My earliest memory is of my mother driving my younger brother and me to school in our SUPER fly Honda CR-V circa 1996. She would make turns in that car on two wheels, and I promise you, even at age 5 I knew that such turns were somewhat risky maneuvers. My mother, on the other hand, seemed completely unphased by her vehicle defying all known laws of physics and gravity.

Oddly enough, when I was first learning to drive, my mother always put a strong emphasis on maintaining control over the vehicle. In retrospect, it seems ludicrous when you consider the stunts she pulled, but in the long run proved helpful to me. In an effort to teach me how to keep control of my vehicle in even the toughest situations, she would take me out to the high school parking lot in the middle of a blizzard or a monsoon and have me floor it, then immediately and forcefully break in an effort to teach me how to deal with a vehicle that has lost control.

At the time I would be praying to every deity I knew and frantically screaming that we were going to die, but my mother, every the calming force would verbally guide me through the steps to get out of those situations. I can’t even begin to say how glad I am that she went over those steps with me until I was bringing my car out of a spin out in my sleep, because one day over the summer on my way home from work, my car hydroplaned in the rain as I was making a slightly sharper turn than anticipated. By that point, righting my ever faithful 2011 Honda Accord, which I still have to this day, was basically second nature thanks to the muscle memory my mother helped to develop.

I guess my point is, while my mother’s methods were perhaps a bit more extreme than a sane person’s might be, my mother took that time to reinforce in me the correct and safe way to handle potentially unsafe situations. (Minus the turning on two wheels, seriously, never do that if you can help it.) Take the time to learn how your vehicle handles both snow and heavy rain in controlled environments so that you can plan accordingly. It could save your life down the road. Below I have listed some tips to help you if you find yourself spinning out of control due to slick weather.

1. DO NOT BREAK. That could cause your car to spin out even more
2. Turn your wheel in the opposite direction the front of your car is turning. So if the front of your car starts spinning to the left, turn your wheel to the right. This will help to straighten out your vehicle.
3. Stay as calm as possible and remember not to turn your wheel too much. Turn the wheel in small increments until your vehicle is driving straight again.