Baby, You Can Drive My Car

Since getting her Driver’s Learning Permit on Tuesday, The Teenager has been behind the wheel at every available opportunity which is a good thing since she is required to log a certain number of hours prior to receiving her actual driver’s license. This is proving to be a learning experience for all of us; the first lesson being that grasping the passenger seat door handle and stomping on the imaginary passenger-side brake serve no purpose save for irritating The Teenager. You can file that little nugget away for future reference if you like.

Otherwise, she is doing really well. Wednesday afternoon, she drove to her Grandparents house and the 10 minute drive only took half an hour. That was totally fine because it’s obviously more important to me that she feel comfortable while driving than it is that we get somewhere in a reasonable amount of time. Unless, of course, I should ever require her to drive me to the Emergency Room after accidentally opening a vein in a freak kitchen accident or something equally life threatening; in that case I might like her to hurry the fuck up.

Last night, Hugh let her drive to volleyball practice and she has driven to school the past two mornings. Her skills are coming along nicely and, if we can break her of the habit of stomping on the brakes at intersections, we will be golden. As an aside, seat belts really do snap you back in your seat in the event that the brakes are applied aggressively which is comforting to know and, painful to experience.

Anyway, our next challenge will be to teach her how to drive in traffic. I suggested that we apply the Sink-or-Swim method and simply throw her onto the interstate while in Denver this weekend. Not surprisingly, that suggestion was met with a certain degree of resistance. Maybe next time.