Equip Your Teen Driver

Among my many "careers", I once sold cars for a major retailer.  We had many policies that I was fond of, but a particular favorite was our method of keeping our customers busy while their paperwork was printing in the office.

When a person purchased a car from me, while we waited for the business office to get all the papers ready for them to sign, it was my job to take the customer back out to the lot (we pulled the car inside if it was raining), and go over a long checklist of items to make sure the customer knew how to operate every major bell and whistle on the car.  Things like turn signals, windshield wipers, headlights, brights, cruise control, etc.  It was not only a great way to kill twenty minutes, it was a wonderful way to make sure that the customer didn't drive off the lot into traffic and get smashed trying to find a button.

This makes me think of our own teenage drivers.  The one thing that a young person really needs to know before they operate a car is how to ... operate the car!

Take twenty minutes when you get Junior behind the wheel for the first time and teach him all the ins and outs.  You've got more than twenty minutes, but that may be about as long as he will listen, so focus on the critical stuff.  I recommend looking over the table of contents of your owner's manual for starters.  Anything that the manufacturer wants you to know, your kid should know.

Happy and Safe Driving!