I’m 16 and working on my permit, and today (as I usually do) I was going to drive our family to church for driving hours. I was backing out of the driveway (which is slanted downward) but there was a trashcan in the way because our landscapers put it there. I had to find a way around it but I’m not very good at reverse, so I ended up pulling further towards the house in an effort to pull out straight instead of having to turn around the trash can. My mom was in the passenger seat and had different suggestions for how it should be done, but I couldn’t really understand what she meant, and my way was working it was just taking a bit. Anyway, she escalated to yelling and said that she should just drive, and in my frenzy I got out of the car WITHOUT putting the car into park. MAN AM I STUPID. The car proceeded to roll forward and hit the garage after I had been out of the car for a couple of seconds. By the time I realized what was going on it was too late. The car rolled forward and ruined the garage door (everybody was fine and nothing was in the garage) but now the garage door replacement estimate is around 10 thousand. Thankfully my parents are able to pay for it with room to spare. but MAN I feel like a stupid little doofus. I don’t really want to get my license anymore. Or drive a car ever again. I only have 1000 in savings but my parents won’t take it anyway. All in all I’m just glad my parents are financially well off enough to pay for my idiocy. I feel like an awful terrible person and I don’t really know what to do.
TL;DR I hit my parent’s garage with my parents car and ruined the garage door.
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If it makes you feel better, my friend back in school drove his Dad’s truck straight through the back of the garage. You’ll laugh about it eventually!
I think your mom fucked up, don’t yell at someone learning
I work at a shop, and we just got done fixing a city bus.
I am qualified to drive this vehicle. My assistant manager is also qualified.
The 19 year old kid who has never driven that vehicle is the one who decided to pull it out without having someone guide him out and crashed into the pillar of our building and destroyed the side of the city bus.
It was extremely expensive to fix both that and the building.
It could have been much worse.
Don’t be so hard on yourself! It’s a learning experience, and it was a honest mistake.
Whenever something like this happens to me I try to remember the “rule of 5s”: in 5 hours will you still feel bad? Most likely. In 5 days? Maybe, but not as bad. In 5 months? You might think about it, but infrequently. In 5 years? Just a story you tell.
It’s okay to feel bad in the short term, it shows you care and that you understand your actions can have consequences. But try to remind yourself that this will feel like a much smaller deal as time goes on, so don’t beat yourself up too much.
Your parents are getting ripped off. I had two brand new garage doors installed for less than $6k.
Someday it will just be a funny story to remember. 🙂 I drove into my parents house like 12 years ago, right into their bedroom and thankfully no one was in there, so at least for you it was just the garage.
Mom shouldn’t be yelling, but also, why not just put the car in park and move the trash can?
There is no way it cost 10k to fix it. I feel like it’s got to be less than 6k
Same age similar issue, parent yelled even though what I was doing was okay, she was scared because of her perception of the passenger. I jumped, my foot moved, I hit gas. Hit a building garage type door instead of my house. I paid for what insurance didn’t do from working over the summer.
It was a big oopsie but your mom shouldn’t yell. It’s okay to take a break from driving and work your way back up.
It took some time for me to recover—not being taught by my parents helped a lot.
Accidents happen. That’s why they aren’t called “on purpose’s”. You learned an expensive lesson. I doubt you’ll forget to put the car in park before exiting again. It happens.
Let me tell you 2 stories.
My friend from Texas moved here when he was 16. Proceeded to tell us he would not be getting his permit at 16. Because the age to get a permit in Texas was 15 and he managed to put the family minivan over a brick/stone mailbox at the end of the driveway. He now has 2 kids and a family and is the primary driver in the household.
5 days into having my license I went to make a left hand turn and had a woman come right through the front of my car. It was a shared vehicle with my brother and it was totaled. I’ve now put well over 150,000 miles on 3 other vehicles.
Shit happens this is why you have insurance. On the house and the cars. A homeowners policy should protect against replacing the garage door. It’ll probably cost like $500-1500 in a deductible, but the rest gets replaced for free. For future reference you have two types of insurance on your car. Collision and comprehensive. Collision covers damage with and to other vehicles, comprehensive covers general damage to the car (crazy ex’s, bear attack, friends who thought it was a smart idea to stick a potato up the tailpipe) anyways, seriously, shit sucks, I would approach your dad and just be like, “I feel bad about the situation, definitely not my best moment, however I think we all learned a lot today, that said I do wanna be involved in helping to pay for the door. It may not be today or next week, but I think it’s important for me to clean up the messes I’m involved in.”
Lastly, don’t stop driving. I know it’s scary as shit, I know it’s fucking awful to force you to learn something when you’re uncomfortable. But driving IS your freedom. It will open opportunities to work and have internships, it will let you go to the library, it will let you decide if living at college or commuting is right for you. You NEED to drive, and I know that’s nerve wracking, but learning to cope with shitty situations now; is gonna build you a fantastic set of tools to deal with shitty situations throughout the rest of your life! I have a friend who has a Ph.D and doesn’t drive at 33. She can only live in cities, needs to be within walking distance to a grocery store, and she can’t really come and visit her friends (we need to go and visit her) it’s a really sucky situation. Don’t let you trap yourself because of the fear of doing something wrong. I’m not telling you to be courageous and valiant.
Do it scared out of your mind, but do it.
If you have a landscaper and $10,000 garage door I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Mostly just something to laugh about later and a lesson to apply the parking break. I don’t think you guys are going to mess any meals because of it.Â
Don’t feel bad, these things happen when you’re learning to drive. Luckily, the damage was only to your own house, and it sounds like your parents can handle that. Thank them profusely for being understanding, and work on your backup skills.