Teaching my daughter how to parallel park

As my 17yo A- gets closer and closer to the driving test — she’s less than two weeks away from when she can go in and get that glorious license that will let her drive solo! — we realize that while she’s done a ton of driving, she hasn’t really had any practice parallel parking.

I tend to take this particular skill for granted because my Dad taught me eons ago and I’ve parallel parked for many years in spots tight and wide. Heck, I’ve even had a car that robo-parallel parked, as I shared in this amusing video: Hands Off Parallel Parking with the 2014 Ford Escape.

Even then, though, I had to admit, I am much more comfortable parallel parking when the spot is to the right of the vehicle than when it’s to the left. But patience is key and being willing to say “whoops”, pull out and try again. And sometimes — shhhh — you just bail and find another spot. 🙂

So we need to give my daughter a crash course on parallel parking.

Um, wait, no, that’s probably not the right metaphor, is it?

This morning we started talking about it, and I just happened to have a spare Porsche Boxster at the house to help illustrate concepts…

The container to its right, representing the car “in front”, was a bottle of maple syrup, and the curb? A pen. The car behind is a jar of peanut butter.

Here’s the drone’s-eye view:

And another shot, just a bit further into the parking process:

Alright, I admit, this is probably not that much help since learning is all about doing, and parallel parking is about being behind the wheel and trying again and again, but seriously, how many parents let their kids learn how to parallel park with a Porsche Boxster convertible? 🙂

Now if only this gorgeous convertible was actually full size…