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AIBU?

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AIBU to refuse apologising after being blocked in at Tesco?

1000 replies

ThisIsAbsolutelyCrazy · 26/08/2026 00:07

So, yesterday I go to Tesco with DH. DH is a wheelchair user and has a Blue Badge.

There were no disabled bays or parent and child bays so I went to a far corner of the car park where there were two empty rows of normal bays and parked between 2 bays so had room for DH to get in and out.

Lo and behold we came back to a car parked so close to my driver's side that I couldn't get between the cars - less than 10 inches in between. The car had parked over into the bay I had half parked in.

We were obviously WTF. The other bays around us were still empty.

Coming round to the front of the cars, we saw there was a young lad no more that 15-17 sitting in the passenger seat of the other car. He obviously couldn't get out of his door either because it was up against mine! I said 'what kind of idiot would park like this' or some such. He said 'my dad'. Then asked him why he'd blocked him in.as well. He didn't answer and just kept his head down. I will admit I did swear a bit saying for fucks sake, this is fucking disgusting. Then said 'tell your Dad he's a complete cunt'. At no point did I make threats to the lad or swear at him. I knew he didn't park the car.

Anyway I then climbed in through the passenger side, moved the car into the row in front, got DH in and we left.

The Dad had not come back. I'm kicking myself because I didn't take a picture of the way he'd parked.

Anyway, tonight at around 8pm there's a knock at the door and two policemen are there. My heart dropped because I thought it was about one of the DC (both were out with friends), but they said they'd had a complaint about me causing 'fear and alarm' to a minor!

Turns out the Dad must have already had my reg number and told the police what I'd said. No mention of how he'd blocked me deliberately and left his son trapped in the car!

He must have known whoever came back to the car would be angry!

Anyway police said I could make a formal apology to the boy and the matter would not be taken further - this was because I admitted swearing.

I said No I will not as I had figured out by then that the Dad had done this all deliberately. No clue who he is.

AIBU to think he must be an absolute psycho?

Especially to leave his son trapped in the car!

OP posts:
OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 12:27

Walkden · 27/08/2026 12:05

"More likely because it’s not believable that the teen is asking for an apology.
It is another power play by the father"

More likely the son was upset and the father reported the incident to the police as a result. Most parents would do this if a stranger verbally abused their child.

Are all parental to complaints to schools regarding their children power plays too?

100% of the complaints that begin with the complainant instigating contact in a harassing manner are power plays.

BumpyaDaisyevna · 27/08/2026 12:27

Some posters seem to be completely unable to separate out the father’s no doubt awful behaviour from the situation of the teen boy.

if course the OP was understandably annoyed about the father’s passive aggresive point making parking. Of course that is an awful thing to do to someone with a blue badge.

But having a go and swearing at a teen boy is not ok. He is not his father. He didn’t park there.

I have a 15 year boy - despite him being nearly 6 foot and looking much older - if he had been sworn at and brought into an adult dispute like this he would have been so mortified embarrassed and upset and would probably have thought it was somehow his fault. And he would have felt ashamed.

BumpyaDaisyevna · 27/08/2026 12:37

There are lots of ideas that the father is using the son as a pawn in a power play or this, or that or the other.

He might be. He might be the worst kind of bossy controlling point scoring parking-police kind of man. He might be getting off on making a complaint and a point.

But we don’t know what was in the father’s mind. Perhaps his mum died yesterday and he is so preoccupied that he was totally oblivious to what he was doing. We don’t know.

Occam’s razor - the simplest explanation - is that the son was very upset because a random woman had a go at him in public- and the father has reported this accordingly. Presumably it is not a spurious complaint because the police have triaged it and made an intervention?

I don’t think the OP needs to feel terrible or like the worst person the world or anything, she was just dealing with all the challenges of having a disabled person and nowhere to park , no doubt felt sorely provoked and went further than she should have. A simple sorry sorts it out.

aliceyyyy2654 · 27/08/2026 12:47

ThisIsAbsolutelyCrazy · 26/08/2026 19:15

Good grief. So many responses with no clue!

Let me be clear, cunt Dad absolutely did park against my car deliberately. I was in the middle of two bays. He parked half in one of the bays I was in, wing mirror was almost touching my car, and half in the next one. There were loads of other spaces. It's a massive carpark and has a main area nearer the supermarket entrance which gets very busy and then another area further down which is rarely busy, and it was practically empty so he had loads of bays to park in.

Why did he think he had a right to police how people parked anyway? If he was that bothered he could have reported it to customer services.

Blue badge was displayed.

