BONUS: Teaching Daughters How to Drive (ft. General Kevin Chilton, NASA Astronaut)

**Transcript is Auto-Generated**

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:17:12
Matthew Krekeler
Welcome to Girl Dad Nation. In this bonus episode, General Kevin Chilton, former NASA astronaut, shares his stories and advice for teaching daughters how to drive a car for the first time. Girl Dad Nation.

00:00:22:15 - 00:00:24:02
Matthew Krekeler
Kevin, welcome back to the show.

00:00:24:17 - 00:00:25:18
Kevin Chilton
Great to see you again, Matthew.

00:00:27:02 - 00:00:55:05
Matthew Krekeler
So I wanted to ask you, you have four daughters. They're all older now. But for each of your daughters, you had the experience of teaching each of them how to drive. Yes. My oldest is only three, so I have a few years to go before. Before that's coming up. But yeah. What wisdom do you have for dads going to teach their daughters how to drive or funny stories around that whole training process?

00:00:55:19 - 00:01:20:14
Kevin Chilton
Well, so I grew up in Los Angeles, so of course fancy myself. Quite the expert driver. My wife would argue against that, I think. But I think when our girls are growing up, although Kathy did help teach them to drive early, she quickly advised me that this was not her forte and that it was going to be my responsibility to teach the girls how to drive.

00:01:20:22 - 00:01:44:07
Kevin Chilton
And I was excited to do that. I mean, I am so excited to watch them learn how to do this new thing as I'd watch them learn other things throughout their lives. And and I always wanted to I wanted to make sure they were exposed to two different things, you know, driving in snow. I can remember taking them to when we lived in Omaha, taking one of our daughters to a parking lot on the weekend.

00:01:44:07 - 00:02:04:13
Kevin Chilton
And intentionally, you know, telling her, go fast now, step on your brakes really hard and getting a skid and spin or whatever if you know what that's like. And now let's try it and try not to do that and try to give them exposure to as many circumstances as I could. And then I always show confidence in them when they are driving.

00:02:04:13 - 00:02:24:10
Kevin Chilton
And this used to kind of irk them because I would, you know, maybe I'd have a magazine with me or something. They'd be driving and I'd be looking at the magazine and they'd be good. Dad, stop doing that. Look at watch what I'm doing, what I'm doing. And I'd say, Oh, you got this. Know, I was always I had one eye out.

00:02:24:10 - 00:02:24:17
Matthew Krekeler
Sure.

00:02:25:11 - 00:02:44:06
Kevin Chilton
I watched it, but I was trying to make it look like they were solo in the car, even though I was sitting next to them. Yeah. The bench that they're going to get, they're right. Or there's not something I tried that was part of my teaching technique to give them confidence that they really didn't need sitting there anymore next to them to be able to drive.

00:02:44:22 - 00:02:49:04
Kevin Chilton
And so those are those are fun times and they all learn a different.

00:02:49:06 - 00:02:50:06
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, that's a good tip.

00:02:50:22 - 00:03:18:09
Kevin Chilton
And they all drive differently some more than others. The other thing we did, though, that Kathy discovered we were stationed in in Colorado Springs and she found this professional driving school that was the weekend course that you had to bring your own car and you dropped your daughter off with the car. And then parents were allowed to be there and they had a you know, they had a pad set up where they could do emergency brake stops.

00:03:18:10 - 00:03:36:09
Kevin Chilton
Yeah, bring it was some coursework. They did the same thing with skids and everything else. And then the next day, you know, and I came home at night, but the last day you got to ride in the car with them as they ran through these golf courses. And it was amazing to see the skill improve and their comfort.

00:03:37:08 - 00:03:59:00
Kevin Chilton
And that was I think that was a huge safety thing that we committed to. For them to go to that course that they gave gave us a little more confidence in their ability to drive safely and, you know, some some have heavier foots than others. Yeah, of course they're excellent drivers.

00:04:00:00 - 00:04:02:08
Matthew Krekeler
So that's great. I have you on the record saying that.

00:04:02:08 - 00:04:06:09
Kevin Chilton
So and I'll take some of the credit for that.

00:04:06:10 - 00:04:23:14
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. And you're in Colorado Springs, so I have to ask, you're near Pikes Peak. And I remember there's a road at Pikes Peak that's like super narrow and goes all the way up to the top. Have your daughters driven that?

00:04:24:05 - 00:04:36:09
Kevin Chilton
I, I don't think so. Okay. And they didn't tell me but but yeah. Which would be fine but I don't think they, they'd driven up twice but they certainly drive in the mountains.

00:04:36:16 - 00:04:37:13
Matthew Krekeler
Okay. Yeah.

00:04:38:03 - 00:05:01:17
Kevin Chilton
And, and all over the country. I mean, our oldest is in the Air Force. She's driven coast to coast. You know, they're different assignments. And, you know, we had at one point we had a daughter and every time zone in America. So they may not have driven in all different kinds of cities and locations and and environments. And and so they're they're they're good.

