Will You Like Driving Your Child to Acting Auditions?

How do you think you’ll like driving your child to acting auditions? Do you enjoy driving? Does driving in traffic stress you out?

When my daughter first started auditioning, I had no idea how much driving I would be doing.  While we lived in the Southeast, we often drove 1 to 3 hours each way to her modeling and acting auditions and jobs.  It seemed fun, probably because it was new and did not happen very often.

When we moved to Los Angeles, the reality of what driving to acting auditions really meant hit me like a brick.  My previous driving experience in no way prepared me for driving in Los Angeles traffic.

From the moment we arrived in LA, I did everything I could to avoid the freeways.  At the suggestion of my daughter’s manager, I bought a Thomas Guide for the LA Area and studied the Burbank and Hollywood sections of it.

Since I have no sense of direction, driving to my daughter’s acting auditions was particularly stressful for me. There were many times that we got lost or missed an exit and drove miles out of the way.

Sometimes we ended up in dangerous areas with no clue how to get back to where we were or to where we were trying to go!  It was very upsetting to me and to my daughter.

We even missed an audition or two and were late to some because of getting lost.  That was embarrassing, and sometimes we arrived in less than a relaxed frame of mind, which is not helpful in the auditioning process.

So how can you make the process of driving to and from auditions less stressful for you and for your child?  Here are a few suggestions that should help: Read more »