If your teen has reached the legal driving age, you may be wondering: Should you enrol them in a driving school or teach them yourself? Of course, teaching them yourself is the best option because it’ll save you money and allow you to bond with your teen, right? WRONG!
Below we will walk you through some of the reasons you should not be the driving instructor for your teen.
Why Learning from a Parent May Not Be Enough
You Are Not an Expert
Having several years of driving experience under your belt doesn’t mean you’re a professional driving instructor. Driving instructors have years of experience teaching other teens how to drive and become safer drivers. This means they know how to make complex techniques, road rules, and maneuvers more understandable. They’re also familiar with the day-to-day realities of teen driving, which enables them to equip your teen with the right defensive driving techniques.
They also have a set curriculum that encompasses both theoretical and practical situations. The curriculums are updated regularly to ensure they are at par with current driving skills and rules. There are also numerous tests to help identify and correct bad driving habits and ensure knowledge retention. These are the same skills and methods that will help your teen prepare confidently for their driving test.
Learning from a professional driving instructor also allows your teen to get comfortable behind the wheel in a calm, structured setting, something that can be hard to replicate when teaching as a parent.
Your Teen May Not Take Criticism Constructively
When you correct or criticize your teen during driving practices, they may take it as a personal slight. This can affect their confidence and ability to grasp important driving skills, making it hard for them to pass their driving test.
When professional driving instructors correct new drivers, they do it in a way that won’t trigger an emotional response or reduce the driver’s level of confidence behind the wheel. They’re trained to provide calm, objective guidance that helps the learner focus on improvement rather than mistakes.
If you’re a parent looking for guidance, here’s a useful read: What Is the Best Way to Teach a Teenager to Drive? Tips for Parents.
Instructors Offer Safer Driving Lessons
As a parent, you will probably use your car for training. During the training, you will be giving instructions from the passenger’s seat. And in case of an emergency, there may not be enough time to react quickly and prevent a fatal accident.
Driving school cars are usually mechanically equipped to deal with any minor or major issues that may occur during practice drives. Vehicles used by a professional driving instructor come with dual controls, which allows them to take over quickly if the learner makes a mistake.
Parents can also be overly careful that they fail to teach teens how to recognize and avoid potential hazards on their own. Instructors never miss any opportunity that can teach your teen how to stay safe on the road. Your kid will also learn how to tackle some of the most complex maneuvers, such as reverse parallel parking, merging safely, and maintaining awareness of other vehicles behind the wheel.
Bonus Log Book Hours
States require learner drivers to log in a certain amount of supervised driving practice. For example, in Victoria, your kid must have 120 hours of driving under a supervisor to get their Ps. This includes a minimum of 20 hours of driving at night.
Setting aside all these hours from your busy schedule can be tricky. But you don’t have to. All you need is to enrol your teen in a driving school, and the hours they’ll spend driving with the professional driving instructor will count towards their log book hours.
For more insight, you can also read Should I Record Logbook Hours With My Parents or an Instructor?.
Whether You’re Just Learning How to Drive or Want to Sharpen Your Driving Skills, We Got You!
If you’re in NSW, ACT, or VIC and looking to become a confident and competent driver, enrol in LTrent Driving School for safe, reliable, and cost-effective lessons. Our professional driving instructors are ready to walk with you every step of the way and help you feel at ease behind the wheel.
Contact us for more information about the Safer Drivers Course.
Book Driving Lessons today and take the next step toward confident, capable driving.
