Did your Mum ever drive?

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!

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

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.

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 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 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 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.

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 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.

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 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!

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.

Yup. And she taught me!

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!

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.

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 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.

Yes. She learnt in the 30’s before tests were obligatory. She was a good driver but once reversed out of the drive, which had two sets of gates, without opening the first set. I was such a clype that I couldn’t wait to tell my Dad. I ran down the road to meet him off the train and impart the news. She never let me forget it ?
She gave up driving at 73 through ill health. I passed my test at 17 and can’t imagine life without a car. It’ll happen one day and I’ll be lost. No public transport near me.

Would just add, that after my father retired, my mother virtually stopped driving, since my father always would (they no longer had 2 cars.). We often told him that he really should make her drive now and then, otherwise there could be a problem later, esp. since she’d never been terribly confident anyway.

But he never did, or she just preferred to be driven - probably both - so by the time he became seriously ill in hospital, it was a case of forcing herself, unless she wanted to shell out for taxis every day.
So by the time he eventually died, a couple of years later, it was just as well she was more or less used to driving again. She was only 70 then, and carried on driving until she was 80.

Mum never drove in this country but was very proud of driving her boss’s Mercedes down the Ku’Damm in Berlin before the war!
My MIL was a somewhat erratic driver in her latter years but when the children were young she drove all over Europe in a little Fiat 600 6 seater including driving the 4 children back to the U.K. from Berlin (still during the Cold War) at the end of FIL’s posting.

Mum passed her test after a number of attempts (she never told us!) in her 30s. She was an appalling driver. Dad learnt when he was very young and my sister, brother and I passed our tests in our late teens. In fact, the day I passed my test was one of my best days ever! I love driving. In fact I do most of the driving. A good memory is of driving across the Sinai dessert in OHs off road vehicle! OH was taught by my father. OHs parents didn’t have a car and didn’t drive. I taught my elder son to drive. My daughter has had loads of lessons but hasn’t passed her test. Younger son thinks we should go back to a horse and cart.

Dad learned to drive when I was about 10 and then we got our first car, a Vauxhall V8. I loved that car. He took mum out once and never repeated it as she was so nervous. I can say that with certainty as he took me out and mum insisted on coming too. She was a back seat nightmare! I never repeated it and only finally learned when I was 30. It took me a full year but I passed first time. It was one of the best things I ever did. It gave me independence.

My mum drove. I remember her learning in an old Ford Prefect (black of course). She didn't do it often. I don't drive. I tried learning and it was the most nerve wracking thing I ever did, and it cost a fortune. I gave up, used public transport, and taxis when necessary.

neither my mum or gran ever drove and on my dads side only he ever drove, his parents and sisters never drove. i was in my early 40's when i passed my test, my daughter passed by the time she was 20

Mum didn't drive and neither did dad.
I very rarely travelled by car until I learnt to drive at 32 and we bought an second hand car.DH dosen't drive either.