When your child begins to learn how to drive, a certain milestone is passed. Now, the responsibilities you have taught them throughout childhood will come to fruition. You hope this means that overall, they will act as good, competent and decent actors in everything they attempt to do. When it comes to road safety, this will perhaps be one of the most intense indicators of how well you have achieved this.
However, even after they pass their driving test with flying colors, there are always small lessons to teach them. But what should every caring parent pass onto their child in order to ensure they follow the rules of the road with a care necessary to enjoy a healthy lifetime career of driving?
To start with, you can begin here:
The carefully curated environment of the driving teacher and test adjudicator will often give way to full road autonomy after your child has passed their test and achieved their license. This means that from then on, the open road and all the potential difficulties they might experience are now their responsibility to handle in full. The best thing you can teach your child to help them overcome this issue is the art of stress management. This means ensuring they understand the importance of patience, of counting to ten in stressful situations, and to resist the urge to lash out when a dangerous driver impedes their ability to stay safe on the roads.
You can do this by discussing crash statistics with them and discussing how they feel road rage may have contributed to that number. You can come up with strategies to help them de-stress, such as breathing well and thinking before reacting. You can also lead by example and help them witness a calm and collected driver no matter where you take them. These skills are imperative for any new road user to learn, and will contribute to the net safety of all road users sharing the space.
While someone taking their test will need to list the various functions of the internal car, a stringent examination of all car parts and how they interrelate is not always considered to be the most pressing thing for a pass mark. This means that it falls to you, the veteran driver, to relate some of this information to your child. Using the model of car they purchase and the manual, head through the major sections and help them understand how the certain components operate and benefit one another. If you’re not sure of this yourself, consider it a perfect learning opportunity for the both of you!
Perform simple maintenance tricks, such as resetting the brakes with a brake bleeder tool, check for oil and learn how to replace a tyre. These are the very basic considerations necessary. Also, teach them how to start the car using jumper cables, and practice general safety of maintenance. Have them leaf through their financial agreements and make them fully understand the benefits of staying perfectly aware of the costs of operating a vehicle. Also, ensure they know the lights of their dashboard to perfection, and can nail a potential issue the moment it surfaces.
After you become able to support your child after they pass their test, you will find they bring along these positive attitudes and become a much more trustworthy driver than they might have been.
