Just passed my driving test

[campingstars]

I’ve just passed my driving test in my 30s, and honestly, the freedom it’s given me and my toddler has been amazing. But I keep having little incidents that are knocking my confidence and making me anxious about driving.
Today, I was leaving a car park onto a two-way street that isn’t really wide enough for two cars to pass comfortably. Usually, both cars slow right down or one stops to let the other through. I was going really slowly, but the other driver shouted at me that I should have stopped. As far as I’m aware, neither of us had priority, so he could have slowed down or stopped too.
Then, in another car park, I was reversing into a space and needed to pull forward slightly to straighten up. This briefly meant my car was facing the opposite direction to the arrows on the road. A man honked at me because I think he thought I was driving the wrong way. I just carried on reversing into the space, and everything was fine.
Yesterday, I nearly hit a bird and also curbed the car.
I know these are all quite small things, but they’re starting to make me question whether I should be driving at all. My friend keeps reassuring me that these sorts of things are completely normal in your first few weeks of driving and that I’m still learning and building confidence.
I do have P plates on the car too.
Has anyone else felt like this after passing? Does it get easier and less nerve racking with experience?
I’m also very dyspraxic and have adhd so finding it all a little overwhelming. I just keep making small mistakes too like being in the wrong lane not an issue just carry on in the lane im in and go another way home

Congratulations.
Just keep practicing and build up your experience and confidence. Try to ignore entitled arse holes, who are probably bullying you because of the P plates.

You are doing ok. I passed my test 40+ years ago and well remember the first 6-12 months as being a bit nerve racking. You will gradually gain confidence and experience so don't take shouty arseholes to heart. As long as you are obeying the rules of the road and are careful, carry on. In another few months you will wonder what you were worried about.

congrats on passing.
these things happen. it’s normal.

i reckon if it looks tight just stop. we have a corner like that. i thought that as it’s a bus route it must be possible to both drive the corner at once. It’s not. You’d think it would be common sense for the council to widen the road but no. So sometimes drivers do have to stop dead to let others by if it’s tight.

we've all hit birds. it’s awful. but you cannot help it if they fly in front of you. if it’s on the road stunned but ok when you get there just straddle it. itll hopefully fly off once you're away.

we've all kerbed the car. some roads especially in car parks at shopping centres are way too tight.

Don’t worry about being worried! It’s overconfident drivers who are most likely to have serious accidents. In a couple of the incidents you mentioned the problem was other people, not you.

You'll be fine. I passed my test at 37 and it is harder for older first time drivers. 5 years on I still occasionally do a boo-boo like clipping a kerb when driving out of a tight parking spot but it's not a big deal. What changed is the attitude. At the beginning, I'd be very upset over little things and perceive every glance in my direction as judgement. Now I just move on with my life.
Re narrow streets, I always stop and let people through. It's no skin off my back and I am not risking the driver being a dick either speeding towards me or being aggressive. Unless, of course, I am already committed and the other driver has room to let me pass.

My experience when I've driven in my daughter's car when she had L plates and then later P plates is that people are incredibly rude when they see them. I never have people being rude or impatient to me normally, only when I've driven in a car with the L or P plates on. So my suggestion would be to take them off and try not to overly worry about little things like kerbing the car which happen to all of us!

Congratulations on passing your test. I was also in my 30s when I passed after numerous attempts. I nearly gave up but 30 years on am so glad I did stick with it. As you say being able to drive gives you so much freedom and independence.

Don't worry about making minor mistakes - every driver has a story about a mistake they've made, that's all part of gaining experience. Please, please don't stop driving.

Congratulations OP. I would remove the P plates when you can. They were a well meaning 'invention' but sadly some drivers see them as a chance to bully or intimidate. A few give you more respect but not many. You won't have an accompanying driver often so I do believe that you're better off without them.
We all make mistakes when we first pass and plenty of people who passed years ago make even more!. Never rely upon other drivers on a 'familiar ' road doing what drivers normally do along there! I always used 'if in doubt don't'. Eg when the other driver said that you could have stopped for them. Could you have done, ' it might have been the safest thing? It's no good saying we both have equal rights of way when you've got a dented car.
Always plan ahead and think safety. I would also get yourself a dash cam fitted they are worth every penny. You can always review clips yourself if you're unsure whether you were 'right' or 'wrong'. Enjoy the freedom OP, you'll soon feel 'at home'.

The only bad thing about being on the road is the other drivers!! Take no notice of those who think they own the road. If you pay attention to them, especially when shouting at you accidents are more likely to happen so they can do one!

Congrats and yes, enjoy the freedom. The more you drive, the better you will get.

The more you drive the more confident you will be. I passed on my 4th test in my 40s. I absolutely love driving now. The freedom and how easy it makes life. Without turning this into a male bashing i used to wonder if the men that beep etc at you parking would do so if you was a man reversing into the space. 🤔 Just ignore.

Passing your driving test is just the start (congratulations btw). You learn far more in the years after passing and will gain confidence as you go. I have been driving for 20+ years and still make mistakes, especially with ‘getting in the right lanes’, I use google maps as sat nav but often it tells you to get in the wrong lane (so don’t use this). There’s a lot of cars on the road….way more than when I first past my test, so I come along idiots often. The key is to stay calm. If you are in a wrong lane and can’t change then just go the way that lane goes, find a safe place to turn around and then go back. Always leave for a journey giving you plenty of time to cover having to correct yourself or traffic. I think the problem with a lot of drivers is ‘they are in such a hurry’ and haven’t given themselves enough time, then they end up driving like idiots.

