Loveday Writing

My Parents My Chauffeurs

I’m sure everyone remembers their parents driving them around when they were little and fighting for the front seat and having to ask for lift to a party, school, work, etc. My childhood was no different.

In my life my parents have owned two cars, a Holden station wagon and a Holden Commodore. They still own the Commodore and they also have my late grandfather’s green Ford car. When I was a child I was never allowed in the front of the car until I was legally old enough to sit there and I was so excited when my father drove us home after buying the Commodore when I was nine in 1999. Both of my parents were safe drivers, my father is slightly more aggressive and sometimes silly behind the wheel, my mother is more cautious and it would take 17-odd manoeuvres for her to successfully reverse park the car.

It was a big change in our household when my brother, Nathan and eventually I learnt how to drive. Nathan got his Learner licence in 2004 and I got mine in 2007. We went from complaining about having to sit in the back seat, to sitting in the front seat, to transitioning into drivers ourselves. Our parents became our driving instructors as well as remaining our chauffeurs. Mum taught us the basics, dad taught us the more complex stuff like reverse parking and 3-point turns. There were tears, frustrations, arguments between us all as our parents were learning to let go…in a dangerous vehicle (so I suppose you can’t really blame them for being bossy and argumentative, they were probably secretly shitting themselves most of the time).

Nathan and I have our unrestricted (full) licences now, which means we can drive on our own but that hasn’t stopped mum and dad from being backseat drivers. Mum will hold onto to the car coat hanger and won’t look up and dad will tell us what route to take whenever we go anywhere. Sometimes it can be annoying, but overall the role reversal is amusing. The ironic thing about the driving relationship between my mum and I is that she, not only taught me how to drive but she bossed me into getting in the car for the first time. I was too scared to go driving for the first time when she wanted to give me a lesson, she told me that I had to get in the car sometime…considering how “over enthusiastic” I am now behind the wheel and my love for driving on highways because it means I can go fast, I wonder if she regrets pushing me into it now?

I said to my mum that if I have children and when it’s their turn to learn how to drive, they’re going to have driving lessons, let them scare a paid driving professional with their inabilities and enthusiasm for being behind the wheel.