Every day more and more drivers join the road. These drivers are the teenagers of the world. As we all remember when we were teenagers, we thought we knew it all. Taking none of our parents’ advice. Now that we’re adults, we realize that we knew very little.

What we may have forgotten, is how irresponsible we were when getting behind the wheel for the first time. Even if you were one of the rare ones that listened to your parents, you still had no idea on how to take car of your car. When something wasn’t working properly, or a light came on was usually the only time you brought something up to your parents. There was no way you turned to your parents If something broke or got damaged, but the car was still able to run well. You just waited around to see when they would notice, hoping they wouldn’t ever.

As a parent, you should teach your teenagers how to take care of their car to prevent major repairs from happening. A repair that many forget about is auto glass. Knowing how to uphold your car’s glass is a great way to avoid more costly repairs.

The easiest way to prevent damage to your car’s glass is keeping it clean. Washing your car regularly will prevent large amounts of dirt to build up on your auto glass. Removing the dirt is important because these particles can scratch your car. The more dirt that builds up the harder it is to remove and the more scratching that occurs. You want to avoid your glass from being scratched up because the action will weaken the surface. When glass is weak, it is more susceptible to breaking.

When washing your car properly, you can’t rely on the rain or your windshield wipers. Rain won’t wash off the hard, stuck on stuff. As for your wipers, they only move the dust around your windshield. Moving abrasive particles over the glass just scratches them up, weakening the glass’s surface. The wipers and wiper fluid are only made to wash away smaller spots and smears.

Timing is everything when cleaning your car. You shouldn’t wait around for dirt to collect around bird droppings and smeared bugs on your car. When you clean your car use the car wash if it’s been awhile since you’ve cleaned your auto glass. The squeegee that’s provided at the gas station is good to use for in between car wash visits. Or, a cheaper, maybe more convenient route is to keep cleaning supplies at a home for the job.

When it comes to at home cleaning products, make sure to use microfiber cloths. Microfiber is much gentler on glass, unlike most sponges that will damage glass. Combine the cloths and a windshield cleaner that is high quality and your glass will be safe from harm. Luckily, both the cloths and cleaners of high quality are affordable. Don’t use other household products to clean your auto glass because they have chemicals that will ruin its surfaces.

Keeping the windshield washer fluid filled in the car is important. Teach your teenagers where to put the fluid in and what the fluid looks like for when buying more. You can put as much as you can in the tank but check the level of the tank once a month.

Show your teenagers how to replace their windshield wiper blades. Worn down blades won’t clean your windshield properly and will further damage the glass. Six months is the average life time of your blades; you can usually see the wear and the need to replace them around that time.

Having the conversation with your children on how to maintain their car is a necessary one. Teaching your kids how to prevent their auto glass from cracking or breaking is an important part of that conversation. Pass along the knowledge and hope your kids don’t only listen but practice good auto glass habits.