Driving can be stressful at times, but try and remain calm and give yourself plenty of time.

My DD is learning and she seems to think she knows it all 🤣….the learning continues after passing and driving without someone sat next to you is very daunting.

Congrats OP!

I'm with everyone else - take the P plates off. They are a jerk magnet.

Get rid of the pass plates. People are seeing them and giving you less leeway not more - because they think they can tell you how to use the road.
Sadly dealing with impatient road users are part and parcel of being a driver. I did some really silly things though in the first few weeks of driving which make me shudder a bit to think about, but it made me a better driver in the long run. However none of what you have mentioned are things that are specific to new drivers. I really do think you should get rid of the P plates. I don't know why they are recommended - it doesn't make people more patient at all.

Congratulations, it doesn't sound like you're driving unsafely and you wouldn't have passed your test if the examiner didn't think you were competent. In the instances you've described it sounds like the other drivers were impatient. Most likely seeing the 'P' plates and a female driver and taking the opportunity to have a go because they were having a bad day or enjoy being argumentative.

Even the most experienced drivers misjudge situations at times, (kerb the car, stall, etc). It's impossible for anyone to drive perfectly 100% of the time, even if some people's egos might fool you into thinking otherwise!

Congratulations!
I passed last Summer, aged 56. I love the freedom it’s given me, especially as we moved to a new area a few weeks later and being unable to drive would’ve been so much more restricting than where we lived previously.

A year on and there’s still the occasional mistake, but that goes for any driver I think, regardless of how many years they’ve been driving. I changed my car three weeks ago and that’s been a learning curve as it feels so different to my old car.

There are so many idiots driving though, as someone said above it feels like people are all in a hurry and forget how to drive safely. I had a close call the other week when someone jumped a red light just as I was about to drive through on green at a crossroads. A split second earlier and he’d have gone straight into me. All lights had been on red to allow the pedestrian crossings on all four sides to activate, once everyone had crossed my lights changed to green and I was just starting to move off when he went straight across, a building on the corner blocked my vision of him coming in that direction. It really shook me up though.

I passed my test at 35 years old in December 2025 and i love the freedom it has given me and my 5 year old so far this year! At the start I kept coming across little situations I wasn't confident about but it has gotten so much better over time, I always remember my instructor said I would actually do most of my learning once I'm on the road full time because you won't come across most situations in a 2 hour lesson

I actually decided not to put P plates on my car because I had soooo many incidents when learning where people would pull out of junctions, overtake in unsafe places etc because the car had L plates, my instructor said these things happen all the time in a learner car and advised P plates aren't much better, everyone assumes your slow, inexperienced & in the wrong all the time so they try to hurry past/round you

Take the plates off, you will make yourself a target. You are going fine. This is how you learn. Everybody hits birds occasionally, they aren’t very bright. Everybody hits curbs occasionally too. As long as you don’t hit people or buildings it’s all good 😀 and other drivers are ignorant arseholes. It’s a rule of nature

Being a little nervous as a new driver is probably much safer than the overconfident dickheads who get excited about driving and cause accidents.

All of your examples are regular occurrences sadly. With time, you won't bat an eyelid at the morons. Keep driving as regularly as you can, one day you'll realise it's all clicked into place. I'm a firm believer in you only really learn how to drive AFTER your test. It comes with practice, persistence and an acknowledgement that this world is full of dickheads and you're not one of them. Keep going!

Congratulations on passing.

Narrow road - you need to get your vision up higher in all circumstances but especially this, and plan ahead more, lots of drivers don't look much beyond their front bumper, or much beyond the car immediately behind them when using their mirrors - don't be that person!!

Carpark - people will toot the horn to berate you but also to inform you of something you might have missed and they've noticed, it's fine, he let you know that it was one way before you might have got yourself into more of a pickle and embarrassed yourself, thank him and can carry on as you were.

Curbing - just keep an eye on your tyres, and manouvre slowly, you'll get a feel for your car size soon enough. Manouvres like reverse parking and three point turns are about repetition. I used to live in a terrace with on street parking, my ability to parallel park then was nuts, I need much more room again now, as I don't do it often.

Wildlife - you will hit birds and animals, it never gets any less unpleasant. I hit a massive owl with the top box of the ambulance i was driving, I thought it was going to get high enough, it didn't, I was gutted, this was 15+ years ago, it still makes me sad when i think about it.

To give a different perspective on the P plates. I was approaching a roundabout recently and there was a driver in the left lane (left turn only) with P plates on. They drifted over slightly as if they were going to change lanes but didn’t. I kept back and sure enough they proceeded round in the wrong lane. Without the P plates I might not have given them so much room!

You’ll be fine OP. My driving instructor said that he only teaches people to pass their test and it is after your test when you learn to drive.

I passed my test at 36, 5 years ago. Definitely just keep going and you’ll get more confident. I never used p plates as it seems to rile people up

All perfectly normal. Everyone makes little mistakes when driving.

Case in point, I went to the supermarket earlier. It's quite a small carpark and a one-way system round it. I went to reverse into a space and completely botched it, so had to pull out again to straighten up. There was an older guy in the car behind, waiting for me to move, who gave me a right dirty look as he drove past! 23 years I've had my license!

Personally, I'd remove the P plates. A lot of knobheads on the road seem to interpret this as "P for pester this driver", and will actually be more obnoxious and less forgiving than if you didn't have them.