Many of you dads out there will be teaching your son or daughter how to drive this summer. Your child will be anxious to exercise what teens believe is their God-given right to commandeer 2,000 pounds of machinery and experience his new world in a whirlwind. You may be the single voice of reason between desire and reality as your son or daughter navigates the Department of Motor Vehicle maze and finally smiles for the usually unflattering driver’s license mug shot.
This is a significant milestone for both you and your teen. It marks the beginning of a new relationship, a big step toward independence. Your child gains the freedom of mobility from home and crosses an intersection into a world of highways and byways populated by rule followers and rule breakers.
We have a unique relationship with the world when we’re behind the wheel.
Adam Gopnik recently wrote in the New Yorker, “When we’re locked in our car’s little confession box, it’s easy to arrive at the illusion that we’re the only person out there. We consistently underrate the movements of cars as intentional objects, and then, in an instant, overrate them. A vehicle that obstructs our way is first a mute object in the maze to be avoided and then, suddenly, a menace. This is why the driver acting erratically, unexpectedly pulling ahead, or moseying down Madison at 15 mph, prompts ‘You idiot!’ rather than ‘Are you OK?'”
Dad, some of the driving hazards never change. A ball rolls into the street in front of you followed by a pursuing child. A car stops abruptly in front of you – or doesn’t stop in time behind you. But today presents newer dangers.