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Driving Mom crazy

Posted Aug 17, 2010 by Beth Gaddis

Updated Oct 7, 2010 at 02:02 PM

Just this morning, a colleague was talking about taking his daughter to get her learner’s permit.  Guest blogger Martha Nusbaum knows first-hand how scary the experience can be.

“Here you go, honey.  Now that you’re 15, here’s a loaded gun.  I’ve barely scratched the surface on showing you how to use it.  Now go out and point it at people and try your best not to kill yourself or anyone else!” 

That was precisely how I felt when my teen was learning how to drive.  Dramatic?  Perhaps.  But teaching my newly turned teen to drive (on a car with a stick shift of all things, what was I thinking?)  was probably the most stressful, gut-wrenching parenting experience to date.  (Note: Parents of small children are not advised to continue reading.  You’ve got way too much time ahead and way too many age-appropriate things to worry about in the meantime!) 

It’s not that Annie was a bad driver. (Forget about the time she was not supposed to be driving on Fowler Avenue to Cold Stone Creamery and rear-ended another car in Dad’s truck.)    And let’s not ignore the fact that her dad actually did most of the teaching.  But when you think about the single most important thing in your life learning to maneuver a 2,000 plus pound machine, while surrounded by other fast-moving 2,000 plus machines driven by lunatics and (God forbid) other new, teen drivers, well, you get the picture. 

Of course, everyone learns to drive eventually – and they even live to tell about it!  Annie has been driving for almost three years.  She will have had her license for two years on Halloween, of all days.  She is now a pretty capable, careful driver thanks not only to her father, but also from experiencing airbags, a sore neck and citations from the accident. (Did I mention we got sued by the guy she rear ended?) 

Now when she drives off to school in the mornings I don’t wring my hands in fear and rush to call her cell phone if I hear ambulance sirens in the distance.  I still breathe a subtle sigh of relief when I learn she made it to her destination on slick, rainy days.  I’ve asked myself, was the worry and stress over the top?  I wasn’t sure until her cool-as-a-cucumber father confessed one time that he felt the very same anxiety.  In retrospect, this parenting experience turned out just fine in the end.  I learned that your stomach lining can grow back.  And my teen will most likely get to and from her destination without taking out a few mailboxes along the way.  Now, if only we could convince our USAA rep …