Learning to drive

[Sjaja]

Did you ever let your teens practice with your car? (With you supervising them of course).

If so, did you get put the L plate and get them insured to drive on your car? (With the insurance being the learner's insurance).

[maudmadrigal]

DD is learning to drive at the moment, and yes, we are taking her out in our car to practice. We have L plates and she is named on the insurance as an additional driver (costing about an extra £300 a year - apparently this will go up considerably once she passes; she also has her own excess, which is double ours).

I can't lie - it's not a fun job supervising your learner driver!

[crazycrofter]

Dd had lessons for about a year and made very slow progress because for various reasons she didn't practice in our car. Then she went off to uni and her test was booked for the Feb. We didn't have access to the instructor's car, so she came home for a week and practised every day in our car, then took the test in our car - she passed (first time) and it was pretty much wholly due to that week of practice.

Ds (last few months) - we couldn't find an instructor, so we took him out ourselves in our car. It was terrifying! But it got easier. He watched lots of youtube videos on how to pass your test, but the one thing he lacked was driving test practice. Hence he failed twice before passing third time. However, I just view that as we paid £130 for him have two mock tests! It was cheaper than the £100s of pounds we paid on dd's lessons!

[Member786488]

My dd is out right now taking her (second) test and I am UNBELIEVABLY stressed waiting at home for the results. She’ll be so cross with herself if she fails as she’s a great little driver…

she’s had a years worth of lessons 🙄 but her dad’s taken over and she’s been going out with him daily and has got so much better, if I had a third child I wouldn’t bother with lessons after the first few tbh.

Her irritatingly lucky older brother had half a dozen lessons, booked a test his instructor said he wasn’t ready for, and passed 😬

[FawnFrenchieMum]

Not in our car but he bought his own cheap run around and we took him out in that regularly between his lessons.

[SoupDragon]

I have to say that I'm delighted that my car is automatic and DD is learning in a manual. The perfect excuse not to take her out!

I genuinely don t know how instructors do it.

[lemonyellows]

Mine is going to go to lessons only. I don't think my nerves could handle it 😂

[Chasingsquirrels]

Did you ever let your teens practice with your car? (With you supervising them of course).
yes, lots - once they"d had some lessons
If so, did you get put the L plate and get them insured to drive on your car? (With the insurance being the learner's insurance).
of course, it would be illegal not to do so if they are driving the car.

[BodenCardiganNot]

We took both of ours out in our car once they had completed about 6 lessons. Everywhere we went, they drove. They were on the insurance as named drivers and L plates on the car.

[taxguru]

Yes, my Mum taught me in our family car. I passed first time.

I taught our son in our family car. He passed first time.

A lot of it is confidence (both you and your child). My father tried to take me out a couple of times but it was a disaster as he was a nervous wreck constantly telling me to slow down, watch the pedestrian, etc etc whereas I was pretty confident and competent, but he didn't know that. It was the same with our son, when OH took him out, son said the same, it really put him off that OH was always on at him to watch things he'd already seen etc. I do think it's better on a semi-permanent one to one basis rather than different people.

The key is to start somewhere safe and remote with minimal (preferably no) other traffic such as an industrial estate in the evening or Sunday, or a supermarket/retail car park when it's closed. Get them used to "driving" the car, i.e. braking, acceleration, gear changes, steering, starting/stopping without stalling, etc without the worry of other road users. That's actually the pretty easy bit as it's just lots of practice. You can practice parking at this level too!

Once they can technically "drive" the car to a safe level, i.e. able to jam on the brakes if told to do so, and drive at such a speed as to not annoy other motorists (i.e. not at a snail's pace as stalling everywhere), then it's time to drive around other vehicles, such as minor roads, housing estates, etc. so they can start to get used to driving with others around, looking for road signs, road markings, etc.

After that, it's main roads, roundabouts, traffic lights, dual carriageways, etc., just avoid rush hour and school start/finish times when there are loads of idiots around.

After that, everything goes, even rush hour, traffic queues/congestion, school run times, etc. and then it's time for the test.

[taxguru]

@BodenCardiganNot

Everywhere we went, they drove.

That's a really good point. The more practice and experience the better. I remember my mother treated me like her personal chauffer and I did the same with our son. If we picked him up from school or the bus stop, I'd changeover and make him drive, same with going shopping, etc.

[MaloneMeadow]

It would be illegal if you didn’t display L plates and have them insured on a learner policy whilst practicing with you in your car. Absolutely don’t go without either of these.

DD had no practice outside of her driving lessons as my car would’ve been too big for her to learn in. This bothered her at the time as it seemed like a disadvantage but in hindsight it was actually a good thing. If there’s anything that’s going to damage a parent/teen relationship it’s giving driving lessons!! Leave it to the professionals. DD passed first time within 5 months after just 1 lesson per week with a really good instructor. It’s quality over quantity

[crazycrofter]

@MaloneMeadow that’s not universally true as there’s a few of us on here who taught our kids and still get on well with them! Actually it gave us more one to one time with ds. Lessons are also very expensive and out of range for some people.

Having done one of each - taught one ourselves and had one have lessons - I’d not use an instructor again unless things were going badly. But it is quite time consuming doing it yourself.

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

As soon as the instructor said he was ready to go out with us we took him out regularly. That was after about 5 hours of lessons. His gym was about a 10 minute drive with plenty of traffic lights, roundabouts and hills along the way so while it wasn’t a long drive there was plenty of different features.

At £30 an hour for lessons it saved us a fortune as he just needed to practice and get experience behind the wheel. It was nerve wracking to start with but you just have to stay calm and talk them through any tricky situations.

We got him insured as a learner on our smallest car which was really cheap compared to the cost once he’d passed his test!

[charliefair]

I'm not passenger material so mine had lessons only. DH doesn't have a licence anymore so he couldn't help.