00:05:01:22 - 00:05:02:19
Kevin Chilton
They're going to be on the wheel.

00:05:03:10 - 00:05:09:22
Matthew Krekeler
That's great. And then any advice to you? What was your experience with your daughter's first car?

00:05:11:02 - 00:05:41:19
Kevin Chilton
Yeah. Oh, well, we we had a rule that they didn't have a car, you know, we didn't buy them cars when they went to college. And that when they graduated from college, we would we set a budget and said we would help them purchase their first cars and interestingly, two got cars and two didn't. And the two that didn't live in major metropolitan areas.

00:05:41:19 - 00:06:12:18
Kevin Chilton
Yeah. That they they very practical they said look it's going to cost me an arm and a leg to ah to insure this thing and it's cheaper for me to walk or take the metro or the bus to work. And to this day those two daughters don't own a car. Yeah. Because of where they live and how they, how they live now they come home, they drive, you know, they use our cars and I'm sure they borrow French cars if they need to when they're in a circumstance.

00:06:12:18 - 00:06:33:14
Kevin Chilton
But two of them got cars right out of college and two still don't. So but that was fun to watch. Watch them shop for a car and give them advice. And of course, they didn't take any of the advice I gave them, but they took the advice their mother gave them, which was a the only time you're ever going to be able to afford a a fun car is now.

00:06:33:14 - 00:06:38:12
Kevin Chilton
So get a fun car. Yeah. So both of our daughters got minis.

00:06:38:12 - 00:06:39:00
Matthew Krekeler
Oh yeah.

00:06:39:09 - 00:06:39:15
Kevin Chilton
Yeah.

00:06:39:20 - 00:06:42:05
Matthew Krekeler
And like the, the Cooper's the mini Cooper.

00:06:42:11 - 00:06:45:23
Kevin Chilton
Mini Cooper. Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, like driving a little go kart.

00:06:46:07 - 00:06:47:05
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, that's great.

00:06:47:11 - 00:07:00:05
Kevin Chilton
I know that that's what it feels like. And so they had, they've had fun driving their minis and they, one has moved on to a Subaru and she, she lived in a little more snowy climate so yeah that's great.

00:07:00:05 - 00:07:18:06
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. As we are preparing for our third kid, we're looking at bigger cars right now. So we're trying to we're yeah, we're like, do we need a third row? Like, how are we going to get all the car seats since it's like, yeah, technically seats five, but the car seats are so big. Like we're like we're going to have to upgrade.

00:07:18:06 - 00:07:24:01
Matthew Krekeler
And yeah, the days of driving this fast, little, little cars are kind of over.

00:07:24:13 - 00:07:46:22
Kevin Chilton
Right? So I think my wife gave him good advice to do it early. Yeah, but later on, you're eventually going to end up in a caravan, some kind of minivan or a or a larger car, which is what we ended up doing for all those reasons. When you got four children strapped in and various configurations to include car seats and soccer balls and soccer equipment and everything else.

00:07:46:22 - 00:07:52:15
Kevin Chilton
And if you're going to the park, you know, it's it's tough to get it all packed to go.

00:07:53:08 - 00:08:00:17
Matthew Krekeler
And then, yeah. What's one thing that dads should remember when they're teaching their daughters to drive for the first time?

00:08:02:05 - 00:08:26:20
Kevin Chilton
Oh, gosh. One thing I don't know. Small dents don't mind no matter what, you know, actually, none of them dented the car or did anything until the first three never had an accident. And I'll take the fourth one. She had a few dents after she got her driver's license, but it's like, you know, big deal.

00:08:26:20 - 00:08:29:03
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, I think that's good advice. Just in general.

00:08:29:12 - 00:08:35:14
Kevin Chilton
You know, she's she's a car still runs get over.

00:08:35:14 - 00:08:47:22
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah yeah. I think that's good advice in general to you. It's like, you know, you'll go through life, you'll have your ups and downs, your your your dents, so to speak. But yeah, that's that's kind of part of life.

00:08:48:10 - 00:09:00:17
Kevin Chilton
Right? Keep the big picture in mind.

00:09:02:05 - 00:09:24:10
Matthew Krekeler
Thank you to General Kevin Chilton for sharing his experience and being part of Girl Dat Nation. At the time of this recording, my oldest daughter is only three years old, a long way away from driving on highways. But just recently I got her and her sister. A Power Wheels Jeep modded it to run off of 18 volt drill batteries and already she's becoming skilled behind the wheel.

00:09:24:22 - 00:09:46:04
Matthew Krekeler
Those are proud father moments indeed. You can find the Power Wheels story on Girl Dad Nation Instagram and Facebook. Check it out and leave a comment. I'd also love to see the awesome vehicles you've made or gotten for your kids. You can also email me at girldadnationpodcast@gmail.com Thank you for listening. Until next time.

00:09:46:12 - 00:09:47:09
Matthew Krekeler
Go be a dad.