Rural Teens: Who Funds Driving Lessons?

[U53rName]

Not learning to drive isn’t an option where we live, unfortunately. Who should fund driving lessons? If parents, how many, or an indefinite amount? (We both have good jobs, so it wouldn’t affect our family budget.)

If you lived in a town or city where your child had non-driving options, I’d say your dh was right, but you have chosen to live in a location where your child needs to be driven around and I gather you’d like them to pass so they can start driving themselves. So given all that, you pay if you can.

To think DH maybe thinks that DC will be more motivated to pass more quickly if they have a financial stake in it, rather than if unlimited lessons are on offer, DC might go on and on without a fire under their feet.

I think we should pay, because lessons (even 50%) is a lot for a young person to fund.

I think 10 lessons can be enough. 4 or 5 at the beginning. Then loads of time on the road with you getting experience - ideally every day driving to school and back etc - and then another 4 or 5 coming up to the test date.

I’m spending £70 a week on driving lessons at the moment, it’s an absolute killer!

You do if you can afford it. I wanted the kids to be saving for uni. They did not earn enough to pay for it!

I think it really depends on the learner.

10 lessons definitely wouldn’t have been enough for me to pass, and I had my own car (was early 20s rather than 17, though, if that makes a difference) and practiced as much as possible in between lessons.

If it’s a need versus a want I think you should pay at least half.

We’re not THAT rural! 😂 More like 10-15 minutes in a car, but no public transport.

I disagree with some posts about parents paying for everything as they have apparently shafted their offspring by living rurally. There are some advantages, and some people locally have no choice as that is where they were allocated LA housing.
Both DC were keen to learn to drive, we paid for an initial block of lessons, bought their first cars, and paid to insure them for practise whilst learning. In fact we kept paying for lessons after the initial block, but both passed quite quickly.
The agreement we had with them both was that they paid the running costs of their cars once they had passed their tests. They needed to have jobs to cover this, and they both did.
The first insurance premiums were paid from money they had been given since birth, and saved for them.
They both eventually took on part time jobs which had anti social hours, as they were better paid. They were able to get themselves there and back independently. I wouldn’t have wanted either of them getting public transport at those times.

You pay. Your H doesn’t think much of your DC if he thinks they’ll deliberately waste your money!

Haha. Yeah that was VERY rural. No pub, no shop. It was just us and the sheep! And about 20 other houses. But lovely nonetheless.

Public transport seems a massive issue rurally. But I guess there's little demand if everyone drives. But it must be pain if you're out drinking. Do you have good taxis to yours from the local towns?

DH and I taught our teens (plus a handful of lessons to fine tune). It's quite time consuming. If you'd rather they have lessons then you should pay.

It doesn’t matter where you live. Driving is a life skill - parents should always pay if they can afford it.

I don't think your DC will drag their heels to learn if you are paying, in my experience, they cannot wait to get their independence. We live rurally and my DD couldn't wait to be free of me! We paid and thankfully, she passed first time. The real killer is how long it is taking to get a driving test and keeping up lessons in the meantime so they have the best chance of passing.

Yes, good taxi coverage, but I’m teetotal, so I’m always the driver. 😂

Parents. You choose to live remotely where public transport is shit. You either ferry your kids everywhere or pay for their driving lessons.

I used to split the cost with my parents. But driving lessons were only £15 when I learned to drive....

Your child earns £40, which won't even cover one driving lesson, per week, and you think they can pay for their own driving lessons?

Your DH is being mean.

I don’t think any teenager will be thinking “well I could pass my test quickly but I’ll just chill out and rely on mum and dad instead”, most are absolutely desperate to drive and gain that extra independence and freedom.

Ah ha. You're sorted then! 😂 Thank you x

Parent should pay for driving lessons. Even more so if you live rurally and it’s essential. You chose where to live not your DC.

Driving lessons cost a fortune and realistically will take half of his wages. To be honest that would be even less of a motivation for me to learn at that age. If learning to drive takes on average a year i’d be tempted to postpone till I was earning more money and just use public transport

You do.

£40 a week wage is unfair to make them pay half of lessons, as it was your choice to live in a rural location.

Around here the norm is that parents pay for lessons and then a car (small, 2nd hand) for the 18th birthday 🤷🏻‍♀️