Is My Teen Ready to Drive?

Last week I took my teen daughter to the Drive It Home show hosted by the Allstate Foundation and National Safety Council.  The show started off with a fun comedy skit that made us laugh.  As the actresses played out several scenes my teen and I could see ourselves in the exact same situations.  The mom would freak out and yell at the daughter as she was making small mistakes or sometimes even raise her voice before the mistake happened.  The daughter was beyond nervous and absolutely hated practicing driving with her mother.  Sounds exactly like my teen and I.  I instantly felt guilty while watching these skits play out before my eyes.  We just laughed because I’ve never denied not having patience with teaching my teen to drive, that’s the main reason I put her in drivers ed.

I learned at the Drive It Home show that drivers ed is not near enough.  I can actually attest to that myself with just seeing how little my teen knew and understood last summer after completing her driving course.  Somethings just take practice and more practice to learn fully.  Driving is one of them, it takes a lot of experience to be comfortable behind the wheel.

Did you know that 43% of Texas parents do not even realize that the biggest safety risk to their teens is parked outside their home.  Many parents believe that risk-taking is the primary cause of crashes, when inexperience is the real issue.

During the comedy skit they shared some shocking and unsettling statistics with us.  I love how they delivered the information to the crowd because it truly stuck and wasn’t ignored by my teen.  Once the comedy part was over they had several speakers come up on stage to share their stories.  One gentleman had become a public advocate for teen driving safety after his son was killed in a car accident two years ago.  As the man shared his story my teen cried.  The man’s son did not technically do anything wrong to cause his wreck, unfortunately he just did not have adequate experience to handle a situation in order to save himself.  That’s the scariest part.  Knowing that if his dad was driving most likely he would have survived.  I can not imagine the grief.

Designed by parents for parents the Drive It Home show has an interactive website filled with resources for parents and teens.  The first year of driving is the most dangerous year of any teen’s life.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.