Leaving a parking space because someone else wants it

Curledup14 · 04/10/2025 06:10

She apologised to you yesterday, what a coincidence, and almost 2 weeks after the incident!

Curledup14 · 04/10/2025 06:09

Allisnotlost1 · 03/10/2025 20:45

Thanks @Curledup14 for reminding me of this thread. I saw the woman this morning as I was coming out of the gym and she was arriving. I didn’t recognise her at first and I was waiting at the desk but she spoke to me and apologised. Which was unnecessary but quite sweet. I told her I’d been dealing with something and normally would have said no problem, and we both went off in good spirits. So a nice start to the day.

ofd to think the woman had no idea that you’d started a thread and dedicated your day to posting dozens of posts about the incident 😆

Curledup14 · 04/10/2025 06:07

Allisnotlost1 · 03/10/2025 20:45

Thanks @Curledup14 for reminding me of this thread. I saw the woman this morning as I was coming out of the gym and she was arriving. I didn’t recognise her at first and I was waiting at the desk but she spoke to me and apologised. Which was unnecessary but quite sweet. I told her I’d been dealing with something and normally would have said no problem, and we both went off in good spirits. So a nice start to the day.

Hopefully the other ongoing stress with your neighbours ends up the same way 🤞

Original poster

Allisnotlost1 · 03/10/2025 20:45

Thanks @Curledup14 for reminding me of this thread. I saw the woman this morning as I was coming out of the gym and she was arriving. I didn’t recognise her at first and I was waiting at the desk but she spoke to me and apologised. Which was unnecessary but quite sweet. I told her I’d been dealing with something and normally would have said no problem, and we both went off in good spirits. So a nice start to the day.

OP posts:

Curledup14 · 03/10/2025 20:29

Bloody hell op…. If it’s not your neighbours, it’s parking wars. You poor thing! @Allisnotlost1

Summertimesadnessishere · 29/09/2025 18:44

I don’t see what’s wrong with getting in your car after the gym and having a 5 min break to answer / write emails. Sometimes it’s the only peace available before having to go home and be harassed by all. You were in the space first.
I don’t agree you should have moved. The belong to the gym and the car park space is usually limited to say 2 hours then if you want to use that it’s fine surely. You may have sat in the café after and done emails whilst your car remained parked. The car park is part of the facility you are using. If she came in the wrong way and had other options then surely this is a non issue and you are overthinking it. Enjoy the space - it sounds like you needed it aswell

I wouldn’t give it anymore thought. Ignore others. And this woman

HelplessSoul · 29/09/2025 04:29

SwedeAtTheFinnishLine · 28/09/2025 22:45

Give it a rest @HelplessSoul

There's nothing wrong with my reading comprehension, you're just talking out of your backside.

Give it a rest?

It was you who responded to my post - not me to yours.

Perhaps fact check yourself once in a while. Like I said....reading comprehension.

SwedeAtTheFinnishLine · 28/09/2025 22:45

Give it a rest @HelplessSoul

There's nothing wrong with my reading comprehension, you're just talking out of your backside.

josa · 28/09/2025 17:31

Your gym parking is very similar to mine with full car parks at busy times & over flows. I often sit in my car checking work emails, messages after I leave the gym. The only time I won’t is if it’s a peak time & people are waiting to get in a parking space. At that time I always drive out the car park quickly so someone else can take my space. I appreciate they may be rushing to a class & I can do any work/respond to messages on my drive after I get home. If a message needs an urgent reply I would still pull out the space to give it to someone & pull over on the grass verge by the exit. The only time I wouldn’t is if someone drove the incorrect way around the car park to beat others to a space. This happens frequently in my gym despite the markings showing the correct way. If this was the case I would point out they have driven the incorrect way & sit in my car til someone else arrived that had driven the correct way!!!

abbynabby23 · 28/09/2025 13:59

Allisnotlost1 · 25/09/2025 08:59

I left the gym this morning about 8.15 and, as I did, saw someone arrive and drive the wrong way around the car park. It’s not huge but there’s an overflow which adds about 15-20 steps onto the walk back to the building. There’s also a second overflow which would add about 60 seconds.

I sat in my car to send a difficult emails - to do with bereavement - and I did this there so I could leave it behind and come home and focus on the day. It would have taken about 5 or 6 minutes.

So I start dealing with it and the wrong way driver an older lady, just for visualisation purposes, knocks on my window and asks me if I’m leaving. Yes, I say, it not for about 5 minutes. She asks me to ‘just pull out and wait somewhere’. I say I can’t, because you’ve driven the wrong way around the car park and now you’re blocking the exit. She insists she isn’t and she ‘needs’ the space because the car park is full. She hasn’t been to the overflow.

I look at her gobsmacked, but then ask where is it she expects me to go, and she then gets flustered and says don’t worry about. Ok I say, closing my door. When I left, there were a couple of empty spaces but by then she’d parked on the grass verge on the exit road.

AIBU?

YANBU - she should have used the overflow/s or driven around a bit like anyone else.

YABU - immediately leaving the car park at busy times is just the right thing to do.

To be honest, I would have said I am not leaving to avoid having anyone on my back. I have 3 kids and it takes ages to put them in and out and when someone asks are leaving I always say no just because I don’t want to feel the pressure of doing something.

