Teaching Kids to Drive

 I’ve heard teaching kids to drive can be very frightening. I can see where the fear would come from. For me, the fear comes from having kids who have had too much experience behind the wheel before they are old enough to drive. I think I’ll still take the “too much experience” option!

We started school a few weeks ago and are still adjusting. You know how much I love summer. I was browsing through some of pictures I took over the summer and noticed my kids do a lot of driving! No, my kids are not old enough to have drivers licenses.

One of the great things about living on a farm is that our kids get to work all the time. Sometimes you need one extra driver to shuffle you from the loader back to the truck or somewhere else. You look around and the only person available to give you a lift is the under aged driver who is with you.  Behold a new driver is born!

I asked my littlest to load some weeds in his Gator and go dump them in the manure pile. That’s where I throw everything I don’t want anymore! He was all kinds of excited about driving to dump the weeds. Then he “forgot” to take them to the manure pile and dumped them in the borrow pit. Valuable driving lesson #1. Listen to your mother! #2. Don’t drive anywhere you can’t get back out of. You may end up pushing. #3. Pushing is not as fun as driving.

My middle child is definitely a middle child. He desperately wants to drive everything.  Since the oldest already knows how to drive everything it’s easier to just ask him to do it. My middle child is smart though. He knows if he volunteers to mow my Christmas tree sized weeds, I will let him drive! Valuable driving lesson #4. If your mother doesn’t want to do a certain driving job, you will likely get a chance to drive! (Mowing counts in little boys books as driving!)

If you wake up really early, and be extra quiet when leaving the house you might be able to drive the swather. Usually the oldest drives the swather. In fact, I can’t even tell you how many hours he spent driving it this summer. I like it when he’s in there. I know where he is and what he is doing! Anyway, the middle child figured out how to bump the oldest out of his job! Driving lesson #5. Being sneaky pays off!

He also remembered his brother complaining about how boring it is to swath by yourself. Naturally, he called me to see if I would come ride with him. We swathed for approximately 12 minutes while driving 3.7 mph. It was so fun! Driving lesson #6. When you are 10 it is more fun to drive if someone sees you do it!

This crazy guy knows how to drive everything. He prides himself on his semi driving skills, tractor driving skills, pick-up and trailer driving skills, his nunchuck skills. Just kidding on the nunchuck skills. Name that movie? One day he drove his friends motorbike while wearing his friends helmet. I would  have never bought that helmet. Driving lesson #7. Your friends will always have cooler driving accessories than you.

The other day I was driving home from town when my oldest begged me to let him drive. Of course not! You aren’t old enough, and you don’t have a license…and driving is fun! There is no way I’m letting him steal the driving from me! He got me back though. A few days later I was driving home when I passed him on the road. He didn’t even need to drive. I think he was living by the “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission” rule.  Driving lesson #8. Make driving a necessary part of every task even though it is not even remotely necessary!

Seriously, I’m so glad my boys are learning to drive one step at a time. I love how they start out in their toy Gators, then the four wheeler, the lawn mower, the loader, tractor, swather, pick-up and semi. It really does teach them gradually how to be good drivers. That is, as long as there isn’t any traffic!