What it means in practical terms to "crash-proof" your teenagers

Author and teen driving expert Timothy Smith discusses the importance of a parent's role in teaching your teenager to drive safely. He explains in practical terms how parents can "crash-proof" their teenager.
What it means in practical terms to "crash-proof" your teenagers | Kids in the House
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What it means in practical terms to "crash-proof" your teenagers

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To really help crash proof your teen, you have to make a big commitment to them. It won't be easy if you do it right. Your time is limited and if you're like most parents, you may have occasional difficulty communicating with your teen. But think about all the commitment we make to them and activities that aren't high risk. Think about all the time we shuttled them back and forth to school plays, and sports and practices and piano and dance and Spanish lessons, if we were paid basic chauffeur rates for all the running around we do for them, we'd all be retired and living in Fiji by now. So take advantage of that time that you're going to be behind the wheel with them anyway, have them drive to all those activities. Include them and have them drive on your regular weekly circuit of grocery trips and pharmacy and dry cleaners. So take advantage of that time for your parental supervised driving, have them be the drivers for those. Also, as a part of your ongoing commitment to your teen, sit down and compare schedules and set aside some specific times each week, each day that's dedicated to the driver education effort you're going through. Remember, every time your teen gets behind the wheel, their hand of cards involves their mood, their car condition, the weather, other drivers. Your goal is to make sure you understand the risk and they do too, and they understand the ways to mitigate it. So that's where the commitment comes in. You should plan on spending a bare minimum of 50 hours where your teen is driving and you are doing parental supervision. In other words, the equivalent of 1 long work week, to give your teen a lifelong edge.
TEEN, Responsibilities, Driving

Author and teen driving expert Timothy Smith discusses the importance of a parent's role in teaching your teenager to drive safely. He explains in practical terms how parents can "crash-proof" their teenager.

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Timothy Smith

Author & Teen Driving Expert

Timothy Smith is a healthcare executive living in the Chicago area with his wife and three children.   He got involved with teen driving several years ago when a number of teenagers were killed in multiple crashes near his home, virtually all due to driver error.   His search for information to help his teens avoid car crashes yielded little of value, so he became a certified driving instructor, got trained and licensed to race cars, took defensive driving courses and ended up writing Crashproof Your Kids: Make Your Teen A Safer, Smarter Driver.  He is also Chairman of Aegis Mobility, a software company which has developed technology to manage and reduce cell phone use while driving. 

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