Worst Feeling Ever

[jsecure]

This has been dominating my life the last 18 hours. I couldn’t sleep last night. So I was coming into my building last night and we have this underground car park. My allocated space is next to another allocated space, and on my right is a big concrete pillar. I entered my space front first and avoided the pillar, but I was a little close to the car next to me. I tried to reverse a bit and adjust, but somehow that made it worse. And then I tried again, and it got worse. I ended up with my car leaning sideways into their bay, like an inch away from their car. I called my wife for advice (I’m a relatively new driver and I’m not great at parking sometimes) and she said, leave it because if you move any more you will hit their car. They were parked rear first, and if I try to reverse out I would impact their wing mirror. There is a solution; they could just drive out in a straight line as their car is pointing outwards anyway and is clear. Then I could sort out my worst ever parking job and get out of their bay. But my word; I wish I hadn’t got in the car that day. What an awful parking job; literally the worst ever. I’m really ashamed about it. I’m coming back from work now and I hope they’ve squeezed last me to go shopping or something so I can fix up my appalling parking job. I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about it. My wife inisists on driving most of the time and I have said I need to get more practical parking experience. Now she’s gone for a month visiting family so if I don’t drive, I don’t eat. I’ve parked there before without issues but oh my did that go wrong. That poor person parked next to me; they didn’t deserve such a jerk parking job next to their nice car. Oh dear.

This cannot be real.

Sounds like you need to look into some more driving lessons, and ask your instructor to help you with this kind of manoeuvre.

You're being too hard on yourself.

These things happen.

Maybe leave a note on their windscreen apologising for the pickle you got into, and that you left the car as was as you didnt want to make it worse. If they know you didn't do it on purpose, they will understand.

This. My sweet fucking Lord, what is happening to the human race?

Do you know your neighbour? You may need to ask them to come and help sort it out, you can't leave your car like that with them maybe not having enough room to get out of their space.

Suppose some would just dismiss this as 'woman drivers'.........But not me, I have a great deal of sympathy.

Do we know OP is a woman? It's not really relevant is it?

I once got out of the car and asked a total stranger walking by to take over the parking for me as I found myself in a similar situation - just got closer and closer to the car next to the space I was trying to park in. Luckily he did as I asked rather than driving off with the car. Very kind of him.

Threads on MN are getting worse.
Human race is taking its self out.

I've been driving for 30+ years and I stalled my car at a busy junction last week.

So what? Nobody is perfect (apart from liars). I can't quite see how this is such a gigantic deal?

I’ve been driving decades but some days I have bad parking days! You need to clock up some hours practicing, it will get better and easier. I personally find reverse parking easiest, and from what you describe might be best with your tricky space. Accept help to rescue this situation and don’t beat yourself up!

Do you have a parking camera? I find going in backwards with a camera is much easier than going in forwards

there are lots of videos on tik tok showing how to park, when to turn etc

If you need Thick Tok to tell you how to park and when to turn then respectfully, you should be to taking the bus 🤣

After I got my license after a long break, I did exactly what you did but parked into the pillar. A nice £100 to fix at the garage and I had to knock on my neighbour who is lovely to come and park my car.

I also scraped my neighbours posh car when coming out one time, that was £375 for the paint job for the BMW quote that I had to hand over in cash.

Im just about to do an Advanced Driver course with Road Smart and have encouraged other people to do it too.

You must be trolling. I refuse to believe that level of meekness is real.

I got a replacement car for a few days once and I never drove it out because it was a bit wider and there was literally only one way (2 degrees either way) in and out of the space. This was when I was super experienced at reverse parking, was terrified of damaging the car!

You'll get better with more driving time. Keep at it.

I'm fairly old school and use what I was taught to use, ie windows and mirrors. Cameras and parking sensors get annoying with all the constant warnings and beeping. I can see where I am, my eyes work and my prescription glasses are up to date, I don't need a computer to tell me how close I need to get to things.

I’m a relatively new driver and I’m not great at parking sometimes

What part is difficult for you to comprehend?

Never drive into a space, always reverse in.

You urgently need more driving lessons that focus solely on your parking.

Update: The neighbour was really kind and moved their car further into their parking space; enough that I was just about able to back my car out of the parking space. I then went much closer to the concrete pillar. After I got out the car to inspect, I was actually still rather over in my parking spot but, I'm inside the white lines now, and it looks like two cars parked side by side, with plenty of distance between them, and it will be easy for us both to get in and out. Crisis averted.

Thanks to the people who empathised with my situation. You know that feeling when something happens and then suddenly you can't remember a time before it happened; it just dominates your thoughts. I spent all night and all day worrying about the whole situation. I'll get better with practice of course. But it really just. I don't know. It was a lot for me to deal with.

Also some people said what is humanity coming to. Really? Really? Take your pick; Ukraine. Donald Trump. That thing going on in Venezuela. The thing about to happen in Greenland. The thing in the UK where we're all poor. I parked badly. Really? I'll just leave you to think about your choice of words yourself. You know who you are.

Thank you to everyone who empathised. I was really getting in my head about that and I'm so glad it's over now. And nobody's car got any damage or anything. A potential Chernobyl has been turned into a mere Three Mile Island, as they say.

... I don't know about "urgently". I mean, yeah this one really went badly. But I'm pretty sure I'll never do that again. Next time I'm going into a parking space and I think it's not going well, or think it hasn't gone well, I'm just going to reverse, wheels straight, right all the way back out again and take it from the top. Not going to shuffle around in the space.

... but on the other hand, check back next week to see me make the exact same mistake again 😂

Yes all those bad things are happening in the world but all you’ve thought of for the past 18 hours is how badly you’ve parked…….

I Kyle practise reverse parking. Trying to forward park into a tight space next to a pillar is difficult anyway, let alone being a nervous driver.

Well it's nice to know it's not just me who gets it wrong some times. Sounds like you got through it though. Advanced driver course sounds interesting... I am open to improving where I can. I want to be a really good driver, ultimately.

Yeah I have a rear parking camera but you know what? I actually find going in easier, because I can see in front of me what I'm doing. The camera has these three lines that move around when I move the wheel around. I'm still not familiar with exactly what it's trying to tell me and I'm nervous of a sudden crunch sound from somewhere in the back of my car as I hit something. My wife is terrified of driving into that spot front first, incidentally, but I find it much easier. I'll get used to those weird lines in the reversing camera. Just need more practice. Next time I'm going shopping I'll see how they affect my arrival in a parking spot. It's great, I sneak out to the supermarket about 8pm on a Monday, and it's so deserted there I can park in a spot with like three spots empty either side of me.