Practising driving with a learner

Something that I hate to encounter in the car is a right hand turn at a crossroads without a filter light.  If there is one on my route I'll do my best to take a detour to avoid it. The reason? I encountered one for the first time when I went out practising with my Mum as a learner. I didn't realise that I had to wait for a gap in the oncoming traffic - I just headed straight over. Luckily my mistake was anticipated by the approaching car, and no disaster occurred!

Similarly I always get anxious waiting to come out of a T-junction on a slope. As a learner on a very quiet housing estate I once stalled the car before I could pull out, and the car waiting behind beeped at me. I'm positive that the (male, obviously) driver didn't give it a second thought after he had sped off, but it has never left me!

So whenever I see learner drivers out and about I am always very patient. I don't mind crawling along behind them, I always give them plenty of space, and I'm always poised to take evasive action if necessary. 

My son started driving lessons a couple of months ago, and this week I decided that I was finally ready to take him out in our own car for a practice. I remember how enormously helpful it was when I was approaching my test and my Mum took me out every evening to the next town so that I could practice on the test routes.

I won't lie, it has been quite terrifying.  We have a lot of roundabouts near us, and I hate that moment of waiting for him to make his decision and pull out successfully! But overall he's doing really well, and he's had no problems picking up the manual driving of the car. He changes gears smoothly, he's confident in traffic, his road position is perfect, and now that we've been out a few times I'm feeling much less scared. But I think we both feel a sense of relief when we return home unscathed!

He's not going to be ready for his test for a good few months yet, but I'm really pleased with how well he's getting on so far. I just need to make sure I keep my nerve and take him out to practice whenever we can!