Post 21 – When He Slammed the Car Into Park
It was a weekday morning, the kind of chaos any parent knows — coffee not made, kids half-dressed, trying to get everyone where they need to be. I was driving. The kids were in the back. Jeff was fuming beside me, angry because he hadn’t done his laundry for work the night before.
Somewhere between silence and screaming, he snapped. Reached across the center console, grabbed the gear shift, and slammed the car into park at 30 miles per hour. The whole vehicle jolted — tires screeched, my chest hit the seatbelt, and the kids screamed.
Then he grabbed at the keys. While I was still trying to process what just happened, he yanked them from the ignition and hurled them. I don’t remember what he said — just the tone. Cold. Explosive. Like a bomb set off by his own neglect.
All because he forgot to do laundry.
I sat there frozen. Eli was just a toddler. Esther was old enough to understand what just happened — and too young to know what to do with it. She retrieved the keys herself.
And before I could catch my breath, Jeff threw his milkshake at the car — splattering the window near Eli’s seat.
I didn’t even have time to cry. I threw his wallet out the window and drove off. Both kids were hysterical. I was in full CPTSD mode — dissociating, surviving, calculating what came next.
Tactics Breakdown – Escalation Behind the Wheel
- Rage-Induced Risk: Slammed a moving car into park while children were inside
- Weaponized Environment: Used the car — a shared family space — as a control zone
- Displacement of Blame: Blamed others for his failure to prepare for work
- Property Destruction: Threw a milkshake and scattered keys to prolong chaos
- Emotional Terrorism: Created an unpredictable, unsafe environment for both partner and children
What Could Have Happened
People die in wrecks going that fast. Children suffer lasting trauma from these moments. But Jeff never saw it as a problem. He saw it as justified — because rage excuses everything, in his world.
If your partner uses fear as a weapon — if they lose control in a moving car with your kids present — that is not just “a fight.” That is lethal behavior.
And if your body froze like mine did, that doesn’t mean you failed. It means you survived.
📞 National Domestic Violence Hotline
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