It was dusk. I was riding the mean streets of fashionable as well as upscale Sandy Springs, looking for perpetrators and a "police friendly" restaurant since I was short of cash and too lazy to take the effort to walk over to an ATM and get more. I hit I-285 to pace the traffic which was moving at about an average of 200 MPH. Slow night on the interstate for Atlanta traffic. I spied an upscale and fashionable SUV on the side of the road with an obvious flat tire. Inside were to teens, sitting and texting on thier phones, probably updating their status on Facebook as "On the side of the road waiting for my tire to fix itself."
I hit the blue lights to slow the traffic down to a snail's pace of 90 or so MPH.
Both kids were in the car and barely noticed I had walked up.
"Hello. I noticed you're on the side of the road with a flat tire."
"Yes."
"Any thought given as to what you will do?"
"I called someone. They'll be here in five minutes."
"Okay, uh son, you by any chance know how to change a tire on this fine upscale SUV?"
He looked at me like I had three heads, which I don't because moments before, I had looked into the rear-view mirror to check out my hair before I hit the streets.
"Uh No." As if that should be the normal response.
Daddy to the rescue I suppose.
At this point, if you are the parents of a child who is on the brink of sixteen and counting the minutes before the driver's test and that new license, here is some good advice.
Dad and Mom Driver's Training 101 in the Real World.
Flat tires happen. Anyone capable of driving a car is capable of changing a tire. That gives you an advantage when things go flat in the night and you're not where you need to be. Calling for help is great but if that help is a half hour or more away, why leave yourself at a disadvantage? A tire change is a fifteen minute job at most.
Here's what you do:
Familiarize yourself with that ugly contraption the auto make calls a jack. Once you are familiar with it, throw the damn thing away.
Go to Northern Tools or Harbor Freight and get a 3-ton floor jack and a four-way lug nut wrench. Familiarize yourself with that and you'll see that it's easy to lift the car with more sturdiness and less effort. Not enough room in the trunk for the floor jack? They don't take up much room but if you don't have room in your trunk......
Well MAKE ROOM!!
The night before your child uses the car for the first time, take them aside, make them put the cellphone down, and go to the garage or driveway and go over the process of changing the tire.
Go over the points on the car's frame (in the manual) where you can lift.
Set the flashers.
Set the parking brake,
Loosen the lug nuts with the four-way and not that little sissy stick they call a lug wrench,
Jack the tire off the ground,
Remove the tire, add the new tire or the doughnut tire if you have no self esteem or you're driving a mini van (is that redundant?)
Put the lug nuts back on, not too tight and criss-cross the lug nuts,
Lower the tire where it digs into the pavement a bit and then tighten the lug nuts, again criss-crossing as you tighten.
Lower the jack and make sure the lug nuts are on straight and are tight, then pack it up in the trunk.
Now, let them do it as you watch and give POSITIVE feedback as they learn. If they don't get it, do it again. If your child sees this as frustrating, having to waste texting time working on changing the tire, remind them how frustrating it is on the side of the road in the rain and not knowing how to change it.
Once they get it and you're satisfied, tell them they did a good job and you feel better about them using the car tomorrow.
Next, when they're asleep, return to the garage and let the air out of the tire you worked on and say nothing.
The next day, see if they remember.
If they do, you're job is done. If they don't, you can work on it until they do. This will be a good time to talk about when NOT to change the tire.
When road conditions are such that the driver is in jeopardy of being hit while changing the tire, don't. You can slowly drive with that flat tire, to a place of safety. Some estimate you can rim it for a quarter mile without doing damage. Even if you do, it's better to move to safety as soon as you can. You can buy a new tire and rim.
Whether or not it seems important, kids need to know a few things about getting the car back on the road, especially at night.
I'm saying this with the assumption that you know how to change a tire. If not, I suggest that in secrecy, learn to change a tire so you can help your kid out on this. It will make you feel better so that you'll have more time to remain completely upset every moment your kid has the car for the night. I've been there four times now. That's why we have Happy Hour.
Good luck!