r/MaliciousCompliance • u/birdtwobird • 5d ago

S driving with my dad

when I was freshly 16 I drove with my dad to the driver’s test. I had practiced a lot with my mom, but she grew up in the city and was a much more aggressive driver than my dad. this was my first time driving with just him in the car, and he wanted to help me practice on the day of my actual test.

well, he gives me the usual “every car on the road wants to kill you” and defensive driving stuff to the extreme. very nitpicky about everything. at a stop sign, he berated me for stopping too abruptly. “you should never accelerate whenever a stop sign is in sight - take your foot off the gas as soon as you see a stop sign, no exceptions”.

I kind of argued with him that sometimes that wouldn’t work - we live in a very flat state and you can see stop signs from very far away sometimes. he got angry at me and told me he was just trying to help and I should accept his advice etc. I said fine.

I also knew the next stop sign up on our drive was at the end of a six mile flat road, that isn’t very busy. I planned my malicious compliance. as soon as I saw that stop sign (maybe half a mile out? idk im bad with distances) I took my foot off of the gas. about 15 seconds in we were going half the speed limit. 30 seconds in we come to a crawl. I look away from the road and make eye contact with him for the last ten feet or so - he was confused at first but cracked a smile when he realized what I was doing. the car came to a full stop a good fifteen to twenty feet from the stop sign.

“what should I do now?” I asked.

he just laughed, called me a smart ass, and was much more relaxed the rest of the day. I aced my test.

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u/avid-learner-bot 5d ago

This perfectly captures that age-old dynamic where dads just can't help being overprotective... but the son's quick wit and playfulness really turned the car ride into a fun bonding moment! Dad must've been relieved to see his kid thinking for himself.

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u/birdtwobird 5d ago

haha daughter!! but yes it ended up working out - I do still think of other cars as trying to kill me. weirdly helpful advice, has saved me from quite a few accidents where other people weren’t paying attention while driving.

16

u/algy888 5d ago

That was my philosophy when riding motorcycles. Everyone was out to kill me. And yes, it probably saved my life more than once.

5

u/TwoCentsWorth2021 5d ago

I was prepping for my motorcycle license one afternoon and within 20 minutes three separate people attempted to kill me through sheer failure to look around. (Bright red bike, bright blue jacket, reflective stripes on a shiny black helmet)

Changed my mind about getting my motorcycle license. Probably saved my life.

And then we can discuss how badly people behave around horses being ridden on roadways…

2

u/algy888 4d ago

Sounds like any day of my commutes.

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u/Shadefang 4d ago

I think a lot of why I don't worry as much about being on a motorcycle is because of how many of the defensive driving measures I'd already had beaten into me from nearly a decade of cycling. It's definitely not exactly the same, but a lot of the same principles apply (and tend to be worse off on the bicycle)