Parallel Parking

I've been told I'm a good teacher. Whether that's true or not is irrelevant. The point of this post is to ask a question. Have you ever had to teach somebody to do something you've done a thousand times, but had difficulty explaining how to do it? My example is parallel parking. I can probably parallel park in my sleep, but when I recently had to teach Abby how to do it, I had no idea what to tell her. As I attempted in vain to put into words the steps of parallel parking, Abby tried in futility to back a car into a space without hitting another car, hitting the curb or ending up four feet from the curb. After several failed attempts I had her get in the passenger seat while I demonstrated the method. Even then, as I backed the car perfectly into position, I had trouble explaining what I was doing. It's kind of like riding a bike. You can do it without even thinking about it, but try putting it into words. Not so easy, is it? Anyway, we practiced parallel parking a lot in preparation for her big test.

As part of her driving test Abby had to parallel park. Admittedly she said the car was crooked in the space, but I guess she did enough to satisfy the examiner. In the end, Abby won't win any awards or get any style points for her parallel parking. But I don't guess it matters anyway. I think the skill is becoming unnecessary for the most part. Think back... when was the last time you parallel parked your car? How many times have you done it this week? This month? This year? That's right, your answer is probably, "none". The skill is basically becoming extinct and I don't really worry about Abby's parallel parking skills. I'm more concerned about many other skills first... like not running into anything and keeping the car between the lines.