
Them chattering/doing a running commentary meant there was no need for me to question them as to if they had spotted the lights changing, the errant cyclist, the dashing toddler, were they at the right speed

Also we waited until the instructor had said they were ready for more practising as their skills were up to scratch.

All three passed first time and after about 25-30 lessons and a good deal of running me to the shops via as many different routes as possible!

@TeenMinusTests

fairy Yes you probably do have to pay extra as it counts as an adaptation/alteration for insurance. We didn't set out to buy a car already with dual controls for DD1, it just happened to be available.

This is the kind of thing we expect to get for DD2: www.d-ss.co.uk/19-dual-control-kits-self-install though we'd probably get a garage to install it.

Thank you. Good idea.