The Long Road To Legal (Driving That Is!)

The joys of parenting teens! It is sometimes just pure heart stopping material!

The process of getting a drivers licence, should be relatively simple. Get your learners permit, do 100 hours of logbook driving, send it off to be approved, go for your driving test, and whammmmmo! You have your licence.

BUT oh no, this has been a long and harrowing experience! Very grateful for a heart that still beats.

P

P-plates have kicked the L’s out the door!

Getting her Learners Permit was easy as, she got 100% on the written test, and then with my heart in my mouth and my hand clutching the hand grip on the door, she managed to get us home without hitting, squashing or scaring anything!

Over 100 hours of log-booking (which is such a tedious chore!!) complete, the book is sent off to be authorised and the text message arrives a couple of days later, all good! Booked in for a driving test, well we thought she was…..

Attempt No 1. – We turn up at Rosalie at the alloted booking time, to discover that Miss WW, had accidently cancelled her appointment, hitting the refresh button trying to get an earlier appointment. We sat there all afternoon in the hope that someone would no-show, but no go. One very disappointed pair head home for the night.

Attempt No 2. – We manage to score an appointment for the next afternoon. The test was going really well until on the way back to the depot, she misread a 4 lane intersection, everyone including the car were safe, but no passing the test, oops!

Attempt No. 3 – We manage to get a booking nice and close to home at Strathpine, and low and behold, one of the indicator globes decides to go and even after a dash up the road for a replacement, there is not enough time for her to sit the test. Home we go again.

Attempt No. 4 – 7 days later, we are off to Strathpine again, this time with an almost a perfect score, she is now the proud owner of P plates, and the freedom to drive where ever she wants.

My heart will still be in my mouth every time she puts the key in the iginition, but I have no choice, I have to let my precious teen hit the road without me. The worries never cease, no matter what age they are, you just want them to be happy and safe!

I now know how my parents felt, but they let me go, and I am still around!

Was getting your licence easy or hard?

Sharing the stess for #IBOT with Essentially Jess!

10 thoughts on “The Long Road To Legal (Driving That Is!)

  1. I kind of cheated, I got my licence in NZ and the rules there at the time (which may be showing my age!) were much looser, then when I moved to Australia, I just had to sit the written test to get my NSW licence. Mind you, I did fail the written test twice…

  2. I can totally relate to how you feel – because I feel exactly the same and K is on her open licence now !!!! I still send love and protection with her when she goes out driving. My heart still lands up in my throat when she rings me at an unexpected time because I immediately think that she has had an accident !!
    Sending heaps of big hugs to you as you get through this stage because really, as my Dad told me and we told K, you really only start learning how to drive when you are driving on your own.
    Have the best day !
    Me

  3. I bet it’s UBER scary – I’m dreading it. It was easy for me but that was years ago in NZ when there weren’t many hoops to jump through. I got a full licence is 12 months when I was just 16!!! And after all those attempts, PHEW, she’ll be glad she finally has it 🙂

  4. We have something in common – Mr 19 literally got his Ps TODAY!!!! It’s hard jumping through all the hoops these days, with the 100 hours requirement etc.

    I found it really hard to get my licence – I’m not very coordinated so driving a manual took a long time for me to master. Plus my Mum wouldn’t let me drive her car EVER so the only practice I got was with a driving instructor, which cost a bomb. Fortunately I passed my test first go, though I burst into tears at one stage as I stuffed up my reverse park. The testing officer was really nice though and reminded me that I had two more chances to get it right and I passed!!!

  5. What a journey!! So many crazy attempts. Congrats on the P-plates and hang in there mum! I can’t let my mind think about my boys old enough to have cars or a license….nope, I’m happy to believe they will be little forever 😉

  6. Congratulations to your Miss WW!! I’ve just been through it with my own teen, she has had her P’s for 12 months now, and it was a fairly seamless process, but that 100 hours was painful to build up!!

  7. None of mine have their P’s yet, although one has his L’s… It’s a scary business this teaching to drive thing!

    Congrats to your teen, what an awesome achievement!!

    MC x
    #teamIBOT

  8. Congrats to those who have just got their licenses. I taught my daughter to drive about 2 years ago and spent 95% of the time focusing on how to read the traffic. Steering, changing gears, slowing down and speeding up are all SECONDARY to knowing what is going on around you and preparing to take action if needed. I wrote a book about it!

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