Teaching a kid to drive..

Why would I let my 10 year old drive a car?! What if something bad was to happen?

Chances are, most of you read that as something potentially going wrong whilst Jaiden was driving. But what if we flipped it around, and looked at it from the perspective of something going wrong with me? What if I was bitten by a snake, or hit my head and was unconscious? What if it happened and there was nobody else around, or we were in an area with no phone signal?

Travelling by myself with a child makes me hyper aware of the possible things that can go wrong, perhaps because I have had instances where things have gone wrong. Whilst we were never in life threatening danger, I want to be prepared on the off chance something serious occurs. Jaiden and I regularly go over basic first aid, talking about what he’d do in different scenarios. Whenever we arrive at a new spot, I make sure he knows where we are so he could give an accurate location to Emergency services if required.

But I also need to know that if required, he could cope should things go wrong when we’re off the beaten track. I need to know that he can go and seek help and need him to be confident in his abilities to do so. Not only has he learned how to drive, he’s been shown how to get our GPS coordinates in the GPS should he need to drive somewhere to reach help or phone signal. He’s been shown how to use the Duplex function on the UHF to increase range to call for help, as well as what channels to use in an emergency.

Not only did Jaiden navigate his way out of our site through narrow dirt tracks onto the dirt road, he drove around 1km at 50km/h (on dirt road), he pulled over, found the GPS co-ordinates and we did a simulation 000 call. Whilst Jaiden loves to drive, and is becoming increasingly confident doing so, for me, it’s also about knowing that should he need to, he could take the reins and get help in an emergency situation. We both hope a situation like that never arises, but I’d prefer to be prepared, just in case.

Better safe than sorry, right?