It's Scary When Daddy Drives

Circa ’88, I remember my 3-year-old brother’s scorn — and my subsequent indignation —when he learned our grandparent-bound flight had a female pilot. It was particularly unfortunate that the pilot then drove the plane into another one on the tarmac.

This youthful chauvinism extended to the car, where he preferred to drive with my father and declared that the Toyota had a (superior) Boy’s Side and a Girl’s Side. He outgrew this, I’m pleased to say — or maybe the world’s just changed. Because according to a new poll, children consider their mothers better drivers by a significant margin. Reports the Daily Mail — although we have no idea how or when or where these children between 6 and 15 were polled, or under whose aegis,

Dads are seen as risk-takers by seven in ten children, while four in ten feel safer with their mother at the wheel for a rush-hour trip. Almost a third – 30 per cent – of the children surveyed by car hire firm Budget said they prefer to travel with their mother driving because they talk to them more. This appears to go hand-in-hand with feeling safe, with 40 per cent more likely to choose their mother, compared with 26 per cent their father, as a safer driver. About 70 per cent said their fathers are more likely to have near-misses, speed, take risks or get angry with other drivers.

I wonder if kids also drive more with moms — to and from school, on appointments and errands — and so are more comfortable with them, and vice versa. However, kids also felt overwhelmingly that their fathers were better parkers and got lost less frequently. Although one can’t help wondering if maybe they’re just less inclined to admit it.