It only seems like yesterday that I learnt to drive. Oh how I hated every minute of it. I swear I would spend my whole lesson with my toes curled right up, how I actually drove I really don’t know. Back when I passed you only had to take the practical test, theory tests came in later. My first test was abysmal and I truly deserved to fail. My second was better and should have passed but one small mistake made it not to be. Finally on my third test a few days before my 21st birthday I finally passed.
Now 20+ on and I feel like I am reliving the learning again as my eldest is learning to drive. When she is in the car I have to drive properly, you know like your supposed to and not the lazy ways we get into. OMG it’s so hard to drop the lazy ways and drive like you just learnt.
After I passed my driving test my boyfriend of the time let me drive his car a few days later. Off to town I went all proud that I didn’t have to do the normal bus route that took forever through every village on route. I parked far enough away from town that I couldn’t park without an audience as parking was all new to me. I wandered around town and when I finished I went home. Later that evening the boyfriend came home and asked after my day. Then asked where the car was. It was still in town. I got so carried away with shopping I forgot I had the car and got the bus home. I didn’t drive again regularly for 10 years. Having a ten-year gap really bashed my driving confidence.
When my daughter passes her test she wont be able to afford a car on her student/part-time work life. But I don’t want her to have a long gap between passing and actually driving. Its dents your confidence too much and I don’t want her spending years of her life trying to regain her driving confidence like I have had to . It’s expensive to drive but living in the countryside it does become a necessity. We have come up with a hopefully win win plan. I only use my car for running the children around and as one of them will be able to drive it makes sense we share my car. It keeps costs down and also holds her hand as she learns the ropes of owning a car. It helps a lot that you can now spread the cost of your car tax in direct debit installments and of course there are other saving to be made with things like Smart Wheels.
I so wish I had all this help when I first passed. Hopefully my daughters first solo drive wont be like mine. The evening of passing my test the boyfriend said to take the car out. But warned not to go too far as there wasn’t much petrol. So off I very slowly drove. I kept touching the passenger seat to make me believe I had finally passed my test. It suddenly dawned on me that driving an Opal Manta ( big long car) was very different to a tiny weeny Clio. I didn’t know how to turn it around. I had driven extra miles to find a roundabout to go around it so to go home. I think I coasted into the drive on fumes.
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