My husband always loved that I used to say “I am never going to drive a van”.  There was nothing I liked about vans.  I found them to be big and bulky and slow.

Then I had kids………

Everything changed when I had my first daughter.  I suddenly ONLY wanted a minivan.  I loved the storage of it and all the room you could have when driving inside of it.  My oldest daughter was born in April of 2005 and by September of 2005 we traded the car in for a minivan.

I loved how I felt like I was a queen driving it…so high from the road.  However, the one thing I never liked about it was learning how to park the beast.

I have an extended minivan, which makes it kind of long.  And I must admit, I have never been a master parking queen.  However, it has been 4 years, and do you think I have mastered parking the minivan?????   NO!!!

Inconsiderate people like to park over the parking lines.  I have friends that like to do that so that nobody will park next to them.  This just peeves me because when you are carting around two kids, a diaper bag, and snacks, you really want parking that is up close.  And ofcourse I just love the parking garages.  Those parking spaces are so tight, they are really not meant for big extended minivans. 

I have gotten much better, but people can still view me from afar taking about 4 attempts to straighten out my van so that its just so in the parking spot, taking care that its not too close to the adjacent cars.  Maybe some men may read this and think the stereotypical “woman driver” and ofcourse I am a blonde too, so that doesn’t help the sterotype.

I think I need one of those audible signals like those large trucks have that are carrying a “wide load”, to warn other people they are coming. 

Anybody else feel my parking pain?????