It’s easy to think a friend or family member can teach you to drive. I’m sure most people once they received their provisional driving licence through the post instantly tried to recruit their older brother or dad or best friend to teach them to drive. If you’re at this point now then stop and think before you spoil a good friendship or bring bad vibes to the dinner table.

Learning to drive and people we know don’t always go together. In fact, they rarely go together. There are probably two main factors which ensure things are not going to work out and in all honesty they are both to do with experience. It’s one thing passing your test but it’s another thinking you can teach someone else to drive.

The two main factors are location and expectancy. If we go back to our earlier discussions covering early lessons when you first set out learning to drive, you may recall the ideal location was a quiet housing estate without having to concern yourself with other road users. Most people consider it the norm to jump in to a motor vehicle and drive.

This is a sure fire way to cause arguments when you’ve never sat behind the wheel of a car before not to mention it is potentially dangerous when you have had no physical training whatsoever. The second factor, expectancy, is heavily tied in with this as the person teaching you to drive does not know or understand how you’re feeling inside.

Not everyone feels confident enough to go straight out on to a populated road right from the start. In fact, I would guess very few would be confident. This action can cause simple mistakes which will lead to arguments.

Aside from these two factors I doubt very few people even have the patients to teach someone to drive. When you think having to repeatedly carry out the same manoeuvre until you have got it, it’s one more potential argument waiting to boil over.

Now I’m not siding here saying there is no room for people you know helping you learn to drive, that’s simply not true. In fact in can be a great help given the right circumstances. For example, let’s say you’re having lessons with a professional instructor and there is a particular manoeuvre you simply cannot get right. A friend or family member can help you out by taking you out to a similar location to what you’re used to and allowing you to practice.

This is the perfect example where they can help. An instructor will teach you how to drive and armed with your report card your family and friends can help practice what you have covered in your lessons. Just remember to carry out manoeuvres as you have been shown in lessons. You don’t want to be picking up bad habits that can result in a failure when it comes to your test time.