Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

Paying for kids driving lessons

77 replies

hansolosmum · 27/11/2018 12:32

A few people I know with kids in their late teens are giving them driving lessons for Christmas, which is nice. But then what? Are they going to have to keep paying for it if their kids can't afford to pay themselves?

I only ask because it's made me think recently about what I will and won't be willing to pay for when my kids reach 16. I had to pay for my own driving lessons when I was younger (hence not learning till I was 34!). I'm worried how much I'm going to have to save up for all this type of stuff.

If you've got older kids what do you think? And will I be thinking completely differently when the time comes?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

MrsJayy · 27/11/2018 14:53

I wasn'tvery good at driving either I wasted 100s onlessons and failing tests I just gave up in the end I still feel guiltyabout the time and money.

HalfBloodPrincess · 27/11/2018 14:58

We have a blended family with 4 teens who will all hit 17 within 18 months of each other. I doubt we will be able to afford lessons/tests/car/insurance for them all so will probably do what my mum did, which is pay for provisional licence, theory test and a block of 5 lessons each, then they’ll have to take over the payments themselves.

MrsJayy · 27/11/2018 15:00

Sounds fair halfbloodprincess paying for a brood of 17year olds won't be cheap.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Driving & parking Families General parenting

janinlondon · 27/11/2018 15:17

We could have afforded driving lessons, but not the insurance.

notacooldad · 27/11/2018 15:27

We paid four our two have lessons for their seventeenth birthday. We paid for the tests until they passed.
We also paid for a second hand car and the insurance. The insurance e was just over two thousand for each land in the first year and two thousand in the second year. The eldest has paid for half of his insurance this year. I think we may be paying for a few more years with the youngest.

VioletCharlotte · 27/11/2018 15:30

10-15 lessons is unlikely! Unless they're able to practise with someone else as well as lessons, 15 hours driving experience is no way near enough to be safe to drive in your own. I've lost count of how many lessons my DS has had. He pays for half and I pay for half. It's £30 a lesson which is the going rate where I live.

Thesnobbymiddleclassone · 27/11/2018 15:35

My parents paid for my lessons at 17 but made it clear that that was it. That they wouldn't be paying for a car and the costs that come with it.

notacooldad · 27/11/2018 15:35

We paid four our two have lessons for their seventeenth birthday
I should have previewed! Clearly we paid for our two to ......'

blackcat86 · 27/11/2018 15:36

From my experience (I'm 32) most people get lessons for their 17th birthday - generally 10 or 20 are gifted. Young people are then expected to pay for the rest from the part time jobs that most have whilst at college. Most people had 1-2 lessons a week from 6months to months depending on how quick they took to it.

Lancelottie · 27/11/2018 15:36

DS did it off four lessons...
...and a lifetime spent obsessing about cars, doing online vehicle simulators, and driving the family car 300 miles each way (supervised, and via the back roads) to visit friends, so had racked up quite a few hundred miles and many, many hours before ever taking a lesson.

Ozziewozzie · 27/11/2018 15:36

My 21 yr old pays for her own. She’s had a job since 15 and is now at uni. She also pays for her mobile gym etc. She offered happily. We get her stuff when she needs it, ie plug in heaters for her uni room etc.
My 17 doing a levels, has a weekend job and he saved up himself. Bought 10 lessons for £300. Once they are done, we will help whilst he’s a college.
As long as our kids are applying themselves we support them where needed. If it’s not needed they are happy to. We don’t have much spare money and have 5 kids, so we try not to set the bar too high, especially with mobiles, gym fees, etc to pay for.

user1466783975 · 27/11/2018 15:37

I pay for one week,my ex pays the next and then 17yr old son pays. It's £39 for an hour and a half. Son has a gardening job and has saved nearly two grand over the last year or so and he will have to buy his first car. He will receive some money on his 18th birthday and that will pay insurance.
I know other parents help out more,but I think he will appreciate things more and it's given him something to work towards

Amaaboutthis · 27/11/2018 15:39

We will pay and plan to buy and insure a car for them to share

MadisonAvenue · 27/11/2018 15:39

We paid for half of our older son's lessons as he was working part time through sixth form. The younger one couldn't find a p/t job (he's at college) so he had a block of lessons for his 17th Birthday, another block for Christmas and we ended up buying another block too. He also had money from his grandparents for some which took him up to his test, which we also paid for and which he failed. Another block took him up to his second test, which he failed again. He finally passed after 60 lessons and three tests.

