Episode 100: A few tips for navigating the teen driver years.

Navigating the driving years can be hairy and scary no matter what, but here are a few tips to help you make it less painful! 

 

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Full Transcription: 

Speaker 1: (00:00)

Well it took me a lot longer to get to this episode than I expected, but we are at episode 100 that is a milestone. And today we are gonna just talk about briefly a few things that I found helpful and kind of things that I wish I would've done differently when taking my kids through the driving years and getting them their first car. Stay tuned.

 

Speaker 2: (00:25)

Welcome to your source for tips, tools and support to help you be that mom that is tuned in and proactive for yourself, your family, and for the wild ride of raising kids in this digital age. Inspired by a mother's love with a relatable real life. Proud to be that Mom Flare. This is the Be That Mom Movement with

 

Speaker 1: (00:45)

Your

 

Speaker 2: (00:45)

Host Dolly Denson.

 

Speaker 1: (00:51)

Hey friends, did you hear there is an app that will transform the safety of your kids' smartphone and technology use. It is my favorite way to sleep, easy at night and have peace of mind because it is monitoring my kids' activity online without me being in their business. It is the Bark app and yes, bark like a dog, bark, bark, bark. It tells you when there's something that you need to be concerned about starting at a small fee each month. You can protect your whole family across all devices. Get connected with Bark Today. Use code, be that mom for 20% off your subscription for life and get a seven day free trial to check it out. Okay, so before I get into the topic today, I just want to say that after recording the last episode that I published, I had a lot of hesitation about publishing it.

 

Speaker 1: (01:39)

And the reason for that was after reflecting on it for a little bit is that the impact of my legal case and how much they dug into my life, which I don't think I really mentioned in the episode, haunts me. They dug into every aspect of my life, listened to my podcast episodes, looked at things from my past like my little brother dying and the reason behind my, my podcast episodes and anything and everything you could think of, they asked me about, it shook me and it's been really hard to put myself out into the public again. I actually like cut back on how public I was about anything. So most people didn't know about us selling our house, didn't know about us moving into our rv, didn't know a lot of the things going on, and I even made all of my social media private for a little while too because it was so disturbing how much they were trying to dig things up so that they could avoid having to face the fact that they're wrong.

 

Speaker 1: (02:38)

So that's what's so infuriating about not having the due process that I'm legally supposed to have and that they could manipulate the process like they did because they know they're doing something wrong. . So just wanted to say that, that I considered not publishing, that I considered not continuing with the podcast, but ultimately then they win and I'm not gonna allow that. I have something to offer here. I have information that might be helpful for you. I went through some really hard times raising my kids and did it all the harder way as I've said before. And so I'm just gonna keep sharing that stuff and I hope you're here for it. Alright, so today's topic about taking your kids through the driving years, how scary is that? Have you already reached those years of them actually being behind the wheel and driving? Holy cow.

 

Speaker 1: (03:30)

For my three kids, each one was different. We did each one a little bit differently in how we had them train. The first one did parent taught, the second one did a driving school and then the third one did parent taught. And I don't know which way is better because each one of them, it kind of fit their personality. So the second born doing the one where she went someplace and was taught by somebody else, it was helpful for her to learn from somebody else than from us. And each one just, you know, was different in how they approach driving And it seems to me that kids, well at least one of my kids wasn't as anxious to get her license and and get going. And then the other one was like out the door the day she turned 16. So I was gonna say that kids are seem to be getting their licenses later and this and that, but that's not really true when I think about it because it just, it wasn't that way for each one of them.

 

Speaker 1: (04:27)

They just had different things going on and then also covid happening and all the stuff around that affected how we did things with the the youngest. But the biggest thing that I wanted to share, and this is probably gonna be a really short episode unless I kind of go off on a tangent, the biggest thing I wanna share is how we handled the cars. So with the firstborn, I was at that time I was driving my car for work and so we got her a car, we ended up buying her a new car and it wasn't planned to do that, but buying her the new car kind of like set the stage for the other ones, which probably wasn't wise on our part, but we just got a really, really good deal at the time. You know, this is way pre covid before everything blew up with the used car and new car market the way it is right now.

