The woman, identified as Vanessa Sosa, posted a video trying to park her vehicle in a parallel spot. The clip went viral and reached more than 900,000 views.
The situation seems normal, but what makes Sosa anxious is the presence of a group of men sitting at an outdoor table watching the maneuver. “I’m so embarrassed!” she said in the video while shifting into reverse to park the car.
“Nothing is more humiliating than trying to parallel park while a group of men watches you,” the woman wrote in the video caption.
The comments were divided between people who would ask for help and those who would give up out of embarrassment.
“I would actually get out of the car and ask for help,” said one. “You’re better than me, I would get out and ask them to park it for me,” confessed another.
“I would just drive away,” joked another.
Some said they wouldn’t feel intimidated by the pressure of being watched.
“I’m so good at parallel parking that I’d get out of the car, look back and say ‘can you park better?’,” bragged one profile.
The Zebra reported in a 2024 survey that “nearly half of Americans have ‘parallelophobia’,” which is the fear of parallel parking. Of the 1,000 drivers surveyed, 49% said they are afraid of parallel parking.
Source and images: TikTok @vanessa_sosa. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
@vanessa_sosa_95 “You’re doing great sweetie” 🥹😭 #parallelparking #justagirl #fyp ♬ original sound – Vanessa Sosa 🍓
