Turn the wheel!
Keep turning the wheel!
More!!!
And the driving instruction fun continues.
Raise your hand if you remember how to parallel park!
Aww, come on.
It’s just like riding a bike!
Really!
I mean, sort of…
As of three days ago, I still had a vague idea of how to parallel park a car.
More or less.
I hadn’t made any legitimate attempts at parallel parking since my own driving test at the age of 16.
And even then, I’d been instructed to park between two snow banks rather than actual cars.
Which is good, because I likely wouldn’t have passed if I had to wedge myself in between two real cars.
Don’t get me wrong.
I do park in parallel spaces.
But only when I can easily drive right in to them.
(Shhh!)
On particularly rough days, I struggle to park my car straight in between the lines of a parking space…
Yet, I have impressive success backing our large pickup truck into parking spaces with amazing precision.
Go figure.
At any rate, it was time to teach my teenage son the basics of parallel parking.
Because how could that be a bad idea?
And so we drove to a nearby school parking lot.
Here, let me show you how it’s done.
Uh…
Show him what, exactly?
Yikes.
Going purely on instinct rather than any delusion of certainty, I tried.
I missed.
I tried again.
This time, the car was in between the lines.
A flawless execution it was not.
But at least complete and utter mortification was avoided.
For how can one teach what they themselves cannot do?
I must not have done too horrible a job of demonstrating, as my child managed several successful attempts of his own afterward.
My boy has been taking pleasure in using every opportunity to get behind the wheel.
On the bright side, he’s been commenting on my driving with far less frequency.
The tables have turned.
Anyway…
After the sobering knowledge that some of my driving skills might be rusty, I’m tempted to try a few more rounds of parallel parking again.
Totally off topic, but…
Did you know I used to speak French fluently during my teen years?
It’s true!
But then I ceased to continue making the effort to utilize my conversational skills.
So now I sound like I’m speaking Klingon rather than French.
Because skills you don’t use are skills you lose.
So use it or lose it.
~Happy Saturday, friends! Hope you all have a great weekend!~
Parallel parking. Yay.
comically quirky 
Yes! Why take all that trouble in figuring out when a simple parking space is just somewhere about that parallel parking space,
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Exactly! It takes more time and effort to attempt to squeeze into a parallel space than it does to find a different space altogether! 😜
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The best way to parallel park is to just park somewhere else 🙂
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I’m inclined to agree! 😀
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Ah the dreaded parallel parking. I actually didn’t mind that part of driving. When I was a teen, me and my friends used to have a contest anytime either of us had to drive around. If we had to parallel park, we would see could park in the least amount of moves. My average was always two, but I did it once in one move. Thanks for sharing this, it really brings back some memories.
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Wow! I’ve yet to see a teen who can do it in less than three moves, let alone one. That’s some impressive stuff right there! 🙃
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Parallel parking was not a park of our driving test, which is good because I’d still be trying to get my license 25 years later. Never done it, never attempted it, and refuse to park in any space that I have to use reverse for. We were meant to drive forward, not backward…. which brings up something I’ve always wondered. What is the supposed advantage of parallel parking in reverse rather than just pulling into the space forward and backing up? I think the people who made up the rules of the road years ago make it harder than it needs to be…
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Part, not park! There’s a Freudian slip for you!
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I avoid parallel parking like the plague. I haven’t done it since I took my driving test back in the day and I flunked that portion of the test miserably.
It’s bad enough in just any car, it’s worse in a manual transmission (which is all I’ve ever driven and drive to this day). No thank you!!!
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Well, when it comes to parallel parking, I can say I’m doing better now than I used to. I have improved by doing it whenever the opportunity arose.
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That’s great! Maybe one of these days, I’ll give it a try again. 😁
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This is awesome! Too funny about the parallel parking. Love the graphic at the end to with instructions. You’ve got such a great sense of humor, so unique and quirky. 😊 I like that! Hope you’re doing well and having a wonderful weekend. Blessings, and thanks for a great post!
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Aww, thank you! I always appreciate you and your kind words. 😊
Hope you’re having a terrific weekend! 😁
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I am a horrible parallel parker. Even parking in a lot I have known to be not so good.
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Yeah! We can start our own Perilous Parking club. 😜
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What’s frustrating is getting stuck in downtown traffic because someone is trying to parallel park and doesn’t have the slightest idea how to do it. J.
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I’d only consider attempting that if I knew for certain there were no other cars behind me, but otherwise, I’m perfectly okay with driving until I find a nonparallel parking space.😁
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This is great! Embarrassing, but great!
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Fortunately, I’m well beyond the point of embarrassment anymore. I’d have to do something utterly disastrous to be mortified anymore. 😂
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You know, I never had trouble parallel parking. My thing was backing into parking spaces, how to properly cut the wheel without getting too close to either car. But, I mastered that too, thankfully. Lol.
Driving adventures are always funny!
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Apparently, flat-out avoiding parallel parking is my idea of mastery. 😆
Yes, driving presents plenty of humorous scenarios. Especially when dealing with a new driver! 😝
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Reminds me of watching my wife weaving as she backs out of our straight driveway. Just another way men and women are different.
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Eh. Driving in straight lines is boring. 😂
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