Parents:Your Teens Are Still Under Your Influence

Many parents believe that they lose touch with their children during their teen years. Your kids friends become the most influential thing in their life, aside from what the media tells them. But, believe it or not, your teens are still under YOUR influence.

Underyourinfluence.org is a website to help educate parents about teen driving and how they can play a role in developing their teenager’s driving habits.

Not just an online community, Under Your contains link to a plethora of related sites, such as MADD, EndDD, NHTSA, and various resources offering statistics about distracted and impaired driving, crashes involving teens, and seatbelt use.

However, before researching those statistics, I suggest you take the Skills Test . You might be surprised what you don’t know. You can share that with your teen. Often, teenagers get frustrated with adults, if we act like we know everything. Showing your child that you don't knwo everything and that you, too, are still learning is like breaking down a barrier. With the wall down, your child should be able to relate better ultimately making you more influential in their life.

In addition to providing statistics, UnderYourInfluence also provides suggestions on how parents can talk to their children about safe driving habits. There are even practices tips on what to do while in the car, teaching your teen how to drive.

In addition to one-on-on teaching tools, there are also toolkits for parents who want to take this to the next level and get involved in their child’s school. Sample Posters and Flyers can be posted at sporting events and extracurricular activities. There are sample power points that can be used during assemblies, even sample Public Service Announcements that can be sent to a local radio station, or read over the school public address system to get other parents involved.

UnderYourInfluence also has a message board for parents to connect with other parents and ask questions and share ideas. You can also sign up for their Newsletter to stay up to date on upcoming events, programs, and legislations to keep yourself in the loop on teen driver safety, and keep your teen under your influence.