Handing your teen the car keys? Are you confident or concerned?

Many of you will be experiencing a first as parents this summer.....teaching your teen to drive! This can be a scary time but as the parent you are the key to driving success and safety. Setting ground rules for your teen driver is a great idea to encourage safe driving.

Practice driving will empower your teen. But your rules will provide much needed limits to keep him or her safe. Create rules to address the leading hazards for teen drivers, such as driving at night (see Eight Danger Zones for a full list).

Once you have set the rules, a driving agreement can help you enforce them. Discuss each of the rules with your teen. Talk about why they are important to follow, as well as consequences for breaking the rules. Then, work with your teen to draft and sign a parent-teen driving agreement. Writing the rules into a agreement will put everyone on the same page about your family's rules of the road.

You may choose to hang your parent-teen driving agreement on the refrigerator door to highlight the importance of safe driving. Let your teen know that following the rules and driving safely will result in more driving privileges.

Click here for more information and to download a sample agreement.