Probably one of the scariest things I’ve done for a very long time was taking my daughter for a driving lesson this afternoon.

I wasn’t afraid so much for my own personal safety, but I was scared about sending her the wrong messages and also a little worried about paying for damage to our car or other peoples property.

She’s had about 7 lessons, so I thought what I’d do is drive along beach rd down to Mornington and let her drive back. I decided after hitting Mordialoc, I would let her drive from then on. It’s a two lane road and not much traffic and I thought I could gauge how she was doing and give her different tests from then on.

I did feel pretty comfortable driving with her at first - well it was kind of easy. You just follow the car in front of you. I was thinking back on when I first started driving and thinking about the traps you fall into when starting out on the road. 

The first incident happened in Seaford, while I was saying slow down, slow down, STOP. The problem was we were halfway through an intersection and she ran a red light. I worked out what she was doing - she was concentrating too much on the car in front, staying within the lane keeping within the speed limit, checking the mirrors, but not paying attention to things like traffic lights.

I calmed down an the rest of the trip to Mornington was uneventful. We drove down to Mornington Pier where we were going to have some lunch in the cafe, however, I didn’t have any cash so we went to the posh place upstairs - The Rocks. I’ve secretly been meaning to go there for years, and today was the perfect opportunity. We each had the cider battered flathead, chips and salad - it was absolutely delicious.

After lunch I thought we should practice some reverse parking and three point turns. Manouvering an automobile is a bit of a challenge and she did have a bit of trouble but got there in the end.

I then drove the car down to Mount Martha and was looking for a spot called the ‘Pillars’ - it’s a place we used to dive into the water from the cliffs as teenagers. I couldn’t find it and then drove back to Mornington and let Hollie drive me back home.

On the way back I was clutching the handrail slightly more then when she was first in the car. It wasn’t long before she started veering too far towards the left of the road that forced me to lunge at the steering wheel to correct a possible collision with trees. We  laughed it off and I kept my emotions in check. At Chelsea, the two lane road kind of disappears with cars parked on the left and the odd cyclist that created challenges for the new driver. She negotiated this ok, but there was a point where she almost collided with a car on our left and I was forced to intervene again grabbing the steering wheel. Not long after that I thought I would drive the rest of the way home - no ill feelings.

I think we both did really well today, and am kind of looking forward to doing it again next weekend - hopefully, I’ll find the Pillars.