Driver's Test, Take 2

Tuesday brought another trip to a far away place for a driver's test.  This time, we ended up going well north of Baltimore.  It was about 90 minutes one way... and the lines were long, long, long.  I believe that every family of 17 year olds in the State of Maryland has attempted to get their kids licensed this week.

Parallel parking had been daughter's fail on Monday.  We spend Monday night and Tuesday morning practicing parallel parking.  Tuesday morning, she was so frustrated that she ended up in tears in the parking lot, telling me that it would be easier for her to ride her bicycle the 25 miles up and back to the community college each day. 

Our appointment was at 2:30, and it can take over 90 minutes to get to our destination.  I always leave time to get lost if I'm going to an unfamiliar place, so we left at noon.

(Guess what?  Even with the GPS, we did get lost.  How I can manage to do that consistently is beyond my own understanding.)

We got to the testing facility an hour early.  We sat in the parking lot and watched several other people navigate the course, and we talked through the finer points of the course.  I then took daughter back out on the road, and had her drive through the neighborhoods around the MVA office.

At this point, she was so scared, she couldn't remember her right from her left.  Seriously. 

SO, I did what I used to do when I taught preschool.  Actually, it was a little different.  When I taught preschool, I used to put a red dot on the kids right hands on Fridays so that we could have Hokie Pokie Day.  Tuesday, I pulled a band-aid out of the trunk, and put it on her left index finger, so she would remember left...

We began our 2:30 test at 2:45. 

I stood outside and watched while the tester ran her through the course.  I was hiding behind a bush (along with someone's grandmother) because we wanted to watch, but we didn't want to freak our kids out by standing where they could see us and see the look of horror on our faces.  I had to turn away when she was parallel parking.  I saw her make one attempt, and then pull back out and start again, and then I watched her attempt to "finagle" herself into a spot.  THAT's when I had to turn away.  The grandmother next to me tapped me on the shoulder as soon as she'd parked and said "LOOK MOM!!! She did it!"  I then held my breath as she navigated the rest of the course and saw them take off on the road portion of the test.

She came back with a triumphant gleam in her eye!  As soon as she got out of the car, she stood up, gave me two thumbs up, and I could see her smile all the way across the parking lot!

WAIT....

This means that the scary part is now beginning.  She can drive on her own now.

Talk about some mixed emotions!