to think being able to drive is KEY skill for a woman ( particularly)

[FolornHope]

or not

Driving is, in most parts of the UK a life skill, IMO as so much of the country is practically inaccessible without a car.

On the other hand being able to drive doesn't mean you have to own a car and owning a car doesn't mean you have to use it, when it's more convenient to walk/take public transport. I can drive, but don't currently own a car as everything I want to get to day by day is within walking distance of home. When I want to go further afield I hire a car for a weekend. If I couldn't drive I wouldn't have that option.

Edam- has he not found anything else yet?.
I think we've been lucky tbh- at least Dh managed to get the Uni place after his redundancy, and has just enough PT work to make the 16 hours to qualify as working..... hope your DH finds something soon

No, but keep your fingers crossed, I had a job interview on Tues... although don't think I did well, I"m so out of practice having worked for myself for five years.

Riven, I was paying £37.50 for 90 minutes - hideously expensive but a. it's not cheap round here and b. instructor was recommended by an MNer and is v. good with, um, more mature learners!

I've never learnt to drive. I never got round to it at the sensible age and then when DS1 was 4 he got hit by a car in front of me (he's fine) and I became pretty phobic about cars etc. I still have the odd nightmare about the accident - and all those "what ifs?" are still there (and we're talking 18 years later, so I really need to get over it). I'm a nervous passenger.

And it's never been too much of an issue - have always lived in cities with reasonable transport, use a bicycle or taxis. But that freedom to just head for the beach whenever etc does appeal, plus what happens when I'm old etc., so I know I need to learn one of these days.

FolornHope - I noticed you posted about this on another thread and was going to ask. How do you feel about a man who cannot drive?

Bit of a wimp? Less than a man? Definitely a turn off?

I can drive but choose not to because I find it too stressful. I met a woman last week who has a DH who is very successful in his job, high paid, all round decent bloke but just cannot handle driving and she drives him everywhere.

YANBU, hardly any of DH's family drive and so they expect everyone to go to them and run round after them and it drives me mad. People who are going to choose not to drive should atleast be prepared to walk or get taxis/buses rather than barking orders at everyone else. But that's specific to my situation.

I can't imagine not driving. How would anything get done.

I live very rurally on a farm. Nearest shop is about 7 miles away. I am 29 and have a 2yr old.

Can I drive? No.

I can walk though. And cycle. And catch a bus.

I will learn to drive if all of you folks on here that insist I need to pay for it.

There are nervous drivers who should not be drivers for safetly sake.

I can't drive and I've never felt the lack.

I live 5 minutes walk from town, within easy walking distance of school/clubs/toddler groups/supermarket. I work from home. Would resent the expense of a second car anyway, and dh needs to drive to work on outlying industrial estate with poor transport links.

Anything not within walking distance is easily reachable by bus/train.

There was ONE occasion this year when I wished I had a car - when a severe thunderstorm struck while I was visiting a friend in the neighbouring town. All the buses were mysteriously cancelled (struck by lightning?!), but railway station was a quick scoot through the rain away and we survived fine.

In my position, I don't think the expense of a second car is justifiable, so paying through the nose for driving lessons seems even less so.

If anything happened so that I was alone with the dds, though, I'd learn.

think my daughter paid about £50 a week, for a 2 hour or hour and half with BSM?

she block booked to get a discount, and clocked up as many hours in her own car as possible - it was a bit gruelling in terms of £££ but so are most forms of education

have never really lived in a world where people don't drive because alternatives exist, although when first buying my house I cycled everywhere and used the train until I realised train fares were not only more than insurance/tax/tyres/fuel on a day by day basis but there is no RAC when the train breaks down on our miserable single line to London

Riven, this may be a function of us living somewhere jolly expensive - round here I feel like a pauper even though we are far luckier than many people (except for dh being made redundant, that's a bit of a pisser).

Not keen on AA as when I did try to learn in my early 20s, I was sexually harassed by one of their instructors. He was seriously creepy - quite apart from trying to cop a feel in the car, he then offered me free lessons if I took him home 'as I know your boyfriend is out'. Didn't report him as in those days (early 90s) it was a different climate and I thought it would be my word against his etc. etc. etc.

OK, I am sure there are plenty of AA instructors who are not creeps but it did rather put me off that company.

Loads of Universities don't even allow students to keepcars- one here doesn't for a start,don't think dh'sdoes (andlets face it, if you're based in Pontypridd you might well want one.... Dh has toldme some stories about the night life there and the students take on it [grin[)

There is a moce towards out of town campus living but even then they offer free buses in usually, so i don't see the point.

I don't know if ds1 can ever drive- his eyes arelike mine (basically severe astigmatism with worsening short sightedness that throws it too far),plus he has zero spacialawareness from the AS, but he says he doesn'tn want to anyway. He'll have to go to cardiff to study if his career plan stays the same (he's ten) but that's manageable with bus /train. It will massively limit his options after though.

I didn't learn to drive until I was in my thirties. My parents' didn't drive, not sure if that's relevant or not.

I love, love, love driving and the freedom of it was pretty mind bending. I'm now a bit of a petrol head and I salivate over websites which let me "build" my own car.

I think the ability to drive is fairly key. But I don't think being a car owner is always essential. Depends on a lot of factors but I'd feel very lost if I couldn't never drive a car because I'd not learned.

I am glad my parents were able to pay for ne to have driving lessons when I was 17. Not being able to drive wouldn't be a disaster living where we do, but I have to say it makes life easier.

My dad doesn't drive. I believe there was a brief period of time shortly after he and my mum got married when he got a provisional licence and tried learning but it is not generally talked about .

It is good that my mum learned to drive when she was younger I think; again made things easier when we were growing up.

Gaarrgghh at double negative... the shame.

it was a lot of money, which is a mark of its worth and value in more rural areas I think

we can't all live in cities! I'd be desperately ill if I traded big open green spaces and solitude and animals for noise and high crime rates and thousands of people every day

Riven, I've lost count of the number of lessons I've had, although there have been gaps when I've been frantic with work (self-employment means I cannot turn work down). I am not gifted and talented at driving, think I'm in the remedial stream... Would be far easier if it involved reading and writing essays.

Seriously, it was a lot more straightforward in my early 20s, which is a good reason for learning early on when your brain is much faster at learning new things.