In my last post I mentioned a few sobering statistics re: new teen drivers, states GDL’s and some insurance questions to ask about before your teen gets their learner’s permit.

It doesn’t matter if you teen is homeschooled or in a traditional school setting, determining your ground rules ahead of time will ease much of the tension that is inherent when your child becomes a new driver. The old adage, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, applies.

Here are some ideas & questions to get the discussion ball rolling:

• What car will your child use?
• Will you buy him or her a car or allow them to buy one?
• Who will pay for gas, insurance, maintenance, registration, etc.?
• Will they be required to have a job to support their new “habit” before getting a license?
• How much experience/drive time will your teen need to have before others can ride with them (siblings and/or friends?)
• Where will they be allowed to drive? Must there be a destination, i.e. to & from work, church, sports events, volunteer work or can they drive without a destination?
• What will the consequences be for a speeding ticket? An accident where they are at fault?
• Can they drive after dark? Will there be a curfew?
• Can they use the car whenever they want or will they need to get permission?
• How will you/they handle distractions: other passengers, cell phone use, music, eating while driving?

It is vitally important that your teen understand that driving is a privilege, not a right, and that failure to observe the ground rules of safe driving can have serious financial consequences for mom and dad and the young driver. Most importantly is their understanding, that a car can kill or maim people and destroy property.

Once you have discussed the many head-spinning considerations, one of the very best things you can do to help your teen become a safe & responsible driver is to draw up a contract that clearly defines rules, expectations and consequences with your teen. One of the very, very best contracts I’ve seen can be found here. I strongly encourage you to print it out and give it careful thought.The State of Maine has also put together a contract worth taking a look at.

Well, I guess that’s enough to chew on for now!

Next time I’m going to deviate from my original plan & throw in something extra: other steps you can take to keep your child safe as a new driver – I can do that, ‘cause it’s my blog.

Sue

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Home Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.