As appeared in the Albuquerque Journal Rio Rancho/Westside sections 01/31/09
Child experts say it is important to make the most of the time you have with your children by taking opportunities wherever you can find them, including short car trips to the grocery store, mall or gas station? But what about when your oldest child is 15 and logging hours for her driver’s training score card and your 10 year old is along for the ride?
I know this is another one of those parental rite of passage stories where the ones who have gone before me are chuckling at the familiarity and the ones yet to experience are adding it to their list of angst-filled milestones to come.
As a parent of a child learning how to drive, at first you are excited to watch your adolescent back in and out of the garage ever so carefully. Then your anxiety level grows slightly as they move down the driveway and out onto the street. Your blood pressure adjusts to a new elevated level as they maneuver the traffic and stoplights on NM528 until finally you are forced to experience the heart stopping anxiety as they merge onto the southbound lanes of I-40 traffic at peak drive time. We carry a small vial of holy water in our car now.
Somehow teaching your own child how to drive a car brings back memories and the lessons your own parents taught you when the shoe was on the other foot. I remember one particular car trip telling my dad to run over a paper bag that was lying in the middle of the road. “Oh no, you never want to do that. You don’t know what is in it,” he corrected me. “It could be full of bricks,” he said pointing out the damage the car could incur. When he realized that reason didn’t get a rise out of us kids he added, “Or it could be full of kittens.” That remark elicited loud sympathetic squeals from the back seat and I in turn use the same story on my own daughter when I see her aim for an obstacle in the road.
“You make me nervous when you look out the back window, Mom,” says my anxious driver as she attempts to make a lane change. During our training trips as I call them, I do my best to remain calm and gently correct, offer suggestions and use my passenger side imaginary brake as little as possible, all the while getting mocked by the peanut gallery in the back seat.
Somehow getting behind the wheel instinctually makes the driver the DJ as well, but blaring Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child O’ Mine at 6:50 in the morning is just a little too much to take. Don’t call me old school though, I’m no softy. I remember cranking Won’t Get Fooled Again and Brown Sugar in my mother’s Chevy station wagon the very same way. Are my loafers and Levi’s showing? The conversation takes off on a music tangent and once again I am chastised for growing up with groups who called themselves ridiculous animal names like the Beatles, the Birds, the Turtles and the Monkees and take the reoccurring jab to my dated vocabulary from my ten year old, “I suppose you had their albums too, Grandma.”
Yes, car trips really are quality time spent with your children. They learn how backwards you were and you get to see the beautiful cycle repeating itself.
Quote of the Week: “Baby, you can drive my car. Yes I'm gonna be a star. Beep beep'm beep beep yeah.” – Drive My Car by The Beatles
Child experts say it is important to make the most of the time you have with your children by taking opportunities wherever you can find them, including short car trips to the grocery store, mall or gas station? But what about when your oldest child is 15 and logging hours for her driver’s training score card and your 10 year old is along for the ride?
I know this is another one of those parental rite of passage stories where the ones who have gone before me are chuckling at the familiarity and the ones yet to experience are adding it to their list of angst-filled milestones to come.
As a parent of a child learning how to drive, at first you are excited to watch your adolescent back in and out of the garage ever so carefully. Then your anxiety level grows slightly as they move down the driveway and out onto the street. Your blood pressure adjusts to a new elevated level as they maneuver the traffic and stoplights on NM528 until finally you are forced to experience the heart stopping anxiety as they merge onto the southbound lanes of I-40 traffic at peak drive time. We carry a small vial of holy water in our car now.
Somehow teaching your own child how to drive a car brings back memories and the lessons your own parents taught you when the shoe was on the other foot. I remember one particular car trip telling my dad to run over a paper bag that was lying in the middle of the road. “Oh no, you never want to do that. You don’t know what is in it,” he corrected me. “It could be full of bricks,” he said pointing out the damage the car could incur. When he realized that reason didn’t get a rise out of us kids he added, “Or it could be full of kittens.” That remark elicited loud sympathetic squeals from the back seat and I in turn use the same story on my own daughter when I see her aim for an obstacle in the road.
“You make me nervous when you look out the back window, Mom,” says my anxious driver as she attempts to make a lane change. During our training trips as I call them, I do my best to remain calm and gently correct, offer suggestions and use my passenger side imaginary brake as little as possible, all the while getting mocked by the peanut gallery in the back seat.
Somehow getting behind the wheel instinctually makes the driver the DJ as well, but blaring Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child O’ Mine at 6:50 in the morning is just a little too much to take. Don’t call me old school though, I’m no softy. I remember cranking Won’t Get Fooled Again and Brown Sugar in my mother’s Chevy station wagon the very same way. Are my loafers and Levi’s showing? The conversation takes off on a music tangent and once again I am chastised for growing up with groups who called themselves ridiculous animal names like the Beatles, the Birds, the Turtles and the Monkees and take the reoccurring jab to my dated vocabulary from my ten year old, “I suppose you had their albums too, Grandma.”
Yes, car trips really are quality time spent with your children. They learn how backwards you were and you get to see the beautiful cycle repeating itself.
Quote of the Week: “Baby, you can drive my car. Yes I'm gonna be a star. Beep beep'm beep beep yeah.” – Drive My Car by The Beatles
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