A long time ago I started learning to drive. A few years after that (while pregnant) I started again. Both times my progress was.... average. At best, I'd say. I didn't completely suck or anything but maaaaan it was a slow road. Partly because the first time round I had a horrible, mean instructor who was the opposite of encouraging so I stopped fairly quickly (nothing like a bit of tough love eh?) and by the time I got up the courage to give it another go, we were against the baby clock, the baby brain and the baby bump. Not an ideal combination when trying to tackle something as seemingly complex as driving.
I've always struggled with the idea that I don't appear to be a natural driver - there's not really a way I can say this without sounding like an arrogant idiot so I'm just going to go ahead and say it - I generally seem to have (some level of) natural aptitude to just about everything. That's not to say I'm a genius or a smarty pants.... I said 'some level' haha! So just exactly why I seem to find driving so hard completely escapes me. Perhaps I'm selling myself a bit short. My (second, nice) instructor didn't seem to think there was anything particularly out of the ordinary with my skills or progress. Perhaps on the slower side of average but nothing that isn't normal.
Anyway. I'm rambling. The point of this post is that, having laid dormant since the birth of Oliver, the purchase of the new car has meant that the driving debate has reared it's ugly head once more. And just to throw a spanner in the works... the new car is an automatic.
So here's the thing. Do I continue lessons in manual driving, spend lots more time (and money) in order to be able to drive 'proper' cars (should we ever buy another one) but in the meantime I'll only be driving an automatic?
Or do I continue my lessons in an automatic instead which will undoubtedly be a lot easier and quicker (and therefore cheaper) for me but will limit us as to the kind of car I can drive in the future (although I do know that you can always take the manual test later and upgrade your licence and your insurance and no claims etc. doesn't suffer (much) for all the time you've driven automatic).
Would appreciate people's thoughts!!
PS - I should probably add that I believe (perhaps wrongly) that my problems with driving stem from fact that I'm not very coordinated. I have no problem with any one part of the process, even the gears, it's just putting it all together that seems to be an issue. Would automatic be better for a person like me or should I just keep persevering for as long as our bank account can afford me to?)
