The process of learning to drive is stressful. And you're going to encounter potentially emotional or dangerous situations. So how do you make this enjoyable and instructive without it degenerating into stony silences and eye-rolling and yelling? Well the first thing is to understand that your teens want to please you. They want to do well. So be careful with your criticism. If you're going to point out something that they need to do better, make sure you also give them kudos for the things that they're doing well. Now, patience is key for both of you. It takes patience to deal with backed up traffic and all the irritations you encounter on the road. And if you as a parent keep your emotions in control, your teen is more likely to keep their emotions in control as well. Keep the conversation on driving. Their decisions, other's decisions, the roads. Resist the temptation to nag and talk about curfews and friends and clothes. Those can be emotionally loaded topics. And you want their full concentration on driving. If you have a spouse or partner, divide up your roles in the driver training process to take advantage of your respective strengths and styles. If you get easily unnerved in urban driving, have your spouse do that and you take the less stressful situations in the parking lots and suburban streets. If your reaction to mistakes is yelling and your partner's is patient support - they can bring out your teen's fears and concerns better, flip it around so that most of those hair raising mistakes are made in the earlier stages. You take the later stages. So you can combine your strengths and your different styles to help make this an instructive and an enjoyable experience together.