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aaronchow

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 29, 2007
164
9
Just wondering if anyone has successfully taught your wife to drive? My wife got her license 5 years ago but have never driven during these years. I tried to teach her to drive earlier, but I became too nervous so there was a lot of shouting back and forth. I'm wondering what experience others may have? Was there shouting between you and your partner? If not, how do you hold it?
 
Send her to driving school. Sometimes this is the best thing. I taught my children how to drive and it is hard to bite your tongue at times, but you must remember they are inexperienced. You can not yell at that.

That only puts pressure on the situation and then she will not want to be in the car with you any more. We all have to learn by our mistakes. Maybe teach her when there is less traffic around. This will give you less to worry about, hence less reason to want to shout or argue.

She needs to learn in a calm environment. This is why I suggest maybe a driving school if you think you can not keep yourself calm for her.
 
Just wondering if anyone has successfully taught your wife to drive? My wife got her license 5 years ago but have never driven during these years. I tried to teach her to drive earlier, but I became too nervous so there was a lot of shouting back and forth. I'm wondering what experience others may have? Was there shouting between you and your partner? If not, how do you hold it?

Let her walk home a few times. That should do it. ;)

In all seriousness, you can sign her up for a driving school or look for a local instructor.
 
Repeat the kind of tests she had in driving school when she first took her license.
 
Just wondering if anyone has successfully taught your wife to drive? My wife got her license 5 years ago but have never driven during these years. I tried to teach her to drive earlier, but I became too nervous so there was a lot of shouting back and forth. I'm wondering what experience others may have? Was there shouting between you and your partner? If not, how do you hold it?

Never ever try to teach any close member of your own family how to drive.:cool:
 
Just wondering if anyone has successfully taught your wife to drive? My wife got her license 5 years ago but have never driven during these years. I tried to teach her to drive earlier, but I became too nervous so there was a lot of shouting back and forth. I'm wondering what experience others may have? Was there shouting between you and your partner? If not, how do you hold it?

If you keep yelling you'll more likely achieve a divorce than a successful drive. When teaching any topic you must show patience and take it step by step.
 
Instructor would probably be your best bet. I'm a drivers instructor in the Army and have to teach people under the age of 21 how to drive semi-trucks or larger. I even have to teach them how to drive 48 wheeled vehicles. It is stressful and takes a special kind of person to teach. It's easier for me than in your case because the sense of listening with them is easier than possibly your wife listening to you. Teaching on a closed course or parking lot would probably be the best to start, that's how I start with my students.
 
I'd have voted for patience, respect and loving kindness ... but on second thought, driving school.
 
I'd have voted for patience, respect and loving kindness ... but on second thought, driving school.

I honestly doubt that this would work in that particular context, much though I applaud the sentiment.

This is because, in addition to the 'normal' stresses, strains and misunderstandings of communication between spouses, (the old nonsense of 'Men are from Mars, Women from Venus' stuff) I have yet to meet a male who thinks he is anything other than naturally gifted behind the wheel, while a surprising number of males hold the view with equal conviction that women are, by definition, poor drivers, a definition they will cheerfully argue is reinforced by nature, ('how many women can parallel park - or reverse - properly?') inevitably poor drivers.

This setting (context, background) will make it almost impossible for a husband (who will believe himself naturally gifted in this department) - unless he is of a tranquil and blessedly patient disposition, and someone who is a gifted and natural teacher to boot, to instruct a wife (who he will think a wonderful mother, wife, life partner, but - by gendered definition - a lousy driver) in how to drive a motor-car without coming to grief.

The passionate love affair some men will have with the aforesaid motor-car (perhaps seeing it as an extension of themselves - and I'm not even alluding to Freud, here), may lead to a further source of tension as fears that it may suffer some slight injury (say, a scratch, or a dent) may offer an occasion which will give rise to further shouting.

As a former teacher, I can most assuredly tell you that a stressed environment is not especially conducive to learning.
 
Another vote for drivers education. That will definitely keep the peace in the family :)
 
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