Driving lessons..a life skill or luxury?

[Uurrjb]

Hi do you view driving lessons like swimming lessons?

You learn from parents and have a top up from paid lessons to improve (obviously you have to have formal lessons from an instructor for driving and the f you have a spare but of cash for a weekly swim club)
trying to work out…when your teen is ready to learn to drive do you pay like you would for additional swim lessons when little (cause you had a toddler and a baby and life etc) and it’s an an essential life skill to swim (and you can take them out to practice)

or is it a birthday present as it’s a lifestyle choice and it’s actually quite expensive

I am in the USA so would consider it an essential lifeskill due to lack of other forms of transportation. My parents died when I was a teen and I didn't learn until after I had my second child, so I have made sure all 3 of our kids are driving before they leave home, along with other lifeskills. Our youngest was legally driving at 16 and at 17 drives himself everywhere including into a large city for school each day on two very busy freeways.

I think something is a luxury if it’s not within reach of everyone. And that £1500 cost to cover lessons, licence, tests and insurance just for practising as a learner, places it out of reach for many families. This means their kids won’t learn until they are financially independent.

There are lots of things like this that many would consider life skills but many don’t get to do because if cost - swimming lessons, having a bike, other activities. But not having access to driving as a teen affects more people because the costs are bigger.

I wouldn’t say not having. Parents provide driving lessons is a deprivation - that’s too extreme. But I remmeber at uni and in the first years of a job noting that most people who were doing degrees and in grad jobs could drive and those who hadn’t had the chance, just found things more difficult - such as possible limits on the job or location they could take. I noticed it then. I also noticed it when I had small children and a couple of people I knew couldn’t drive - said they’d never had the money to do it - and were more isolated as new mums I terms if going out with others, even though people might offer lifts. It’s not necessarily a big deal but again one of those things that splits teens into those who are more privileged and those who are less. Often the kids and families don’t even notice. Many see it totally as the. Or m even on this thread and struggle to conceive if the fact that it’s beyind reach for lots of families, and instead just see it as a life skill that’s rely all families provide ir should provide for their kids.

Mixture of both with mine, they paid some I paid some, Christmas, birthday present lessons and took them out for extra practice,2 passed first go,one second (he only failed first on hesitation)

A few family members have health/physical difficulties that mean they are unable to drive.

One has a free bus pass, disabled persons railcard and uses taxis when needed.

Another lives in a city, walks and gets public transport everywhere, travels all over the country.

A third lives in Greater London, manages happily with walking to the local shops and getting the bus back, and takes a taxi to hospital appointments.

I can drive, but there have been plenty of occasions in my life when I haven’t owned one, including with young DC. Yes, it’s sometimes a little bit more inconvenient, but I managed fine walking, using public transport, getting the occasional taxi.
I do use my car for work now, DH never has though (and has always earned more than me!)

Dd has the same health issue as relatives, and is unlikely to be able to drive, however much she would like to, and however much money we throw at it. That’s life, isn’t it? I know she’ll be ok - to be honest the odd taxi here and there is probably still cheaper than running a car anyway. But it’s a shame so many people view it as a personal failing if you don’t drive.

Life skill, but we are rural here. Long way from bus and further from train.
However, being rural means that you drive tractors in fields before you drive cars, thus your teenager's reversing-with-a-loaded-trailer skills are slightly better than reversing a car into a parking space. This of course means less lessons required, as they only need to know the mechanics of what the examiner will look for + some familiarity with the car and the route: 10 lessons = pass with no minors.

Life skill, we bought cars for both of them at 17 and paid for lessons and tests. Expensive as they were just a year apart but it was a priority for us and we had saved for it.
My mum couldn’t afford it when I was younger and I wasn’t earning enough to do it myself until quite a few years later.
It’s great now, dds have a choice of where they work and aren’t relying on us for lifts or stuck using unreliable public transport.

Life skill. Needed for my career.

I’d say again, what about all the families who can’t afford to pay for their teens to learn? It’s a luxury they can’t afford isn’t it? Yes, it a basic and really valuable skill and makes huge amounts of aspects of adult life easier or even possible, but lots of adults never learn and lots do t learn until they are later 20s or 30s due to cost.

If you did a survey of 19/20 year olds who can drive, there would be a large reflection of their backgrounds. In some areas, most late teens will have learned and in other areas, very few. As has been said above, you’re looking at something in the region of £1200-£1800 for most to have some lessons, tests and be insured whilst a learner to get more practice. Lots of families have nothing like that and many teens won’t be earning that kind of money whilst at school or college or have other stuff they want to spend it on.

It is a life skill however, my daughter moved a couple of months after starting driving lessons to live in London.
Transport is excellent and where she lives is on street parking only yet there's nowhere to park as many homeowners have two cars ( in an area full of terraces ) so even visiting her is a nightmare.
She has no need to drive nor can afford to.