Learner's Permit to Drive

Once Connor turned 15 in early May, he became eligible to get his learner's permit to drive after taking a short introductory course in driver's education. Jeff and I decided to do the at-home version of driver's ed, which requires the new driver to take online courses and the parents to be the driver's instructor on the road. Many of Connor's friends turned 15 well before Connor did, and one by one, they were all obtaining their learner's permit and taking the step of driving with their parents at any opportunity they got. But despite his many friends starting to drive, he wasn't showing much interest or engagement in the process at all. In fact, his big brother Kevin started to give him quite the hard time about it because he couldn't understand why Connor wouldn't be so ready and excited to get behind the wheel.

After a month of dragging his feet, Connor finally completed the first chapter of the driver's education and said he was ready to take the next step. That required a TON of paperwork and an appointment at the local Department of Public Safety office to get everything submitted. It was a big step for Connor and we were excited to see him reach this milestone.

One funny thing about visiting the local DPS office...they have this large Driver License sign hanging from the ceiling to give families an opportunity to take their kid's photo in commemoration of the big milestone. Many of our friends were posting these types of photos on social media, so of course, I asked Connor to pose with the sign so that I could take one of him. I didn't count on the fact that he's so tall, he had to bend down in order to fit into the picture window. Cracked me up!

Many of my friends were telling us stories about how their kids would get their learner's permit and then actually drive home for the first time from the appointment. That was NOT the case for us, ha! Connor has had very little driving experience at all, and as I mentioned earlier, he really hasn't even shown much interest in it at all. Jeff and I found ourselves pushing him a little bit to get him to take ownership of his responsibility to learn how to drive.

When Collin and Kevin were new drivers, they took driver's ed from a local business where they did most of their driving and learning. With our at-home model, Jeff agreed to be the primary instructor and teach Connor how to drive. We may have been a little naïve in this approach, and I for sure underestimated the time and commitment it would take to get a nervous and inexperienced driver up to speed on driving safety, especially when living very close to an interstate highway! Jeff has the ultimate patience with Connor and began doing a great job of educating him behind the wheel - first in our neighborhood and then slowly branching out for longer trips. He also began teaching him other areas of driving including parking and pumping gas. 

Unfortunately, I quickly learned that I do NOT possess the skillset it requires to be a calming presence and authoritative instructor in the passenger seat. In fact, my control-freak nature is the exact opposite of what Connor needed as he began driving. While he is doing fine as a new driver, I cannot handle that stress and have not-so-graciously bowed out from the instructor job, ha!

As I write this post, Connor has about 10 driving hours under his belt so far and it still feels like we're a LONG way off from the confidence and experience he will need to be a safe driver in 7-8 months. Only time will tell!