Timeforabitofpeace · 28/09/2025 13:19

Anonymouseposter · 28/09/2025 11:51

Imagine being so bad tempered and rude.

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I thought that too. Horrible.

Emptyandsad · 28/09/2025 12:44

All these people making up rules about what car parks are for! Car parks are for parking your car; and that's what you were using it for. Unless there are written rules limiting use, then anyone can park there for whatever reason they like.

What if you stop for a coffee in the gym café after you workout? Is that allowed? What if you nip to the post office to buy some stamps? Is the Post Office a permitted shop?

Listen to yourselves...

Anonymouseposter · 28/09/2025 11:51

HelplessSoul · 25/09/2025 09:02

I'd have told her to fuck off and drive properly.

And waited even longer just to piss her off!

Imagine being so bad tempered and rude.

dudsville · 28/09/2025 11:32

Ideally this would be something that you'd shrug off. Trying to be the correct all the time leads to a lot of angst. It was fine for you to sit there and it was fine for her to ask. There ended up being a little more emotion on both sides than was called for.

HeadsWinTailsLose · 28/09/2025 11:32

ReignOfError · 25/09/2025 11:25

I was mostly not bothered until you wrote this. You don’t know if she has a mobility problem. Not all disabilities are visible. My husband has a life-limiting disease and walking any distance for him is painful and leaves him breathless, but you’d never know it to look him, or if he’d just got out of a car briefly. And yes, he does still go to the gym because it’s essential, and he doesn’t have a blue badge, btw.

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But we’re not all mind readers so unless she is happy to tell the OP, I’ve got a mobility issue, if really appreciate it if you’ve finished could I have your space, why would they presume that she has a problem? As someone with a blue badge I’m not entitled to a blue badge space or any space more than the next badge holder and if all the spaces were full I wouldn’t dream of going up to someone to ask for their space if it was nearer than another space in a car park. Does your husband ask people to move their cars so he can get a prime spot in the car park? I think I have overused the word space!

WeeGeeBored · 28/09/2025 11:29

HelplessSoul · 25/09/2025 09:02

I'd have told her to fuck off and drive properly.

And waited even longer just to piss her off!

But that sounds far more aggressive than the cf in question. And scary.

LlynTegid · 28/09/2025 11:14

I think the request and the response were both reasonable. The driving the wrong way around is of more concern, if the way around the car park is well signed/signposted. Suggests poor eyesight to me.

dottiedodah · 28/09/2025 10:45

I think you were in the wrong really .I mean the spaces are for people coming to use the gym .Not those who have finished ! Im sorry about your difficult email .But thats not her fault really.

thereneverwasacloudyday · 28/09/2025 10:42

You weren't doing anything wrong. And for all she knew, you were waiting for someone else to finish up and come out.

LancashireButterPie · 28/09/2025 10:35

Urgh, God, I'm so sick of people.

OneNewLeader · 28/09/2025 10:32

Allisnotlost1 · 25/09/2025 09:47

lol, definitely not. I imagine that it would be read differently if a man had approached me than a woman. To me it made no difference. I’m also of ‘Karen age’.

for those suggesting, she also didn’t have a mobility problem, and there is nowhere (other than the other two also very close car parks) to pull over without being antisocial (eg parking on the grass verge or making it awkward for others.

And while yes I agree it’s not relevant what someone is doing by delaying, I wasn’t justifying it on that basis - just giving info. I honestly would never dream of asking someone to move for nothing other than my own convenience.

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Fair enough, but you’re asking her to wait for your own convenience?

It all seems to have been sorted, so perhaps don’t dwell on it. Life really is too short.

Oaktreet · 28/09/2025 10:30

I'd say if the car parks busy then leave when your finished the gym, but tbh it's 5 mins not half an hour, so not that big a deal and there's an overflow car park.

Becs51 · 28/09/2025 10:22

Personally I’d have moved myself to the overflow car park that was presumably empty as no one ever wants to park in the overflow. If I’d known I was going to send emails after the gym I’d have parked in there from the start and not had to move.
you clearly valued the close space just as others did so it’s a bit mean spirited to say she could have parked in the overflow when clearly you didn’t want to either.

Hackedoffinoldage · 28/09/2025 10:10

CatsorDogsrule · 25/09/2025 09:09

I wouldn't have stayed in the space in a busy car park, I'd have moved on. It's similar to people that faff around for ages on a petrol station forecourt when there is a queue of people waiting for the pumps.

These people are the worst! Why can they never just get back in their car and drive off?!

Soontobe60 · 27/09/2025 13:40

Allisnotlost1 · 25/09/2025 14:48

If she had blocked the car park did she expect OP to drive the wrong way round to leave, I wouldn't be hapoy doing that. Surely the easiest thing for everyone would have been for her to exit and go to the overflow.

That’s exactly what had happened - I couldn’t reverse out to face the correct way because of where she’d parked, and I thought well it doesn’t matter because I’m just doing this email quickly and hopefully she’ll have moved. It wasn’t obvious she was waiting on a space tbh, she looked like she’d parked at the edge of the painted spaces.

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Utter rubbish! All she would have needed to do was pull up further along then reverse into the space. Easy! You were just being awkward and you know it.