We paid for half of the insurance for each, they bought their cars from savings that'd been built up over the years for them. We've ended up paying for a few repairs and new tyres though. Thankfully the younger one now has a part time job and can afford to run his car. We're having to nag him a bit though as he's driving unnecessary miles and is on target to exceed the number of miles allowed on his insurance.

TheFairyCaravan · 27/11/2018 15:42

We paid for our two to learn to drive and we paid for their first years insurance.

We live very rurally so it was better for everyone that they learnt and I'm disabled so sometimes I needed them (still do) to cart me or each other about.

BigSandyBalls2015 · 27/11/2018 15:45

We paid for DD to have lessons starting on her 17th birthday. £18 a lesson if you block booked 10 at a time. She only ended up having 12 lessons before passing her text. We did buy a little run around for her though and took her out in that for hours every weekend. That's the key I think, rather than loads of lessons.

BigSandyBalls2015 · 27/11/2018 15:47

The difference these days is that most 17 year olds haven't got much money - perhaps a minimum wage part time job, most are still at college/6th form. Whereas I had been working full time for a year by then.

mrsm43s · 27/11/2018 15:53

I'm intending to pay for the children's driving lessons when they turn 17, probably as a birthday present.

I won't be encouraging them to buy a car at that age, though, as generally I don't think it's needed, and they are better off to wait until they start work to be car owners. I would expect that we will pay for them to be insured on our 2nd (runaround) car, though, which will presumably help them build up some no claims and bring their insurance costs down.

ChairinSage · 27/11/2018 15:54

DD1 is 17. We agreed that we'd for the first 10 lessons, first theory test and first driving test. She's got a Saturday job so used her own funds to top up the lessons but passed first time.

We also did pay as you go learner insurance on my car once she needed road practice rather than teaching leading up her test.

martinidry · 27/11/2018 15:55

My children will pay for their own lessons if they want to learn to drive.
It seems that in comparison to majority of Mumsnet members I don't place such an importance on choosing to drive and owning a car.

empmalswa · 27/11/2018 16:45

It seems that in comparison to majority of Mumsnet members I don't place such an importance on choosing to drive and owning a car.

I never did either, up until recently it wasn't such an important part of job requirement. Nowadays even a waiting job in our local Whitbread run place specifies driving license in the 'must haves'

TeenTimesTwo · 27/11/2018 20:07

martini I think it partly depends on where you live and public transport.
If you live in eg London or Edinburgh then you probably don't 'need' to drive.
if you live in a village in Wiltshire that gets one bus a day or whatever there will be more need.
Similarly if desired job is well served by public transport, less need.
If desired job is at a country hotel in the middle of the New Forest, then a car might seem more necessary.

I also think there is a difference between learning to drive and owning a car. I think learning to drive is a really useful thing to do, and I consider it to be a 'life skill'. Actually owning a car depends on finances and need.

Original poster

hansolosmum · 27/11/2018 22:48

Looks like i'd better start saving then. Do I have to buy them the car too?

OP posts:

donajimena · 27/11/2018 22:57

hans no you don't have to buy them anything. I plan to pay for licence and a block of 10 lessons. I'll pay for one lot of tests. The rest is up to them.

BackforGood · 27/11/2018 23:00

Generally the younger you are when you start learning the quicker you learn. It’s very possible for most 16-18s who love cars to learn and pass in 10-15 ‘1 hour a week’ lessons.

I think that is very unusual these days. I know a LOT of young people who have passed over the last 5 yrs or so, and none of them have done it on that few lessons.

OP - of course you don't. It will depend on your circumstances. On your finances, on how many dc you need to be fair to, on how much them driving will save you transporting them about, on all sorts of things.
We have givne each of ours a "Voucher" for their 17th birthdays that they can cash in when they've got the means to pay for the rest. They've all earned from PT jobs in the 6th form and used it to pay for the rest of their lessons / their licenses / their tests, and then to start to save towards their first insurance.
I know many young people who haven't driven straight away after their test, but who were ready, and who were able to put it on CV, etc when applying for graduate jobs, for example.
I think if you can't drive, you really, really limit yourself, so I'd really encourage my dc to learn if they hadn't been dead keen themselves anyway. However, I also think it is important they understand how long they have to work to earn enough to pay for a lesson or pay for their insurance - makes them think about the 'value' of driving sensibly, etc.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Swipe left for the next trending thread