I said the lad was trapped as there was no way he could get out on his side either and what kind of parent would park in such a way that their adult sized son had to scramble over the drivers seat to get out in an emergency or if he just wanted to get out! Who would do that?

Even he would have seen that he was so close to the a stranger's car that he and they couldn't even get between the cars, let alone open the door. My car is an MPV so it was much higher theirs, which was small saloon.

None of my kids would have sat there, worrying that the car owner could come back at any time and would be angry, they would have insisted to get out if I had decided to be a nutjob and behave like that!

Why would I park in one normal bay and inevitably have someone come and park right next to me (as cunt Dad did), when there was plenty of space to park in two? I wasn't affecting anyone else's ability to park.

People are seriously suggesting I should have waited for a disabled bay! So I should have blocked the road for however long, sitting there waiting for someone to leave, or driven round and round for an indeterminate time, probably missing a space because someone else came along and jumped in a newly free space before I got back round there? I have a lot of experience of hospital car parks!

I should have loaded DH out of the car while blocking the road, left him sitting in on the side of the road, parked in a normal bay, then moved the car out, blocking the road again while I reloaded him? Just in case 40+ cars converged into the lesser used area of the car park and someone needed the extra space? Seriously!

I was not 'shouting and screaming'. You can swear in a normal voice level you know.

DH was annoyed too but for reasons I don't need to go into, he didn't say much.

The lad in the car did not seem distressed. In fact when he said it was his Dad who parked there, he seemed a bit frustrated. IMO his Dad probably made him sit there and he knew what his Dad was like. I reckon Dad reported it to the police because he was pissed off his son got an opportunity to call him a cunt!

I told the police the situation, said I would not be apologising and I did not direct any threat or abuse to the son. Asked if they'd got CCTV from Tesco which they hadn't so they said they would speak to the father and be in contact if they were going to take it further. Haven't heard anything today.

Rang Tesco and they said their CCTV doesn't cover that area of the car park.

I really am annoyed at myself I didn't take a picture of his car but I was shocked that someone would do that and wasn't thinking quick.

Thinking about it, I wouldn't be surprised if the Dad was in a position of authority in some way and was outraged a stranger had shown anger at him doing his 'public service' by deliberately blocking them from getting into their car for no reason at all.

I won't be posting any further. The responses are too nuts and I'm busy.

Why post here if you’re not happy when people disagree with your inappropriate actions?

FirstOfTheGang · 27/08/2026 12:58

aliceyyyy2654 · 27/08/2026 12:47

Why post here if you’re not happy when people disagree with your inappropriate actions?

I’m sensing a pattern …

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 13:13

For the people making comments like “if you did this to my son”.

Would you purposely involve yourself with a stranger with a provocative and aggressive action then leave your “child” to deal with it?

Also, OP has boys of her own. I think she has a better idea about how her words came across than we do. She used bad language, but didn’t raise her voice.

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 13:14

aliceyyyy2654 · 27/08/2026 12:47

Why post here if you’re not happy when people disagree with your inappropriate actions?

Many posters here have defended OP.

She shouldn’t have sworn. But frankly, I would find my car being blocked quite threatening and think I’d probably swear, too.

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 13:15

BumpyaDaisyevna · 27/08/2026 12:37

There are lots of ideas that the father is using the son as a pawn in a power play or this, or that or the other.

He might be. He might be the worst kind of bossy controlling point scoring parking-police kind of man. He might be getting off on making a complaint and a point.

But we don’t know what was in the father’s mind. Perhaps his mum died yesterday and he is so preoccupied that he was totally oblivious to what he was doing. We don’t know.

Occam’s razor - the simplest explanation - is that the son was very upset because a random woman had a go at him in public- and the father has reported this accordingly. Presumably it is not a spurious complaint because the police have triaged it and made an intervention?

I don’t think the OP needs to feel terrible or like the worst person the world or anything, she was just dealing with all the challenges of having a disabled person and nowhere to park , no doubt felt sorely provoked and went further than she should have. A simple sorry sorts it out.

“Perhaps his mum died yesterday and he is so preoccupied that he was totally oblivious to what he was doing.”

Wild take there!

Since we are guessing, it’s more likely he doesn’t have a wife anymore.

Blades2 · 27/08/2026 13:45

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OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 13:46

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This is rude and unnecessary. If you think it’s such a terrible insult why use it here? It adds nothing to the conversation.

AliceNotInChains · 27/08/2026 14:12

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 13:46

This is rude and unnecessary. If you think it’s such a terrible insult why use it here? It adds nothing to the conversation.

