The safer your kids are on the road, the less you’re going to wind up spending on auto insurance. Adding a teenager to the policy is one of the fastest ways to pay a lot more every month, so every little bit helps.
Also, you’d probably rather that your kids don’t get into an accident for their own sake, as well.
But with that out of the way: Yes, the insurance is a big concern! Every little fender bender is going to wind up bumping those rates a little more. Even if your kid winds up paying for their own insurance and buying their own car, we all know how that goes, right? One month it’s “yeah but I needed to spend the insurance money on those concert tickets” and the next it’s “well you kept telling me to get a new set of tires to avoid the worst CA ticket experience, so I prioritized that. You don’t want me having a blow-out, do you?” You chip in now and then as a parent, and for a lot of us it continues even after the kids move out. It’s just part of being a parent, and it’s fine and everything, but the less you spend, the better.
So, helping your kid to become a better driver is a top priority. Here are some tips:
Get More Road Experience In
The more time your kid spends on the road before getting their online traffic school California permit, the better they’ll be once you cut them loose and have them driving on their own. Make the time for it. Take them out in a parking lot or an empty field for their first lessons, then get them out on the roads and highways whenever you feel that they’re ready for that.
Drilling on the rules of the road is important, there’s a written test involved, of course. But road experience is everything. Much of what we learn about driving safely is second nature, it’s instinct and intuition. And that can only be honed through real, direct experience. It’s not something you can get from a book.
Refresh Your Own Knowledge of The Rules of The Road
There’s nothing California loves more than new laws, so it’s a safe bet that whatever traffic rules you learned to get your license, they’ve changed. Study the current rules of the road so that you don’t wind up giving your kids any false information. You need to know what is and isn’t legal today, and you don’t want them flunking the test because of something you told them. How embarrassing would that be?
Seek Out an Advanced CA Teen Education Course
Doing the bare minimum to get your kid their license or permit is… acceptable. But if you really want to do them a favor, help them to find advanced defensive driving courses and so on so that they can really know their stuff out on the road. It may seem like extra chores for them right now, but when they’re paying half what their friends are paying for insurance, they’ll thank you.
Being a safe driver is more about experience than anything. No matter how well you train your teens, there’s a good chance they’re going to bang the fender up sooner or later. It’s part of the learning experience. Just make sure they can get as much training done in a safe environment as possible before you set them loose.