To be proud of my parking

[amazedmummy]

So I have a new car that is much much bigger than my old car. I had it an hour before I reversed into a lamppost. Today I managed to reverse it into my drive! It had gates and it's fairly narrow and I'm so so proud of myself. I'm not proud of myself for much these days but I was so happy I took a picture and sent it to my family!

@Meckity1

I think I would have preferred that than the reverse in. Its the one maneuver I struggled with most (always got my parallel park bang on until my 3rd test which I got a serious fault for). I had to do the maneuver before even driving off for the test so had convinced myself I'd failed before I even left! It was awful and even my instructor agreed with me afterwards that it was bad but I got in between those lines in the end

I’ve got a bendy driveway, and although I’m ok now, when we first moved here I was often reversing into the hedge! I’m glad it’s not fences. So I know how you feel OP (or felt!).

I love nothing more than reversing into a tight spot and getting it spot on, especially when there is an audience. Why shouldn't you feel proud, well done.

Fab! Well done you 😊💐😊💐

God, the competitiveness to be the biggest shit in this thread is amazing.......

I have driven for over twenty yearsk never had an accident, never had a scrape.

A month ago I was parked up in the middle of a field. A fecking field, full of grass and stuff.
I reversed into a concrete post. The only item in approximately 37 miles 😁

Congrats on your success - youve cracked it now!

I live in a terrace with only on-street parking.
I often walk up a street of small bungalows with drives, thinking that if I lived in a house like that I'd have to widen the gates because it would be so tight to reverse into, so I agree you have the right to be proud.

It's amazing how often the very first reply on a new thread is snarky. Do people sit in wait for a new thread, ready to pounce?

Well done OP

Ignore the pricks.

I park at least 8 times a day, and sometimes I have to do a nimble to fuck manoeuvre (in a bloody Qashqai which has the turning circle of a barge I swear) and I always take a photo to send to my husband lol.

Also, to allllll the wonderful pps who "drive so much" I drive roughly 1000 miles a week, and there are still corners, and junctions I hate. In fact I hate one so much I take a five mile detour to avoid it.

I'm a bloody excellent driver, no accidents ever, no near misses, well over a hundred thousand miles racked up in 3 years. Doesn't give me the right to judge someone for having a minor weakness (and parking is the best kind to have considering the speeds you're doing).

Well done! I have rubbish spatial awareness and will avoid reverse parking if I can. Although I think it’s more down to confidence over ability, the first day I had my first car I decided to park in a multi-storey (next to a post), that didn’t end well. I love my little hatchback and have got used to it’s dimensions over time. We have a drive that is a bit of a chicane (and I once scraped the garage going out....in my car), so I refuse to take my husbands ‘mid life crisis’ up the drive.

I love nothing more than reversing into a tight spot and getting it spot on, especially when there is an audience

I always seem to mess up when I have an audience, so hate people sitting in their cars when I am trying to reverse into the space next to them!

But a few years ago we had visitors over from Germany and I took them to a local castle with an awkward car park and tiny spaces. I reversed into a space perfectly and my friends were very impressed!

Preen away OP :)

If you go into any multistorey you will see lots of paint on all the pillars and around the ramps. MNers are clearly all perfect drivers :) but in real life they're really not.

The best thing I ever did was in a car park near Heathrow (near Harmondsworth Moor for those who may know it). Instead of an overhead gantry to keep caravans etc out, it had this long channel like a canal with no water in it, that you had to drive through. It was a terrible day and as I got through it someone came towards me. It wa enough to distract me and I turned the wheel just too soon as I exited this channel and it was like a can opener. Cost about £300 and several hours work for a poor bloke to sort it out. Although when I looked around the car park most cars had major scratches on them.

Well Done op from someone who is also not confident with driving.

The new changing to parking focused manoeuvres in driving lessons will hopefully help all the people that struggle with it. I hate the 'fuck it' it'll do' mentality.

It's great you're getting the hang of parking it. Bad parkers are the bane of my life, the car parks / streets would be a much safer place with better parkers (and smaller cars).

The new changing to parking focused manoeuvres in driving lessons will hopefully help all the people that struggle with it

No they won’t, they’ll help the next generation of drivers. And probably make them even more intolerant of those of us who learnt to drive in the days when cars were smaller and people were less fussy about something as trivial as how a car’s parked.

Well done OP. Dont listen to the negative chatters, be proud of whatever you want to be proud off. I'm proud I managed to brush my hair today.... I'm so tired 😁

Well done, OP! I've not long passed my driving test and still get a thrill when I do a perfect reverse park less said about parallel parking the better though.

Hello! Just stopping by to highlight the bit in the OP's first post where she says:

"I'm not proud of myself for much these days but I was so happy I took a picture and sent it to my family!"

(because it seems like a few posters may have missed it)

amazedmummy - just wanted to say well done for navigating the drive and the gates in your new car. Award yourself a and on us.

Ha, cross-posted with Clara. You wait an hour for an HQer to come along, and then get two at once...

No, you should be proud! It was an achievement for you

However, what truly amazes me are the articulated lorries that can reverse into the tiniest of spaces. Now that is some skill!

Not boast about it on MN ?
If you can't fit the pushchair in the car then you get a smaller pushchair. It's what many parents have had to do over the years.

@harrietthepie I got the smallest one I could find. Have you seen the boot of a smart car there's not much space. The engine is in the back so the boot is above it. You're choosing which parts of my posts you want to pay attention to.

My worst bit of parking was in my Rolls Royce (and yes, that is a stealth boast - I bought it with an inheritance from my dad, and ran a chauffeur business in it for a year before selling it because I was fed up cleaning the thing before every wedding!). I hit the side wall of the drive and scraped a massive dent in the side. My panicked brain went into overdrive on how much it would cost to fix it, but it turned out to be about a quarter of my estimate. I had parked it perfectly for months, and continued to park it perfectly. Can never park my Auris straight though!

@harrietthepie and I wasn't bloody boasting! I was explaining why I have been finding the size a struggle. I much preferred my old car but with more family members than seats it was time to change!

@2020maddog there's a guy up there road that brings the cab bit home. The way it turns it doesn't look real!

Go away @Harriethepie, stop trying to cause an argument.

Well done OP, our driveway has about half an inch spare and can only be reversed into. I have to fold the wing mirrors in to get onto the drive, luckily they are electric so can done at the push of a button. Had the car a year now, still not brave enough to attempt it with the wing mirrors out!

@BeAnythingBeKind you should be proud! I've had days like that.