How best to deal with a passive aggressive anonymous note.

[WouldYouLikeYourMuffinButtered]

My daughter is a new driver and the only one in our family who can drive. She needs her car to get to work as she works very unsociable hours. We rent our house and do not have access to the garage as it is rented out separately but all of our neighbours have a garage to use in the compound, however everyone of them prefers on street parking for convenience and it's a bit of a free for all.
Today an anonymous typed note was left on my daughter's windscreen telling her to 'leave space for other residents'. This partly because she does leave a bit extra space in front of her, because she doesn't have the confidence or skills yet to get out of tight spaces and is worried about clipping another car. None of this scenario is anything which couldn't be sorted by having a civil conversation, but I am really pissed off about it all.. she has nowhere else to park but neither do we need a neighbour feud. I'm interested in other driver's viewpoint.

They probably haven't realised she lives there if the car is a new addition to the street. She should ignore but practising parking is good advice anyway. Parking sensors would no doubt help but so would some practise with a helpful assistant who can stand outside the car and show with their hands how far she is from things when she is manoeuvring while she is parking.

I'm amazed at so many posters who passed their test and could immediately and confidently reverse park into and cheerfully get out of tiny spaces. In my experience it took a while. And I've also learned from this thread why people park really close when I'm behind them , so they can get out even if I then can't. So many perfect parkers.

I always try to do his too, I’ve been hemmed into an extremely tight parking situation where it took me a while to get out and I’d say I’m a relatively confident driver.

No one is saying she should be able to parallel park into a tiny space. There is a difference between that and leaving half a car length between cars!

OP hasn’t mentioned a half car length. She mentioned half a metre. I used to have a tiny little Toyota Aygo and that was 3.7 metres long.

This. Ignore it OP

I would just ignore it

Tell your daughter to ignore the note. She will get more confident parking. People can’t demand you move up and, as some have said, other cars come and go so the space will fluctuate anyway. Half a metre is nothing in any case.

The OP said "half a metre more than most "

To be pedantic I would read that as extra space on one end if not at both ends 🤷🏼

I understand both sofas here. She needs ti leave enough room that she can get out of safely but if she's taking uomectra space it means that someone else now can't park their car at all

The only thing to do with anonymous notes is to screw them up very small, and put them straight in the bin. People who leave anonymous notes are generally nutters.

She needs to learn to park properly

It's really annoying when people leave loads of unnecessary space

But as for the note

Yes ignore that and bin it

It’s even more annoying when someone parks in your boot necessitating five minutes shuffling to get out. I’d choose the big gap any time.

So would I.

Ignore everyone saying she needs extra lessons. She's left half a metre extra space - that's nothing. Just ignore the note. I always leave room to get out easily - no one wants to be going forwards and backwards 50 times before they can squeeze out

Well clearly it's not nothing or people wouldn't be complaining

“People” aren’t. One person is. The absurdity of assuming people only complain if there’s a problem is illustrated on MN every day. The trivia some people get upset by is mind boggling.

If it’s genuinely 50cm then that shouldn’t be causing anyone a major issue, but I suspect it’s a lot more then that to end up with a note!

At my old house we had dropped kerb, space for two cars, dropped kerb, all the way down the road. It wasn’t great when someone parked one car in the middle outside one house - it’s just inconsiderate when there is space for two and residents need the space to park.

My brother lives on a long street of terraced houses with no driveways - which means for everyone to fit, people need to park close together. If everyone left an extra metre you would lose space for about ten cars!

She might get more leeway if using P plates but she will need to learn to park considerately.

Tyres on tarmac is rubbish too. The gap would be HUGE. You shouldn’t need anywhere near that to manoeuvre out and if parking space is at a premium you’d be pretty selfish to leave that much of a gap!

In this instance it is ok if the OP's DD will need to go back and forward 50 times to squeeze out as that is how she will learn to steer and before long she will be down to the minimum needed to fit into or out of any space.

Go with her to a busy supermarket at the weekend and practice, practice, practice. You outside the car to tell her when she's getting too close or if she's fine to move forward or back more. Reversing in, reversing out, parallel parking ad infinitum...

One person is enough! FFS, so selfish!

She's either good enough to drive, or she shouldn't be. You don't get to take up extra room because you've only just passed your test. Why tf do we baby people so much now?

That won't really help with parking at the side of a road.

I live on a street with on street parking, there’s then a dropped curb at one end. If someone parks oddly in the last space, ie leaves too much room then it means at least one other car can’t park so I get their frustration. See also when there’s a gap for 2 cars, and someone parks right in the middle. Maybe ask your daughter to practise more?