To think I can teach my DD to drive?

[DrivesNowDriving]

My dd (17 next week) can drive. We live on a farm and for the last few years she has been driving on private land. She also competes in low level motor sport.

Aibu to think that I can teach her to drive on the road? My partner thinks I am crazy but as she has full control over the car, can parallel park/reverse etc so I can't see quite what the problem is.

I see parents taking out children after five or so lessons, but that is only enough time to start learning the art of controlling the car.

We would start in quiet roads etc and we get on well and work together well so not worried about her not listening/being over confident.

YABU- of course she needs lessons

YANBU- a parent can teach a child to drive.

Yes you can if you're confident enough. I would however recommend an instructor for a few lessons, just to make sure she's test standard.

I taught mine from scratch.
We started in large quiet car parks, then got up to quiet roads.
I did start them with a proper instructor though once we were at that point, as busy roads made me nervous with them.
Good luck!

We've taken our kids out after one lesson. Obviously on quiet residential roads and building up to more difficult roads when they've been safe to do so.

But there's a big difference between the basics of learning to drive and how to pass your test. My friend's a driving instructor and she's worth every penny. She'll teach them all the technical parts, road positioning, which gears to use for different situations, manoeuvres, how to avoid major and minor faults etc.

My first son passed after about 10 lessons and two months of frequent practising of the various test routes (you can download these on an app). My younger son is about to take his test after five lessons and a lot of practising so you don't necessarily need loads of lessons.

But I think you'd be doing well to pass with no professional lessons. Plus it teaches them how to drive as safely as possible, not with the bad habits we all pick up.

DH taught me and our children to drive. However, I think the law has changed now and your DD has to have a book signed off by an instructor to show she has covered all the elements of learning to drive and an instructor will also give guidance on passing the theory test. By all means take her out for practice but she must have a few official lessons.

I’m sure you can teach them all the basics but I would factor in some lessons to ensure they are test ready and understand exactly how the examiner would expect them to drive.
My son is learning at the minute and has his own car as well. There have been a few things that I’ve said, you should have done x or y and he said this is how his instructor says they must do it.

Book her a test when she feels ready, and a couple of lessons in the lead up, with a bit of time spare in case she has a specific road-driving issue to work on. That's the only thing really; if you've got a bad habit yourself, or are unaware of something she should know, she'll fail if she gets tested on that one thing. Driving tests will have changed since you did yours, so even if you teach her perfectly for what you needed to know, she could still fail.

I would recommend lessons because she is likely to have picked up bad habits. Typically people do when they don't start with formal lessons, brother is driving instructor.

You could certainly do it with just a couple of professional lessons on top. There are certain things examiners look for so it would be good to have an instructor at the end.

I haven't seen this anywhere, and she is booked in for her theory on her birthday.

Those that are saying instructors can teach for the test. I can see the value in that, a couple of lessons to learn this makes sense, it is the general hours learning the roads that don't.

You're right, you can definitely do the theory test independently. There's some very good apps with practice questions.

i think it would be worth, as mentioned, booking a couple of lessons early on so she can learn what she needs to know in order to pass the test, and doesn’t have the opportunity (or limits the opportunity anyway!) to learn ‘bad’ habits. No doubt you can teach her to drive, as such, as she sounds really capable already but a lot of the test is ticking boxes.

I’m pretty sure there hasn’t been any change in the law saying you have to have lessons signed off by an official driving instructor (assuming you’re in the UK).

Some driving instructors also ask you to pass your theory test before starting practical lessons (this happened to one of DDs friends). Both DS and DD used a theory app and both passed theory first time.

it Sounds like you can get her 90% of the way there but worth investing in a few lessons with an instructor to cover the very test-specific bits. My DD is getting test-ready now and her instructor is telling her about the different examiners at the test centre, practising with the specific Sat-navs they use, driving around possible test routes etc (we don't live anywhere near a test centre so it's very unfamiliar to her).
those things aren't necessarily essential but are the kind of thing that could really help with nerves for an anxious teen (which mine is!)
We found it extremely difficult to find a reliable instructor with availability so i would scout around now even if it'll be a couple of months before you need them.

I taught DS to drive but everyone needs lessons if they want to pass the test. He didn't have many lessons at all, but I found there were certain things that his instructor told him that are actually slightly different to what I learnt 25 years ago.

I'm in the US, if the kids are learning before age 18, they are required to have some formal (and expensive) lessons. There is a classroom portion and a driving portion. The driving portion is 6 hours driving, 6 hours observing in the car while another student drives. After that, it's on the parents (or another licensed driver at least 21 years old) to spend a required number of logged hours on different roads and in various conditions.

One son waited until he was 18 because he didn't want to go through the hassle of the classes. He got his permit and drove with several different people until he was ready for his test.

Driving on private roads is a bit different to driving in traffic. I taught DS the basics in a disused car park but he still had around 6 lessons before I took him out on the road for extra practice (and even then it was a bit hairy). So I’d definitely recommend she go out with an experienced instructor.

It sounds like you can teach her to drive but she may want a few lessons to teach her the test. It wouldn't work for many parent/child pairings but sounds like she's quite mature, and the part about listening and not being over-confident sounds like she'd make use of the lessons sensibly.

I taught my son to drive a few years back.
Importantly he watched some YouTube videos to ensure he knew everything he was doing was correct and how to pass the test, whereas I taught him how to drive the actual car!
I think he had 2 lessons with an instructor who then confirmed he was test ready and did the test in the instructors car.

As long as there’s some proper lessons to teach her the ‘proper’ way to drive then yes. I think I had 8 driving lessons and inbetween drove my mum EVERYWHERE.

That must be a very recent change, I hadn't heard of that.

I taught all three of mine. They went on an under 17 driving course which taught them the manoeuvres, we then built up driving slowly on quiet roads.

My tips- treat the first test like a mock, the examiner can give you things (bad habits) to work on for the actual test.

Use a passenger rear view mirror, you will need to be their eyes for a while.

Get dc to watch driving instructor videos on YouTube. Rather than arguing about them with things when they were driving, I would note things I wanted them to learn before the next drive and send them links.

They can discuss most things with you, but if you say stop, then they react. No ifs or buts, they can ask questions after.

All of my dc drive and we haven't paid for any instructors.

Get some lessons to teach for the test as the instructor knows the likely routes of the test but other than that teach away. Dh taught ds from day one with lessons mixed in and will do the same with other ds.

I taught all three DC to drive from scratch then paid for a few lessons to make sure they could pass their test.
Lessons are so expensive I don't understand why everyone with a suitable car does not do this.

Controlling a car and road craft are two very different things. Will she be able to react appropriately in an emergency situation? A driving instructor’s car will have duel controls for times like that. Will you be picking up on bad habits? I have a real issue with driving standards in this country and unless you’re an advanced motorist, leave it to the professionals.

This is very helpful thank you.

To be clear I appreciate that driving on the farm is very different.

Thanks for all the information and thoughts all helpful, and I'm certainly happy with a compromise of lessons for test, and I will show partner that other people have taught their DC, so thanks for sharing.