Helping your child through adolescence is not an easy proposition. You have to work on things ranging from car insurance and driving to dating and preparing for college. Many people like the extra help that a program like the Boy Scouts of America can give their children. When a young man works hard enough to receive his Eagle Scout award, a father knows that he is responsible. In fact, in some areas of the country, earning this scouting award is a prerequisite that many parents place on their children before they are allowed to drive the family car.

Other things that help parents know that their child is responsible enough to drive a car may be related to education. For example, a parent may require that his or her children earn a certain grade point average in school before allowing them to take driver’s education classes typically offered at local high schools. One nice thing about this parental requirement is that you can often get a nice student discount on car insurance once they start driving.

Having your child work with you as you go through the process of finding cheap car insurance is also a great life lesson you can teach them. Looking for the best deal and understanding why young driver insurance costs more can be very revealing. Requiring them to pay at least a portion of car insurance costs can help them be more conscientious while driving, and if they are the ones who will have to pay the deductible if they are involved in an accident, it will make them drive more carefully so they don’t have to spend their hard-earned money. They may even have to get a job to help cover the costs of the gas they use and their share of the insurance premium.

In addition to helping pay for driving costs like car insurance and gas and oil changes, it’s also a good idea to place certain restrictions on your young driver to help them learn about responsible driving. For example, if your son has a cell phone, he should demand that he not use it except in an emergency if he is driving, or pull over to the side of the road if he needs to make a call. It is also the law in many states that texting while driving is not allowed. You need to instill this in your children and make sure that you also teach these cell phone rules by example. Another important way to help your young driver become more responsible is to require that there be a limit to how many people can be in the car at one time, especially if your child is driving a larger vehicle that carries more people, like a minivan. . Also, your child may need to take turns driving large groups of teens to activities. Limiting potential distractions like cell phones and lots of passengers will help your child focus on the road and your driving.