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Have you ever noticed that as married couples get older the women do most of the driving?

When young men and women meet and start dating, it's typical that the guy drives the car and the young lady sits in the passenger seat. When they get married and have children, they share driving responsibilities.

Then when they hit their 60s, women drive the car and the man sits quietly in the passenger seat.

The reason is after many years of driving together, the man in the relationship has gone crazy from being badgered about his driving.

Here is a typical conversation when I go out driving with my wife Madeline.

MADELINE: You're driving too fast. Slow down.

I slow down.

MADELINE: Turn your blinker off.

I turn the blinker off.

MADELINE: Turn your signal on if you're going to turn.

I turn my signal on.

MADELINE: Why are you driving so slow?

Me: You told me to.

MADELINE: Well, speed up. Or we're going to be late.

Here's a true story. I was driving down the road a few weeks ago and suddenly Madeline shouted. I mean SHOUTED.

MADELINE: WATCH OUT.

There's no one in front of our car, and I quickly look in the rear view mirror and both side mirrors and … there are no cars anywhere near us.

Me: What am I watching out for? (I ask mildly)

MADELINE: The guy up at the bus stop.

I look up ahead and 40 yards away, 30 feet off the road is a guy sitting at a bus stop.

Me: You mean that guy at the bus stop way off on the side of the road?

MADELINE: Yes.

Me: Did you honestly think I was going to lose control of the car, go off the road and hit him?

MADELINE: Yes.

Here's another true driving story my friend Richard related to me about him driving the car with his wife, Barbara, in the passenger seat. Richard had just pulled out of the driveway of his condo and was slowly driving up the road. Ahead of the car 50 feet away a flock of ducks started crossing the street.

BARBARA: Do you see the ducks up ahead?

RICHARD: Yes.

BARBARA: Well, don't kill the ducks.

RICHARD: Do you really think I'm going to step on the gas and try to run over those ducks?

BARBARA: Yes.

Eventually, men reach a point where they've just had enough advice from their wives and they go, "Why don't you drive?"

I hit that point on a road trip to the south recently. I was driving and we were headed to Elizabethtown, Ky. It was night. and I accidently got off at the wrong exit.

MADELINE: Why are you getting off here?

ME: I thought this was our exit.

MADELINE: Our exit doesn't come up for 25 miles. Are you hallucinating?

ME: Well, why don't you drive?

MADELINE: I will.

So we changed spots and Madeline took over driving and the first thing she did was pull out into oncoming traffic the wrong way on a divided highway.

I mildly shouted, "Get back, get back. We're all going to die."

Madeline put the car in reverse and got us back to safety.

"So, I made a little mistake. At least I didn't get off at the wrong exit," she said.

And that is why when you see older couples in a car, the women drive while the men sit quietly in the passenger seat, scared for their lives.

- Myron Kukla

Myron Kukla is a professional journalist, writer and owner of the West Michigan-based marketing company WriteStuff. Kukla is the author of two books of humor, Confessions of a Baby Boomer: Memories of Things I Haven't Forgotten Yet and Guide to Surviving Life. He has also just published two ebooks on Amazon.com, Chomp and Something in the Blood.