"saving" a parking space while the driver moves the car

[Hopandaskip]

(NB: 1)there is more information, but I don't want to add it yet because I believe there are two different issues at stake and want your answer on the first bit before the extra info complicates it (If this is annoying to you, please feel free to go read another thread)
2) I will only be around for a shortish while. I am on a different time zone and I'm going to be AFK for much of tomorrow (your today most probably). If I do not respond immediately, or even within 36 hours then that is why)

I was in a car park today that has a high turnover. It wasn't particularly busy and within 5 minutes two or three spaces had opened up in the same area. I wanted a particular spot and when it opened up I sent my 11yo over to stand in the spot with our stuff while I moved my car (about 50 ft, not 5 minutes away). While I moved my car someone else decided they wanted that spot too and told my son he had to move. He replied that his mum was bringing the car over and she repeated that he had to move and started moving the car forward towards him (!) so he would get out of the way. I jumped out and tried to explain but the situation quickly deteriorated to shouting (oops, not my finest hour)

Sooo what I'm asking is...

1. can you 'save' spaces for someone by standing in them for a minute?
2. Who should have the spot? Is it the one who saw it first and claimed it, or the one who brings their car around?
3. does it matter how busy somewhere is? (it shouldn't in this particular case, but in future)

I've been that other driver, though the person saving the space was a middle aged woman, not a child. First car to the park gets it. So:

1. no
2. first car to arrive
3. no

You were in the right.

You can't save spaces IMO. Spot should go to first car there. Unless it was a P&T spot and she didn't have kids, disabled spot and she didn't need that etc. However, she shouldn't have advanced on an 11 year old like that.

So in this case you are both in the wrong. If it had been crowded then you would be even more so as you already had a spot.

(1) No, what you did was not what would be considered good etiquette.

(2) First car to the spot gets in, not first passenger dispatched, or first item thrown from car, etc.

(2) Doesn't matter how busy it is -- obv the issue wouldn't come up if it wasn't busy, though you couldn't send a passenger to get a prime location, such as under a shady tree on a summer day, etc.

I lived in a city that experienced really snowy and cold winters where one of the unofficial rules that people observed was that if you dug out the parking space on the street in front of your house you could leave things like beach chairs (a most incongruous sight in the snow) or other items to mark the spot as yours. At the start of every winter the municipal authorities warned against the practice and then every winter they failed to get the snow ploughs out to the residential side streets to plough them, so the practice continued. It is eminently fair, imo, and it is the only situation where bagsing a spot would be acceptable.

The second (2) there is a (3)...

where was your car?
why would you only move it 50ft?

Should always be the first car to the space that gets it

UNLESS

you perhaps had a wheelchair or similar in your car and this specific space would have made your life a lot easier. In that case I would have let you have the space. If it was just that you were shit at parking and wanted the bigger space or wanted a space in the shade I would have told your son to move.

If it wasn't particularly busy & three spots had opened up, why did you have to have that one? Did you already have a space & if so why did you move from the one you had?

I think the other driver was wrong to advance on your son like that but you were wrong to place him in that situation. In my opinion first car gets the space.

Why did you want a particular spot? Sounds a bit anal. Unless there was someone with mobility issues and you needed to be closer.

You were in the wrong. The first car to get there should have the space, as they are actually parking there, as opposed to leaving someone standing there (for 1,2, 5 minutes????- there could be no time limit!)

Of course if the space was designated disabled or something, and the other driver wasn't displaying a blue badge and you were, then that alters things. (although still doesn't put OP in the right, as for all she knew another disabled driver could have rolled up while her son was blocking the space). In fact I'm interested to know the next bit of info the OP is planning to tell us, Because i still can't see how anything can put her in the right. Whatever this crucial piece of info is, could equally apply to any other driver who arrived at the space while she was fetching her car.

I am also confused as OP states several spaces were free in the same area so I can't see what was critical about this specific space.

The moral of all this is that it's very bad form to 'save' a space ... You may think you have a good 'reason' but the person to get their car there first might have that exact same reason.

No you can't save.

My DH and I have a running joke in busy carparks - he always tells me to jump out of the car and run across to stand in the spot until he can drive the car around.
We always have a chuckle about this - I can't believe anyone actually does it!

(I wont be telling him about this thread in case he really wants me to do this in his everlasting search for the George Costanza park.....)

Lol at "the person who saw it "

I am quite intrigued as to why the particular space was required.

Is this a thread about a thread? There was one recently where the OP was the one legitimately trying to park in a disabled space, but someone in a wheelchair was saving it until their family member could bring the car over.

If it were me in the second car, I'd have blocked the space until your son shifted, sorry (well I wouldn't, but I thibk on priniciple that would be fair). Your son presumably doesn't have wheels, an engine and A couple of doors, so therefore didn't belong in that space.

I think that's about as cheeky as those bastards my dad who drive around a queue of traffic on the clear lane, then push in at the end.

If there are no underlying reasons for you (ie disables trying to park in a disabled space while able bodied trying to use disabled space) then i would say yabu. Nobody should 'save' places by having someone stand in the space.

The first one who gets the car to the space gets the space. It's rude and childish to expect people to wait for you because you saw it first.

If you had to go and get your car to move it then YABU. just leave it where it was.

YABU.

The first car to be able to drive into the space gets it, not the first person who sees it. You put your son in an uncomfortable position there.

Seeing something first doesn't make it yours.

You should not be sending a little kid to stand in a parking space like that - it is exposing him to possible dangers. I would have also blocked the space, whjy should you have first claim to it when you already have a perfectly good parking space?

Oh this had made me giggle this morning. Car space I really wanted !! Wow sorry OP but why was this spot so special to you . My DCs would be horrified if I told them to leap out and save a spot!!

You were in the wrong.

Why so important to move your car 50foot?

I am afraid you were wrong....it's not on to stand in a space. Also curious about why you had to move the car 50ft

I have never heard anything like this in my life! You actually got your son to stand in the parking space with your stuff? Unbelieveable. OK the driver should not have started driving towards your son but YABVU.