For a happier experience steer clear of driving lessons with your dear old dad is the advice being offered by the AA.
The results of a light-hearted AA membership poll, completed exclusively by parents who have dared to take their son or daughter for a driving lesson, reveals that dads have a lower patience threshold than mums when it comes to instructing their children.
In the AA Membership poll, which was completed by more than 3,700 parents across a wide range of ages, 28.5 per cent of the fathers quizzed said they believed themselves to have been a very patient teacher, stating they remained calm and constructive throughout the lessons. A higher percentage of mothers, however, 35.9 per cent gave themselves this same rating.
At the other end of the patience scale 11.3 per cent of the dads said they simply did not have the temperament for teaching their offspring how to drive. A slightly lower number of mums said the same with 9.2 per cent saying teaching their children to drive was far from their natural calling and a major test of their patience.
Among the individual comments received from this less successful group of parents were “never again”, “my son simply would not take on board instructions”, “my foot was glued to the imaginary brake”, “I was a nervous wreck”, and “I had holes gouged in the passenger seat.”
Overall 3.6 per cent of the parents who trialled a lesson with their child said it was an unmitigated disaster which resulted in a massive argument, followed by abandonment of the lesson altogether.
