I was driving to collect my little girl, with my young step daughter in the car, the route has lots of narrow, windy lanes so you need to have your wits about you. I do the drive at least twice a day so know the roads very well, am aware of when to slow down in advance and when I can hit the accelerator a little. This morning I drove to collect my daughter and a man in a white van started driving behind me. He was driving so close to me I thought he would hit my bumper when I braked. I drove as I usually do (which incidentally is sometimes too fast for my husband), was careful and didn’t let his tailgating get to me. Then I reached a narrow blind turn, you need to stop completely as approaching traffic would have no way of seeing you round the blind corner. So I stopped, and he stopped centimetres from my car. I’m glad I did as a huge van followed by two cars came round the corner towards us. If the man behind me hadn’t been there, the van and cars could’ve driven on quite happily. However, because the man in the van was so close behind me, it meant I had to sneak forwards past the lorry in order to make enough space for him to pass. I edged forwards and smiled at the man in the lorry who didn’t smile back, he seemed to just be checking to see how close my car was as I edged forwards which was okay, he looked a bit angry but I have no proof that was anything to do with me. I went round slowly, every time I moved a bit the lorry could move, and so we managed to all make our way safely through, despite the terrible positioning of the man in the van. As I carried on, I checked my rear view mirror, and the man in the van was laughing his head off and sarcastically clapping me. He was clapping me as if to say ‘wow well done, you did it even though you’re a woman!’ It was horrible. It was so obviously sexist. As soon as I could I pulled over and let him pass me, he sped off much too fast and was out of sight. When I pulled over I said ‘let’s let the nasty man pass’. My step daughter said ‘why was he nasty?’ How do I explain to an 8 year old about everyday sexism? I just said ‘he was just being a bit horrible’ and left it at that. I had many imaginary conversations about what I would say to him if we had spoken face to face. The deep seated sexism upset me so much I’m at home now with a lump in my throat. It doesn’t seem like a big incident, and no doubt he’s forgotten all about it by now, but it’s left me with a feeling that I wish I didn’t have, and I hope beyond hope my children will never have to experience.