Teach A Child Simple Car Maintenance
Teach your child simple car repair to make you less nervous about their driving. It also enables them to fix or notice a flat, so that they do not get stranded on the road.
Steps
- Make sure that before your son or daughter take the car out on their own, make sure that they know how to maintain or repair the car so that they will not get stuck on the road with a flat tire, and how to pump gas so the gas tank is never empty.
- Start with basics, such as being able to use jumper cables , checking oil, washer fluid, transmission fluid, and battery cables. Make sure they learn that they must also make sure they have at least a half a tank of gas in the car before they drive anywhere.
- Teach them how to change a tire and to replace the tire with the spare in the trunk.
- Talk to them about how to handle a blow out on the road while driving. Give them the AAA Card if you have one, so they can phone for emergency service. Make sure they always have their cell phone with them, fully charged up.
- Write down on a small notebook a simple "what to do if", and keep in the car's glove box. They may forget what they are supposed to do in a situation where they panic. In the notebook include little things like "remember your Low fuel light means you have X miles left or X gallons left of fuel."
- Remember, if your child does not know how to handle a vehicle emergency, then he is not ready to drive the car alone.
Warnings
- Never show a teen a shortcut that could cause harm to them or the car. In moments of panic or stress memory isn't always as sharp as you'd like.
- Be ready to remind them of things. Learning is a process. They will not remember everything.