 

Speaker 1: (05:13)

But we ended up getting her a new car because it was like at the end of the month and they needed to move the cars, you know, move some of the cars off the lot. And so they made us an offer that was like less than what we were finding for the used cars. So we got her that car and to this day, I'm trying to think how many years it's been now, when did we get that for her? I guess it's been eight years and she still has that same car. So it's been a good car for her. Now when we decided to get the car that we did, what I did was I researched the safety ratings for different vehicles and I narrowed it down to three vehicles that had good safety ratings for teen drivers. It was important for me that you know, they had like the airbags and all the things and that had been found to be a, a good car rated for teen or inexperienced drivers.

 

Speaker 1: (06:05)

So that's how I found her car, the make and the model and how we started looking for it. We just didn't go out there and get any car that was a good price. We looked for one that had the good safety rating. Now by the time the second born got to driving years, the job I was in provided me a vehicle and so my car was just sitting in the garage and not being driven a lot. So I went ahead and let her use that car and that car became like the , the teen driver car. So she used that car until the younger one got to driving years and then it passed on to him and we got her her own car, which was the same make as the oldest ones. And then the youngest one drove in my car until he was ready to buy himself a truck.

 

Speaker 1: (07:00)

And when I stopped driving that car and was provided a car for my work, that car was at 110,000 miles. He just recently bought himself that truck. And so now the car, which is a Honda so it's like it drives forever and ever it seems it is now at 200,000 miles. So I stopped driving it at 110,000 miles the second born probably put a good chunk of that, those miles on it. And then he finished off using it for his first couple of years of driving and bought himself a new car around the time that he turned 18. So, or bought himself a new to him vehicle but having that car that wasn't a new car had some miles and was paid off, worked really well for us. So now that car that he drove has passed back to me, it's now my car again.

 

Speaker 1: (07:55)

It has 200,000 miles on it but it's still driving. We just had to get the air conditioning fixed because it went out right at the end of the summer and or I guess it was last month in September, but it's still driving. It has a little bit of like noises it makes and this and that, but it's still going. And so all of that to say, what I recommend is if you're not yet at those driving years, kind of look at what you're doing with vehicles for you and your spouse if you have one, and see if it's gonna come to a place to where you're gonna move into a newer car and then move them into your old car if that's possible. The other thing to say is the car that I drove that ended up being the second and third born's car for a little while, um, that one was also one that was rated high for safety ratings.

 

Speaker 1: (08:46)

The Honda c r v the only thing is and verify that now 'cause that could have changed. So don't take my word for that. But the only thing at the time when I was getting the firstborn, her car was at Honda CRVs, they hold their value a lot or at least they did. I don't know if they do now. And so it seemed like they were really high priced and we couldn't afford that. So second born ended up getting that one and the third born did too. So just wanted to share that piece of gotten past the teenage driving years wisdom to just give you a, a piece of information. The other thing is if you get a newer car and you finance it, get gap coverage. , I can't tell you how many vehicles we've had to have totaled or they've totaled them since we got out of those initial years and moved them into other vehicles and um, these weren't accidents that were their fault, it was them being hit by somebody else.

 

Speaker 1: (09:41)

So just so happened, I think we've had three totaled cars in the last year, so that's been a bit frustrating. But that first car we bought in the other one that was the teen driver car, neither one of those has had issues wrecks or anything like that. It was the subsequent vehicles that we got. So hopefully this helps you. I don't know what's spunky with my voice if it sounds a little funny right now. But hope this helps you and feel free to provide me feedback. Let me know how things have gone for you and I'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in. Being that mom isn't easy, but together we can be that mom

 

Speaker 2: (10:19)

Strong. Don't forget to leave a review, connect on

 

Speaker 1: (10:22)

Social and join Dolly's free community. Till next time. Holy moly, check this out. If you are a mom that is looking to give your kiddo a phone, but you don't want to open up the world of the smartphone to them yet, check out the pinwheel phone. The pinwheel phone is the latest and greatest for dumb smartphones. It gives you absolute control over what they do and who they can contact and will help them to develop healthy habits around using a phone. Check out pinwheel@pinwheel.com. Use code be.mom 10 for a discount.