I've Found The Best Time To Driving With Your Unlicensed Teenager...During Conference

I think I've found the perfect time to go driving with your teenager so they can accumulate hours and get their drivers license...

Conference weekend!

It's true--there's no better time to get in a car with your unlicensed teenager and have him/her practice the fine art of vehicle manipulation. Of course, if you don't live where we live, or in the surrounding states, you might not understand what conference weekend is. Twice a year our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (formally Mormon Church...) holds no worldwide church meetings. Instead, the leaders of the church gather in Salt Lake City and hold what's called General Conference. 

Saturday and Sunday five meetings lasting two hours each are held. They begin Saturday at 10am local time and end 4pm local time. Since these meetings are broadcast on TV, radio, and the internet, most of my neighbors stayed inside this afternoon. My daughter and I climbed aboard the '04 Pontiac Vibe and spent the next hour driving the roads of Davis County. We climbed mountains and drove the flats. We saw deer and cranes. 

And there were hardly any other cars on the road with us.

Conference weekend has its obvious drawbacks when it comes to driving practice. It only happens twice a year. The goal is to get my daughter her license in a matter of weeks, not months. Still, it would be fun to go driving with her again next fall, the first weekend of October. She'll be an improved driver then (the more you do a thing the better you become at that thing...). And I always enjoy spending time with my kids.

Let's hope she'll feel the same way.

Putting On The Driver's Education Instructor Hat...

I have friends who live in California. They have four kids. Where they live people look at then in awe because they have so many children. We have four kids. When they're little you do the things parents of young children do--you help then get dressed. You help them with their meals. You teach them right and wrong (or try to, anyway...). 

But when they get older, you no longer have to worry about then dressing themselves (for the most part, anyway...), feeding themselves, or the other things they do all by themselves. But if you keep them safe, and continue to feed them, eventually they reach the age where they want to learn how to drive.

Several years ago our oldest transitioned from non-driver to driver. I even took a video of the event. Yesterday our daughter got her chance behind the wheel for the first time. For a few reasons, we picked up a car from my in-laws that they no longer use. My daughter and I drove down to the west side of town and drove around a nearly-empty parking lot. She did a great job, even though she herself admitted that we never got above ten m.p.h. As a parent, that's absolutely fine.

I don't remember my mom teaching me how to drive. I remember my brother taking on that responsibility. We went to the west side of town, but we drove on the roads. I didn't hit anything. I counted that as a success. Now, it's my turn to not only wear my "Father Hat," but "Driver's Education Instructor Hat" too. So far, the hat fits well.

Daughter And I, Driving Home...

 

The first show I did with my son was at Christmas, 12 years ago. Now, my son is too involved with other projects--mostly school--so for the past few shows, it's been my daughter and me. 

My daughter is of the age where she loves listening to the radio and to songs that, well, I don't really know many of them. I know some (I'm not that old...). And when we go to and from rehearsals, we crank the radio.

There are several stations so I let my daughter choose the songs we listen to--for the most part. There are some songs, and some stations we try to avoid. I'm glad no one can see us as we drive home because we're usually both singing as the top of our lungs. We get kind of charged up from rehearsals.

 

All those years ago I don't remember the radio blaring when my son and I went to and from the shows and rehearsals. We usually talked about stuff. Of course he was only 5 back then. I wonder if he remembers those trips... I wonder if my daughter will remember the nights when we drove home in the dark with the radio blasting to Adele. I hope it's something I never forget.