Ow, Bloody L

How quickly does our life pass us by? It only seems a short time ago that my eldest daughter was toddling off down the road for her first day at school. Now she's already got her own car and is currently taking driving lessons. Where did those years go?

Just before her birthday I was letting her drive my car round an empty car park near home to get the feel of thing before her first lesson with a proper instructor. Which, although she done OK for a first time behind the wheel, was pretty scary. A few short weeks later and we went out for a drive last night, already she seems confident and in control. I'm not a good passenger at the best of times but I felt quite relaxed with her driving.

She wanted to practice reversing into parking bays, so we headed for a car park not far from my shop. I've no idea why this car park was ever built, it's in an area where no one is ever likely to want to park and the only cars you ever see in there are learners practising. My Mum learned in there as did I and my brothers, now my daughter was making use of it, as were 2 others who were doing the same thing at the same time

Her reversing into bays was soon nice and straight and controlled but it seemed to me she was stopping well short, even though she thought she was reversing as far back as she could . So I decided to stand behind her whilst she reversed , telling her to stop when she thought she was within inches of my legs. First she stopped about 4 feet short which I indicated with my arms wide apart. She edged back a bit more but was still about 2 feet short, with me doing the appropriate "I caught one this big" with my hands. Now she thought it would be funny to scare me so she put her foot down and - much to her amusement and that of her little sister sat in the back - proceeded to drive straight over my foot!

Surprisingly the weight of a Ford Ka and two occupants didn't actually hurt very much and hasn't done any damage - at least none I can see although I do keep getting a funny tingling in my toes. It could have been worse, I thought I would be wearing flippers to work this morning. Once they'd stopped laughing her main concern was that I wouldn't be claiming any compensation from her insurance as she didn't want to lose her no claims bonus before she's even taken her test.

Still, as no examiner is likely to be stupid enough to stand behind an examninee (is that a word?) it's not a situation she's likely to encounter in her test, so hopefully she'll pass first time and soon she can drive her old Dad down the pub and buy him a pint by way of an apology. Except she won't be able to do the latter as she's not 18 till next summer - maybe time doesn't fly fast enough after all.