When my daughter was 14 or so, we were at our cabin. She wanted to drive. We had a fairly new Jeep Cherokee, she took the wheel and headed through our gate, 12 foot opening. Gets a brain lock and hits the left 6 inch post, busts it off at grade level and bends the metal gate. She ran out of the jeep in tears and blamed me for letting her drive. I put up new post, the bent gate still worked so I put back on.
Fast forward 35 years or so. We are at the cabin with my daughter and family. I was outside with my about 13- year-old granddaughter. I showed the granddaughter the bent gate and told her to go ask her mother how that bend got there. Daughter runs out of the cabin and took another piece out of me for letting her drive that day.
We had drivers ed class. It was like 4-6 weeks of classroom and then you got your permit. Then you were assigned to a group of 3 based on your birthdate. Had to have so many hours with an instructor (mine was our Soph English teacher, who would just tell us "drive to such and such, then turn around and come back" and then catch a nap up front on the drive). If you graded out above a certain level you got skip the driving test and only had to pass the written one month after your 16th birthday.
I was driving to school for weight training and open gym at 14. Nobody cared I was driving, they only cared that I showed up and did the work.
Thanks for attending my TedTalk
When I was in high school, they had driver's ed in the summer. I got an A and my girlfriend got a B. It's the only B she had her entire high school career, everything else was an A. She ended up being valedictorian and was seriously worried for two years that that B would kill that goal. She was Asian American . . .
They don't do the high school driver's ed thing in Ohio. So, we had to pay for our daughter's training. I was going to do it myself, but she scared the living daylights out of me, and I wasn't patient enough to handle it with her. 😉 I've taught many officers how to drive ships, but they're college graduates, not 15-year-olds.
Because I got an A in Driver's Ed I didn't have to take a physical driver's test for my first license. In fact, the only time I ever had to take one was when I was stationed in Japan to get my international license. That was a little tough because I wanted a manual shift license and everything is on the wrong side of the car. Shifting with the left hand is awkward for an American driver. I passed, but it took far more concentration than it would have here.
When my daughter was 14 or so, we were at our cabin. She wanted to drive. We had a fairly new Jeep Cherokee, she took the wheel and headed through our gate, 12 foot opening. Gets a brain lock and hits the left 6 inch post, busts it off at grade level and bends the metal gate. She ran out of the jeep in tears and blamed me for letting her drive. I put up new post, the bent gate still worked so I put back on.
Fast forward 35 years or so. We are at the cabin with my daughter and family. I was outside with my about 13- year-old granddaughter. I showed the granddaughter the bent gate and told her to go ask her mother how that bend got there. Daughter runs out of the cabin and took another piece out of me for letting her drive that day.
When we moved from Columbus, OH to San Diego, I had to replace the dry wall in the back of the garage before we sold the house because my wife had broken it. She wasn't sure if she was totally in the garage until she hit the wall. She parked by braille.
Shifting with the left hand is awkward for an American driver. I passed, but it took far more concentration than it would have here.
My wife is from Africa (Zimbabwe) and they drive on the left side. Took me a minute to get used to being on the right side, shifting left handed (but with the same H pattern as an American car), and that right hand turns are the dangerous ones.
@aloha-hoosier we practiced a bit last night adn are off to bad start. she can't stop using her left foot on the brake
When my daughter was 14 or so, we were at our cabin. She wanted to drive. We had a fairly new Jeep Cherokee, she took the wheel and headed through our gate, 12 foot opening. Gets a brain lock and hits the left 6 inch post, busts it off at grade level and bends the metal gate. She ran out of the jeep in tears and blamed me for letting her drive. I put up new post, the bent gate still worked so I put back on.
Fast forward 35 years or so. We are at the cabin with my daughter and family. I was outside with my about 13- year-old granddaughter. I showed the granddaughter the bent gate and told her to go ask her mother how that bend got there. Daughter runs out of the cabin and took another piece out of me for letting her drive that day.
When we moved from Columbus, OH to San Diego, I had to replace the dry wall in the back of the garage before we sold the house because my wife had broken it. She wasn't sure if she was totally in the garage until she hit the wall. She parked by braille.
I hung a tennis ball from the ceiling. When it hits the windshield, she knows she's in far enough that the garage door will close.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
When we moved from Columbus, OH to San Diego, I had to replace the dry wall in the back of the garage before we sold the house because my wife had broken it. She wasn't sure if she was totally in the garage until she hit the wall. She parked by braille.
Same with my wife. I solved the problem before damage was done, though. I lag screwed a 2x4 onto the garage floor so she'd feel the front tire bump into it before the front bumper reached the wall.
@aloha-hoosier we practiced a bit last night adn are off to bad start. she can't stop using her left foot on the brake
I did teach her how to ride a bike without a lot of difficulty, but she was in grade school, not a teenager. Teenage girls are aliens and at least for my daughter it seemed to happen overnight. She was Daddy's little girl and Daddy was her hero who knew everything one day and some alien the next day and Daddy knew nothing. Now that she's in her early 30s, she's almost back to normal . . .
When we moved from Columbus, OH to San Diego, I had to replace the dry wall in the back of the garage before we sold the house because my wife had broken it. She wasn't sure if she was totally in the garage until she hit the wall. She parked by braille.
Same with my wife. I solved the problem before damage was done, though. I lag screwed a 2x4 onto the garage floor so she'd feel the front tire bump into it before the front bumper reached the wall.
I marked a spot on the side wall and said when your head is even with that, you're good. Didn't help. I actually banned her from parallel parking when we lived in Monterey, CA because she had rubbed the Goodyear Eagle tires on my car down to the point that one of them blew out on me. She didn't know she was close enough to the curb until the tires rubbed. 😐
Hooky's tennis ball hung from the ceiling trick sounds a lot easier to do than my two-by-four on the floor trick. I think I tried duct taping the board first, but it wouldn't stay put.
Race car driver. I like it@aloha-hoosier we practiced a bit last night adn are off to bad start. she can't stop using her left foot on the brake
Race car driver. I like it@aloha-hoosier we practiced a bit last night adn are off to bad start. she can't stop using her left foot on the brake
Teach her that heel toe shifting and turn her loose. Murt may raising the next Danica Patrick or Janet Guthrie!
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
Hooky's tennis ball hung from the ceiling trick sounds a lot easier to do than my two-by-four on the floor trick. I think I tried duct taping the board first, but it wouldn't stay put.
Tennis ball, rope, duct tape, staple gun. Easy peezy
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
Hooky's tennis ball hung from the ceiling trick sounds a lot easier to do than my two-by-four on the floor trick. I think I tried duct taping the board first, but it wouldn't stay put.
Tennis ball, rope, duct tape, staple gun. Easy peezy
You guys are too nice. Mine parks outside. At our first house she backed out of the garage and hit my truck.
@aloha-hoosier we practiced a bit last night adn are off to bad start. she can't stop using her left foot on the brake
What's wrong with that?
Divorce BEFORE you make any money! Do it quickly, do it often!