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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To resent the family with four cars?

156 replies

Gentleness · 08/05/2012 22:22

Road of almost all terraced houses though theirs is a semi. The road space outside each house is the same - 1.5 cars max. We have one car for a family of four and another baby maybe on the way. They have a family of four, 2 adult children and a car each. AND 2 of the cars are long sedans. I can understand the need for a car each but surely they should take that into account when choosing where to park on a busy road. They're all lovely apart from one who can't bear to even smile at anyone, never mind chat, and all of them except her do try really hard to leave us a space outside our house. But when we or one of us goes out in evenings, sometimes we can't even park on our road which leaves me in an awkward spot the next morning with the kids - a baby and a toddler.

The other day the mum said, "It's frustrating the parking on this road isn't it. It's really hard for us with four cars!" Given none of them ever leave the house in the evening so are parked up nicely overnight right by their house by 5pm, and they have 1 person to a car, I just about managed to splutter politely that with our ONE car for 4, we can't always park on our own road which is hard with the kids. I so wanted to rant and it's been picking at my mind ever since.

So AIBU to reckon they should consider the rest of the residents and expect to park at least one of their cars further away. Even rent a garage. Not from any legal obligation, just from moral kindness. Or the "kids" could actually leave home!

OP posts:
WorraLiberty · 08/05/2012 22:25

YABU

I genuinely don't understand why people keep siting having babies/toddlers as a reason to need to park outside their own houses.

Have you thought of getting a driveway and a dipped kerb, or is it a rented home?

tittytittyhanghang · 08/05/2012 22:27

YABU, you don't own the street outside your home and therefore have no more right to park there than anyone else. Still annoying though but nowt you can do about it.

Snowboarder · 08/05/2012 22:28

Sorry but YABU - unless you have designated parking/ driveways the road is highway and therefore free for anyone who wants to park there. Their kids shouldn't have to move home just so you can get a space outside your house.

I know it's annoying to have to park a mile away from where you live (my DH has to as we only have a driveway for one car and I park there as I mainly have DS with me) but we accept it as an unavoidable if annoying part of life.

maddening · 08/05/2012 22:32

yabu as per pp

squeakytoy · 08/05/2012 22:32

YABU, as one day YOUR children will be drivers, and then you will have the same problems.. only you might have 5 cars!

BumpingFuglies · 08/05/2012 22:33

YANBU - this is a difficult situation, where the houses were never meant to accommodate cars. Could you discuss this with them? Ask politely that they leave a space within a reasonable distance of your house?

AKMD · 08/05/2012 22:34

YANBU. Just because something is allowed doesn't make it pleasant.

GrahamTribe · 08/05/2012 22:36

YABU. You don't own the road, whether their "kids" remain at home is their own business and believe it or not there was a time, in my living memory when most households (in my city at least) didn't have a car at all and yet still managed to get their children and shopping/baggage across roads to their homes in safety.

BumpingFuglies · 08/05/2012 22:38

Should have said, YANBU apart from Or the "kids" could actually leave home!

Thats just silly, but that's your frustration talking I guess.

I do sympathise OP.

ilovesooty · 08/05/2012 22:40

Unfortunately it's a public highway. I don't blame you for being fed up though: I often get home late at night and there's no room for my car on the road anywhere near the house - in a similar sort of street. I was hacked off by my neighbour who has a car and brings his work van home. Last year he parked it directly in front of my house and sodded off to Tenerife for two weeks - naff all I could do about it though.

overthehillmum · 08/05/2012 22:40

I am just picturing saying to my kids "right now, know your on minimum wage but your cars are annoying the nice lady down the street, move out" YABU

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 08/05/2012 22:43

Even if you do go to the effort and expense of a dropped kerb and drive- they can still park across it if it's empty Hmm

Original poster
Gentleness · 08/05/2012 22:43

I'm not talking about the right to park outside my own house, kids or no kids. I did say that I realised there was no legal obligation. I'm talking about the thought processes (or lack thereof) behind having 4 cars on a road of terraced houses and whether it is morally kind to live in a way that makes life harder for those around you.

The council will not allow dropped kerbs so there is no option other than on road parking. Talking to them won't help unless they reduce the no of cars they park on the road. They do kindly leave space for us but other drivers park there as there is just not enough road space for all the residents cars.

This is an AIBU purely about cars per house on a terraced road, not whether mums have the right to park so they can safely manage their children.

OP posts:
confusedpixie · 08/05/2012 22:45

YABU. I don't get any of this 'parking in front of the house' bullshit. DP and I moved into a shared house in a long close in feb and after a month our housemates/landlords had to ask him to stop parking at the end of the close because the neighbours were complaining that he was blocking 'their' space and it took them a month to work out who it was. It's all a bunch of bollocks, just walk ffs, children can handle a bit of adverse weather.

Dozer · 08/05/2012 22:45

You sound like my DH's ideal woman! In london he hated not being able to park in our street cos was always packed. We moved to commuterville (yawn), people have drives and garages, as do we.

Our new neighbours, family of four, v nice etc, have six cars / vans (father and sons all tradesmen)! Often parked outside our house. DH is Angry, I can't help but Grin

BumpingFuglies · 08/05/2012 22:45

Graham - there was also a time when households had consideration for their neighbours. Is this so different?

Fisharefriendsnotfood · 08/05/2012 22:46

I totally understand and it would drive me mental. Poor you

squeakytoy · 08/05/2012 22:48

It sounds like the neighbours that OP is moaning about ARE considerate to her...

"They do kindly leave space for us but other drivers park there "

Cant see what more they could try and do really... if they werent parked there, then probably someone else would be.

confusedpixie · 08/05/2012 22:49

Ah, missed your next post. In that case you're more reasonable, but in most places these roads were not intended to be parked on so cars were not accommodated for. PITA but we all have to live with it.

overthehillmum · 08/05/2012 22:49

Morally? We moved to our house before the kids could drive, they both were lucky enough to get jobs but both would be unable to travel there and back without a car. Should we sell up? Should we park miles away? Unfortunately it is just one of these things that do frustrate people, we have work vans that park up for whole weeks at a time, people have visitors over or staying for a while. Bit unfair to target one family that actually do appear to make an effort to accomodate you.

BumpingFuglies · 08/05/2012 22:50

Ah, Gentleness, so they DO leave you a space. So your gripe is not that they don't leave you space, but that they have 4 cars on a terraced street? Sorry, getting confused now

billsmill · 08/05/2012 22:50

Oh it's so annoying isn't it. We had a similar family, but fortunately the children now appear to have moved out. And they always block your front entrance when it's raining or you have tonnes of stuff to unload. I feel your pain. Unfortunately there's not much you can do about it.

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos · 08/05/2012 22:51

YABU. It's a public road so every driver has equal right to park there, whether they live in a house with three other drivers or with none. Morally, they are doing nothing wrong because they are all individuals with their own reasons to need a car.

If it were one person with a car they use for the family, a runaround to get to work, a sports car for the weekend and another car for some other reason, then you would have a point.

tittytittyhanghang · 08/05/2012 22:52

But no one buys cars according to their house type/size so I still think YABU. Most people I know buy cars according to what they need. So for you as a family of two small children you get on fine with one car. The family next door with grown up children who obviously need a car each have 4. I don't know anyone who has more cars than they need other than really rich people who collect the buggars, but they tend not to live in terraces so moot point :)

McHappyPants2012 · 08/05/2012 22:53

Yanbu to be annoyed, what I hate the most in my street is when someone takes up 2 spaces when space is not a luxury.