I think it explains the situation very well personally

Impossiblyme · 27/08/2026 14:19

Next time, move your car close to their driver’s door and go for a cup of tea.

neilyoungismyhero · 27/08/2026 14:55

Ansells · 26/08/2026 00:19

What lesson would OP need to be taught for parking in an empty row of cars?! Truly extraordinary!

Because some people are arseholes. You see it all the time on FB. They take pictures of bad parking and make comments. He wanted to police the OP's parking so decided to block her in to teach her a lesson for the future.
Her language wasn't great but can see her frustration with this knobhead.

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 15:18

Impossiblyme · 27/08/2026 14:19

Next time, move your car close to their driver’s door and go for a cup of tea.

And take the kid with you. 😂

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 15:19

AliceNotInChains · 27/08/2026 14:12

I think it explains the situation very well personally

I find it quite hypocritical.

This person has done nothing to you at all and only shared her story.

People having a go at her seem more like the Dad than I think they realize, wanting to punish and shame another person.

Pinkchickenwine · 27/08/2026 15:52

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 15:19

I find it quite hypocritical.

This person has done nothing to you at all and only shared her story.

People having a go at her seem more like the Dad than I think they realize, wanting to punish and shame another person.

This person has done nothing to you at all and only shared her story.

i think she’s been extremely rude to posters who disagreed with her, I mean why ask if when you are told YABU, get the hump and state she thought Mumsnet had more intellectual posters!

So, I’d disagree that it’s hypocritical.

BrezhnevsLuxuriantEyebrows · 27/08/2026 15:54

DooDallyHallie · 27/08/2026 08:42

"Using the language she describes is no big deal"
Woukd you be happy if your dc was spoken to like that by staff at school?

She was summarising how OP apparently views the whole matter; certainly not how she herself sees it.

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 16:02

Pinkchickenwine · 27/08/2026 15:52

This person has done nothing to you at all and only shared her story.

i think she’s been extremely rude to posters who disagreed with her, I mean why ask if when you are told YABU, get the hump and state she thought Mumsnet had more intellectual posters!

So, I’d disagree that it’s hypocritical.

It’s the definition of hypocritical for a poster to tell someone they should have behaved perfectly while dealing with a very stressful real-life situation then lash out because they felt insulted by words on a screen.

Itiswhysofew · 27/08/2026 16:15

I can understand your frustration, OP. I've no idea why people do these things. There's a lot of antagonistic and combative people out there. It never ceases to amaze me that drivers will park right beside you when there are plenty of spaces available. It must be very stressful for you day-to-day, anticipating whether or not you'll be able to park without hassle.

How would you be expected to apologise in this circumstance? In person, in writing, at the police station, what?

Lowlagal · 27/08/2026 16:21

JulietteHasAGun · 27/08/2026 12:12

Definitely a power play by the dad. He thought he’d teach OP a lesson. Instead in his mind he feels he’s been shown up by the OP in front of his son so he’s still trying to teach her a lesson.

Dont get me wrong, I don’t agree with the language the OP used but the bloke was a twat and is still acting like a twat.

Exactly. I’ve said the same upthread about it being a power play.

I disagree completely with speaking to a teenager or anyone like that based on what their parent has done, but I don’t believe this request for an apology is from the boy. He is probably a bit shaken and embarrassed maybe but has moved on.

It will absolutely be the father trying to have the last word.

AgnesMcDoo · 27/08/2026 16:39

The psycho is you

Pinkchickenwine · 27/08/2026 16:41

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 16:02

It’s the definition of hypocritical for a poster to tell someone they should have behaved perfectly while dealing with a very stressful real-life situation then lash out because they felt insulted by words on a screen.

Oh so words on a screen is ok? People shouldn’t be upset by that?

Would you say that to all online bullies? To your child who was being given a hard time online? “Oh it’s only words on a screen”

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 16:49

Pinkchickenwine · 27/08/2026 16:41

Oh so words on a screen is ok? People shouldn’t be upset by that?

Would you say that to all online bullies? To your child who was being given a hard time online? “Oh it’s only words on a screen”

People that have no empathy for a woman and her disabled husband being purposely put in an anger inducing situation should not be overreacting to her, no.

Are you actually describing OPs replies on this thread as equivalent to the online bullying of children?

OliveMyLove · 27/08/2026 16:50

AgnesMcDoo · 27/08/2026 16:39

The psycho is you

Yes because no one else would express anger when being purposely stopped from accessing their vehicle for no reason.

Lentilcakes · 27/08/2026 16:55

You called his dad a cunt, that’s gross. He may be a complete arsehole but that’s not the point. Apologise and move on.

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