A toddler’s view on parking

Unsurprisingly, N has already picked up a lot of views which seem to have come from myself.  In particular, I like to share my feelings in the car and vocalise my opinions of some of the crass driving you often see around.  We spend a lot of time in the car, so I really need to be more careful of my language!

But parking’s a really important thing to N, helped by the fact that I always talk about it.

The first instance is always as we drive into places to park.  Usually as we arrive at nursery, the timing means we can grab one of the 2 spaces right outside (always handy when you’re lugging potty, nursery bag, coat, N and whatever toys or books he’s decided to take in that day.  Sometimes though, we have to park before the cattle grid where there are more spaces.  But N’s decided that the spaces right outside nursery are just for us.

‘Has someone got our space, mummy?’

‘There’s no spaces mummy’

(along with comments saying ‘that man didn’t wave to say thank you’, ‘he didn’t move over, mummy’ etc).

I have to explain that they’re not our spaces, that they’re there for whoever gets there first.  It does amuse me that he seems so incensed that someone else is in our spaces.  Hopefully he’ll never tell someone off as we walk past them, as I do berate some people’s shocking driving as we follow them in (some virtually stop to creep over the cattle grids – I just don’t have time in a morning to faff waiting for people on go slow!).

N also likes to park up his toys.  Whether inside or out, we’ve quite often brought ‘parking’ in as a means to get him to try and tidy up some of his toys once it’s bedtime, or he’s moving on to the next toy.  So outside, his ride on toys tend to be parked up against the wall, while inside, they could be parked in a row or side by side depending on what he’s playing with. More recently his tractors and plough have to be taken with him to the cloakroom, although thankfully I do manage to get him to mostly park them up outside.

He does seem very strong minded about where things should be parked.  I’m not sure whether he’s got this from me, as let’s face it, bad parking in real life gets on everyone’s nerves.  The classic situation that annoys people is the supermarket, although near my work there are often interesting parking methods as we’re just along the road from a prep school, and people want to grab free roadside parking and walk into town from further out..

N seems to be picking up my views on car parking.  I’m thinking of training him to let him loose on those who park inconsiderately (think too close to other cars which had left space to get children out, or who hog 2 spaces) and those who park in parent and child spaces without having children with them.  I think it could be quite terrifying being humiliated by a 3 year old because of a lack of parking ability or consideration to others.

Do you think it could be a goer?  Do your children pick up your view on parking or other driving matters?