Did your Mum ever drive?

My Mum learned to drive young in my grandad’s car. She drove tractors as well and was employed by a local farm to take trailer loads of silage from the field to the farm travelling down the A1, before it was a motorway. She tried to teach me, but I scared her to death cutting a corner and going up a steep banking! I didn’t pass my test until my thirties.

We had a Morris Minor which was only driven by my father. My mother had old fashioned views about what women should do. My father didn't use the car on a daily basis for work but just for Chapel on Sundays and holidays.

My mum started driving after my dad died, and she always said it was life changing for her.
She had a bright yellow escort, with terribly squeaky breaks.

That was good, because it meant you could hear her popping round "unannounced" and have a quick tidy up.
We had a lot of fun going places when my daughter was little.

Yes, my mother drove, she got her license during the Suez crisis in 1956 when for some reason a learner driver didn't have to have a qualified driver sitting beside her.

My aunts on both sides of the family drove too, but not my grandmothers, nor grandpa.

I never got my licence because when I was 16 Daddy refused to let me sit the test, as I was not living a home and had no regular access to a car.

Later I moved to Denmark, where it costs a fortune to learn to drive, as you have to go to a driving school and they can more or less charge what they like. Never could afford the lessons and resented not having been allowed to sit my test in Scotland aged 16.

I do have a licence to sail a motor boat though!

Yup. And she taught me!

My mother never learnt to drive, she was far too nervous. My mother in law learnt to drive when she was a girl on the farm. She was born in 1915 and never took a test. She drove until well into her 80's. All but one of my Aunt's drove.

My mother never drove nor did we ever own a car. My MiL could drive but wouldn't even though she had a car which spent all of its life in their garage until it rusted. My DH then boyfriend was allowed to drive it from time to time, except when he wanted to come and see me. But this was all part of her jealous, controlling nature!

I learned to drive when I was 40. My mother was amazed by this. My father was a very good driver as this was part of his living. The first time I took my parents out after I had got a car I nearly put us in a farmyard ditch but my dad said to me quietly, “don’t let that put you off, just keep at it”. He gave me some really good common-sense pieces of advice. My daughters both learned to drive in their teens. Now I am 80 and Covid has interfered with my usual routines plus some health issues I have lost my confidence for at least the time being.

My mother talked about joining the Womens' Land Army during WW2. She volunteered with her best friend to get away from home (where she had been bombed out). She was stationed in a hostel from where the girls were taken to work on surrounding farms. Mum told us that one morning, the warden opened the door, looked around the girls in the room and then tossed a bunch of keys at my mum. My mum had one week to teach herself how to drive the lorry parked outside!

She told us how she had to light a fire under the engine on cold mornings (to warm up the oil) and let down the tyres to get under low bridges. She drove throughout the war taking the girls to neighbouring farms, doing a days labouring and then collecting the girls on the way back. She collected eggs (carefully counted in and out) and moved anything that was needed.

My parents could not afford a car after the war. Mum took and passed her driving test when she was in her 60s and had moved out of London but never had her own car and didn't drive much. My father was a good driver, he learnt with his father before WW2 and immediately went into the Transport Corps when called up.

I have driven since I was 20, DH was driving at 17. I can't imagine not being able to drive.

Foxglove77

Notspaghetti I have been looking through old family photos.

The male side have been lorry and bus professional drivers in years gone by. My Mum and her Mother never learnt to drive. I was a reluctant driver but my daughter never looked back and has a PSV and train licence.

I was interested to know how common it was for women to drive in previous generations, compared to women of today where it is the norm.

Thanks for explaining. Old family photos do make you "think" don't they.

My mum drove an ambulance in Hull during the war, as a Foreign National she was not allowed to join up. She never drove anything after that until she died at the age of 99 last year. She drove the ambulance with no training or test either.

My mum drove trucks in the Army, when she left she was too young for a commercial HGV liscense. Once I arrived (1953) she had to stop work any way, 99% of mums then were SAHP. As we all grew up she got jobs delivering cars and everytime one of us got a car she'd have to try it out, even when she visited me in the Far East she was off in my jeep.

My mum never drove but my dad did. I think he dissuaded her but she was a nervous lady bless her. We had a very old Ford and I can still remember the number plate now! We’d go out for a Sunday afternoon drive each week and did go on holiday in it each year.

My Dad bought my Mum a car when I was a child but she was so terrified of driving that it sat on the driveway for years. Later on when she was around 55 or so she had secret driving lessons - Dad thought she was having an affair. She passed her test and got herself a car - she was so proud.
I didnt learn to drive until I was 30 - I was married to a man who told me I didnt need to drive because he did! Needless to say, I divorced him and learned to drive

My Mother was the original 'lady' - she didn't drive, never ran anywhere, hadn't worn trousers in her entire life - she died when I was young and I sometimes think she would have been horrified and shocked to the core to see what passes for normal now.

Nooooooooooo Thank the Lord!!!!!!!!!!

My mother only had 2 lessons with my dad when my younger brother and sister were small.
The second lesson nearly resulted in divorce proceedings being taken and as , with 4 children plus dad a manual worker and mum only being a school dinner lady, there wasn't really the spare cash for lessons with a driving school.
I don't think there were many in her social circle that could drive either , so I don't think she found it a problem.
She hated shopping at the best of times, so when we were able to do the grocery shopping for her and as I worked in the nearest town , quite a few of my lunch hours/days off were spent getting "just a little thing" for various presents etc!

my mum was incredibly able and a businesswoman and I asked her why she didn't drive, and she didn't say this unkindly, she adored my father, but she said: 'there has to be something your father can do that I can't.'

No. When my older brother was learning, Mum tried as well. No kdea it was her own idea or if Dad persuaded her.

I remember an outing to a disused airfield (apart from all the learner drivers!) where brother was to practice. All went well and then it was Mums turn. She had barely set off and was changing gear when the gear stick came away in her hands. Obviously this was not her fault just a coincidence, but she never drove again!!

Neither of my parents could drive or ever owned a car. My dad was a railwayman and we went everywhere by train. That didn't stop him being fiercely territorial over "his" parking space on the road outside our house!

Both of my parents never learnt to drive, we went everywhere by train. I passed my test when I was 22 yrs old and they said it was a waste of money as I could never afford to buy a car. They ended up and lent me the money for one, which I paid off weekly to my mum who had a notebook that she marked off each pay day lol. It worked out well because I ended up the taxi driver for everyone.

My mum was the driver in our house. My dad didn’t learn until quite late (I was in my 20s when I passed my test and there was only a few weeks between me and my dad) and he never liked it

DM never drove, DF did a bit having obtained a licence before you had to pass a test! Parents never owned a car. My older sister never drove. I passed the test at age 20.

She did. Like a lunatic. She had an EType at one time. I'd sit in that funny bucket seat praying to a god I don't think I used to believe in. She went Like the clappers. She'd roar with laughter every now and then.

She never really calmed down either. I think she thought she was at Brands Hatch.

As she aged she did calm down. But she was a real petrol head

My mother drove as part of her job in the war, she was a WREN.