The next stage – teens driving me crazy!
For years I have been dealing with dirty nappies, crying babies and toddlers, the terrible two’s and troublesome three’s, night feeds and sleepless nights.
Then the school years began and life became more hectic with many appointments, including school excursions, sports carnivals, meetings, parent/teacher interviews, school concerts and rehearsals, other sporting commitments along with after school training, swimming, music or dance lessons; I went from being a stay at home mum to a taxi service!
As the teens come along within the household, some say the teenage years are the worst, down right tough and they can literally drive you crazy; however the craziness I’m referring to is not the emotional kind everyone tends to blame. It’s the DRIVING part that tends to be make me crazy and it’s only going to get worse!
Large family life is busy, constant, continuous and fast paced; it never stops. And as the children get older and become teenagers, life literally gets even busier, with each week evolving around a particular outing, appointment, task or drive you have to make.
There are some days where I am constantly in the car and can do as many as 12 trips back and forth on any given day!
While the above is already crazy, just to step it up a notch (and just for fun), lets also throw a 16 year old learner driver into the mould and have her sit behind the wheel. This just turns the word CRAZY into, INSANE, DELIRIOUS, ERRATIC, MENTAL & totally FREAKED OUT!
You see, I can cope with the extra title of being a TAXI driver, however now becoming a DRIVING INSTRUCTOR, this seems to be a whole new ball game. I’ve gone from a cool, calm and collected mother, to a hormonal, deranged, psychopath!
The moment my daughter sits behind the wheel and in MY SEAT; the passenger chair suddenly comes alive, as if an electric shock mechanism has been installed.
I’m tense, stressed, sweaty, a complete mess and always angry. My brow lines have intensified, more grey hairs are appearing and it’s only going to get worse as the years go by.
Don’t get me wrong, my daughter does seem to handle driving and is doing quite well (especially in our big beast of a van) I just don’t know what it is, however when she says “I’m driving” or when I see her seated in my place, something literally just comes over me and I would be happier if I could just drive.
On the other hand, when hubby takes her out, he is cool, calm and collected and if we go out as a family, “mother” – me that’s… gets shoved into the back with the rest of the tribe (as hubby usually becomes the instructor on these trips). Sitting in the back with the kids is no picnic either, as the fighting and noise you hear up front IS ten times worse in the back, WHICH I never thought possible! Unfortunately I could very well be a back seat passenger for a very long time to come as my next lot of teens are going onto 15 and 14.
Teaching teens to drive today will also take forever. Way back when I got my L’s I only had to be on them for about 6 months before I could go for my Ps license. Now with the 120 hours of driving they need to do BEFORE they can go for their driving test, I can see myself sitting in the electroshock seat for many years to come.
By then, I can only hope that this stage passes and perhaps I would have got use to this new job description (or maybe have become a little more senile instead….)
However, all I can tell you is, if you happen to see a Learner driver with a lady sitting along side of her, please think of the her (the mother) before judging the driver. She just may be in her own private twilight zone, while enduring pure agony and having a physical mental break down.
And of course, please bare in mind, (while not forgetting) the “weaker stronger sex”; these men or “daddy” driving instructors, that just might be feeling the same way too!
