Yes, I am too old to be learning to drive (mid-30's) and it should never have come to this, but having had my first-born earlier in the year I decided that the time had come to put away childish things which (for me) at the time included a bus pass that was key to a public transport commute to work hat took 50 minutes longer than a car ride would have done.
So, I engaged the services of a driving instructor. At the time that I started lessons with her, I didn't know her other than as a driving instructor although in the weeks after I started we began to come across eachother in the community quite a bit as she has a baby a few months older than mine. Within the space of a few months, we seemed to be showing up at all the same events (e.g. baby groups, Baby massage - don't shoot me!)and we became quite friendly.
This led to quite a lot of nattering in the car. A lot about her MIL, in fact. An awful lot. To the extent that I had to say to her - several times - that when we were doing x, I needed her to be quiet (which, to be fair, when prompted she mostly did). I still had to remind her the week before my driving test as we would be practising manoeuvres while she was mid-rant.
I didn't mind. I suppose part of it was the bored-lonely-housewife type of thing, it was my time out of the house and I probably didn't deal very effectively with the fact that I was paying £40 a pop for 2 hour lessons in which we might only do 3 manoeuvres with all the talking. I told myself that because we were friendly, I felt more confident in the car than I had when I'd tried to learn before and she, in turn, told me it was better not to become too focused on what you were doing as when I was driving in real life I'd have my baby in the car and besides, everyone else that she taught had passed first time despite the talking and the examiner might talk to me on the test etc etc etc.
However, all good things come to an end and
I took the test two weeks ago after 70 hours of driving lessons (I had booked her for lots of lessons in the run up to the test). I failed with 16 faults and 3 serious.
Now, the thing is, I'm not blaming her for failing. Lots of people fail the driving test and I know that I failed because I made a silly error on a manoeuvre that I usually did well but I am annoyed at how she's been with me about it after the test. She had a go at me about her pass rate even though we were nearly late for the test as she decided in the lesson before that she had to wash her car and I was really rattled; after the test, she was really negative about the faults I made saying that it was typical of me to be 'so unfocused' etc... and a little voice in my head is saying: "but I paid you a bloody fortune and yes, I should have worked harder but so should you!"
I decided we needed a break from eachother so I have since had some lessons with someone else in a very covert way (feel like I've been having an affair tbh!).
I've been amazed since I have had these lessons. He has pointed out to me that some of what she was teaching me was just WRONG e.g. she told me you didn't have to put your handbrake on when waiting at a junction as it was bad for fuel efficiency and my new instructor says I got faults for this.. it's been clear to me after a few hours in the car with him that basically I've been throwing money away by having lessons with her as my driving has improved beyond measure in a few short hours of proper lessons with no chit chat.
My new instructor is just so positive and I am making progress every lesson - and he is charging exactly the same as she charged me which she told me was a reduced rate as we 'were friends'! All along, she has been quite negative about my driving and my learning style but to be honest I lapped it up because I was just so desperate to drive that I would have walked over hot coals if she told me to.
Anyway, we're part of a group that meet every Tuesday and Thursday and to be honest, they're the backbone of my week on mat leave re: meeting up with adults in the day. How am I supposed to tell her that I have a new instructor and not sour things with her/with the group?
I'm a bit 
that she let me take all those lessons and blamed all my faults on me now that I can see I'm not as slow a learner as she was making out, but I guess I can let that go.. just feel a bit ill at ease with the whole situation and not sure where to go from here.
AIBU to feel this way?