Driver's Test, part 1

Daughter took her driver's test today- the behind the wheel driving skills test that will grant her a provisional license and allow her to drive back and forth to school and the community college by herself.

All did not go well. 

Yesterday, when we were practicing parallel parking, I could tell all was not well.  She was too rattled, and she was overthinking it.

Parallel parking is equal parts technical skill and instinct.  You have to know the "feel" of your car well enough to be able to tell where in the space you are, and when you should turn the wheel.

Daughter wants hard and fast rules.

Unfortunately, parallel parking doesn't always work that way.  When you are driving a small car, being able to tell where the front and back corners of the car are located can be difficult.  I can honestly say, I have only ever driven Honda Civics.  I bought my first Civic in 1989.  This is my second Civic.  I know exactly where the corners are on my car, and I know it's turning radius, and I know how it handles in every kind of weather.

Middle child went out with daughter yesterday.  I stood in the parking lot while he attempted to talk her through parking.  She had mixed success, and I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that all would not go well today.

So, we hauled ourselves out to Frederick County for her test. 

She navigated the first turn of the course, got to the parallel parking section, and promptly wigged out.  She actually did get the car parked correctly (after 3 tries), but when she went to pull out from the spot, she didn't pull the car hard enough to the left and hit the cones.  And that was the end of the test.

Unfortunately, in Maryland, you have to register online for a driver's skills test, and our registration times are long.  The first glance at the registration page showed the FIRST open testing time on Oct. 6.

WHAT???  That's over a month away!  I work in the mornings, daughter has to get herself from the high school up to the community college....

I began to hyperventilate as I considered the ramifications and attempted to figure out HOW we were going to make this happen. 

And then, a little bit of magic happened.

I went back into the registration page, searched again, and found a testing location and time for tomorrow afternoon.  TOMORROW!!  I promptly signed her up.

We went out again this afternoon to practice parallel parking some more.

After a very frustrating crying jag and a little bit of screaming, she finally managed to hear what I was telling her.  "You know, when you pause and start to turn, or ask if it's far enough back, I tell you go back a scootch more?  Line yourself up like you are right now, and then scootch back one."  (a scootch being defined as pick your foot up off the brake for a second and then putting it back down again.)

Somehow, those were the magic words.  She did it right the first time!

And then she did it again.

And again.

And again
And again.

And then we stopped for the afternoon.

So, tomorrow afternoon we will be attempting to take the test again.

If you could, would you send some calming thoughts and energy our way around 2:30?