PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT    

How can we help our children become better drivers?  Here is a list of some obvious and some, not so obvious, ways.  As parents, we can  embark upon our children's new driving privilege more proactively, versus reactively. Thus, we can empower our young drivers to anticipate and react to road conditions, weather and traffic situations in a more "mature" way.  Let's not wait until we get that phone call that our child has been in an accident.  Knowledge and experience are powerful tools.

1. Constantly enforce the laws of your state and those personalized family rules of the road you have determined to be important.
2. All children mature at different rates, so just because they have reached the legal driving age, assess their ability to take on this huge responsibility.   In the back of your mind always be thinking that driving is a privilege and not a right of passage.
3. Don't rely on police officers to enforce the laws.  Parents are the true licensing agents.
4. Start educating your children with regards to the importance of driving safe.  Be a good role model.  Correlate driving education with sex  and alcohol education - start young.   Don't show your frustration to your child when you are following granny who is going under the speed limit.  Remind yourself that granny is driving the best that she can based on her age, reflexes, etc.
5. Erase the mentality of  fast and furious.  "Black Box" technology is not only for our air traffic transportation, but also for our cars. This black box can record a cars motion and inform parents what a vehicle has done moment to moment.  The cost is $300.00 and it is a great investment.  You will be able to download information and monitor seat-belt use, speed, hard braking and making sharp turns.   Boy won't the kids be surprised by our clairvoyant knowledge.
6. Drive with your child 50 miles while they have their permit, even if you are only accountable for 25 hours. Keep a log of driving times.  Write down your child's driving strengths and weaknesses.  Discuss them at the end of each driving experience.  Remember carefully choose your words and earn their respect.  Admit your driving errors throughout the years and what you would do differently.
7. Insist on a "Certified Driving Contract" before your child gets their driver's permit. The certifiable aspect of the contract isn't exactly clear, but it sounds good and looks good on paper.  This way they will know the driving expectations and consequences of breaking the contract rules.  A piece of paper may be more powerful than a bunch of words to our children.   Don't we all fall deaf to someone in the family at some time in our lives.  Let's test their "visual memory".
8. Promote good seat-belt usage. Ask them daily if they wore their seat belt to constantly reinforce this behavior and in most states "the law".   Don't forget to put yours on, because they will be watching.
9. Limit night driving. A good rule of thumb for 16 year olds is 9pm the first year and then 10pm when they turn 17.  Sorry, folks, after 18 not much we can do.  You will hear a lot of grumbling and even see some oppositional behavior.  Ongoing reminders that your interest in their driving is because you love them and you want to do everything you can to make sure they make it to adulthood.
10. Forbid drinking and driving.  I know this is one of those restrictions that our  kids  "already know" , but sometimes peer pressure and the absence of an adult figure can make our kids "forget".   There are even times we the designated driver (DD) decides that they want to have just a drink or two.  Well, 4 or 5 or more drinks later and they are still the DD and they are going to drive our children home.  Remember that these kids have not developed a tolerance for drinking so even one drink is toooo much! 
11. Don't rely on the school to teach your child how to drive.  Parents have always been the primary teacher in our children's lives. Let's not slow down. We are almost there. 
12. No cell phone usage while driving.  I know this is going to be a hard one.  The advances of technology are awesome, but when it comes to inexperienced drivers using these handy little tools while driving,  it could be a matter of life and death.  Our children are even text messaging their friends and reading texts while they drive! It is easy to determine when the cell phone is used through the monthly cell phone statements and you can check on-line anytime you want to, even when the little one's are out driving, to see if they are using their phones. 
13. Listening to music is one of the greatest pleasures while driving.  However, looking for Cd's, changing Cd's while driving can be very hazardous for our young drivers.  Insist that your child pick out the CD they want to hear before they start driving and not to change a CD while driving.  One second with their eyes off the road could mean big trouble.
14. Know the safest and best route when traveling to a new, unchartered territory.  There are numerous resources on our PC that can give us specific directions.  One of them is www.mapquest.com .  Spend a minute and show them this website, and more  What is new technology for a lot of us, is old stuff for our children.  More often than not, they will have already used the site. 
15. Do not allow your child to have a passenger in the car for 3 months even if your state laws don't forbid this.  After 3 months allow a sibling or other young family members to ride as passengers.  After 6 months of driving with no accidents or tickets, ponder the thought of allowing one friend to ride along for the next 6 months.  When your child has driven for a year, assess their driving skills, emotional maturity and make a decision as to what you  think would be the safest for your child.
16. DO NOT ALLOW  your child to drive with someone who hasn't driven for at least 6 months.  You may even want to restrict particular friends or even take a ride with the driver to decide if  you will  let your child ride with them.  We spend less and less time with our kids as they get older, take the opportunity to get to know the friends a little bit more. 
17. Before you buy a car for your teenage driver do your homework.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conducts safety crashes and recommends what  vehicles inexperienced drivers should not be driving.  More on this subject on this web-site......
18. Girls, get up 10 minutes earlier in order to have time to put your make-up on.  Driving and putting on make-up is not a good idea.  Keep your multi-tasking abilities from behind the wheel.
19. Bumper sticker hotline service helps parents moniotr young motorists,  For details visit www.reportmyteen.com .