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AIBU?

to consider tracking down this man and demanding that he look after my kids for the rest of the day?

54 replies

TandB · 12/11/2012 16:21

DP works in London part of the week and I come up with the kids about once every two or three weeks. We stay in a flat in a managed building with an underground carpark. Parking is very tightly regulated because they used to have problems with people taking over extra spaces for second cars or bike storage etc - now you aren't even allowed to swap spaces with someone else by agreement.

I have a deadline for a magazine article looming. It was a tight deadline because the editor needed to replace another article at short notice, but it should have been easily doable. I never leave things to the last minute but I've had a few arrangements go wrong and both kids have been ill and I now have two days to get it into shape, neither of which I have childcare for, meaning that I need to do it during naps or in the evenings which I don't like doing because my brain stops working at about 7pm and it is a complicated topic.

We don't have much of a routine re: naps, but one thing I can absolutely rely on is both DCs having a long nap in the afternoon if I do something tiring in the morning and manage to keep DS2 awake, or only let him have a catnap. I therefore planned today with military precision. I took them to softplay and wore them out, had lunch before getting in the car, and then managed to keep them both awake until about 5 minutes before getting home, when they both conked out.

This was absolutely perfect timing. If they fall asleep 5 to 10 minutes before getting home then they will wake up, grizzle and moan until we get inside and then fall asleep again straight away. But the timing is crucial - if they sleep for much longer than that, DS1 won't go back to sleep at all, and DS2 will take absolutely ages to go back down and then will only sleep for about half an hour. So I was delighted with myself and was pretty much rubbing my hands with glee as we pulled into the carpark, anticipating about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of uninterupted work.

There was someone in our parking space.

I waited, thinking that someone had just pulled in to pick something up - we are a couple of spaces along from one of the lifts and the other spaces nearby are used for storage. No-one turned up. I pulled into another space and ran up to the front office where the security guy told me that someone was moving out, but he didn't know which flat it was. I asked him to find out and get the car moved asap. About 25 minutes later, a chap saunters down to the carpark and starts taking stuff out of the car - out, you note. Not in.

Me: Er, excuse me. You are in my space.
Him (breezily): Oh yes, sorry, I'm moving out.
Me: Yes. So I heard. But you are doing it in my space.
Him: Well, it's nearer the lift.
Me: It is, isn't it? It's also my space.
Him: Oh. Sorry about that.
Me: Did security not speak to you about it?
Him: Oh yes, he said someone was waiting.
Me: But you're still unloading your car.
Him: But I'm moving out.
Me: Well can you go and do it in your own space?
Him (a bit stroppily): Fine. I'll move then.
Me: Yes. Good plan.
Him (unloading some more things) Just a minute.
Me: NO. NOT JUST A MINUTE. NOW. RIGHT NOW. IMMEDIATELY.
Him: (even more stroppily): Can't you wait?
Me: I have sleeping kids in the car and I need to get them inside asap otherwise they are going to wake up and stop me getting any work done this afternoon.
Him: Well how was I supposed to know that?
Me: You're not. Which is why you don't take someone else's space without asking. You have no idea how much you are going to inconvenience someone.
Him: Well you could have parked in someone else's space.
Me: And what about when they wanted their space?
Him: Well you could come down and move it then.
Me: MOVEYOURCARMOREYOURCARMOVEYOURCAR.

So he moved the car into his own space.

Which was two spaces along and one row across. This represented approximately 15 feet further to walk. He took my space to avoid walking 15 feet.

So I unloaded the kids, with him chuntering at the security guy about my unreasonableness, and got them upstairs. After 30 minutes of trying DS2 slept for a total of 10 minutes. DS1 slept for about 20 minutes. They are now awake for the duration and I have got nothing done. Except this epic whinge on MN of course.

So bearing in mind this pillock is the reason why the DSs are now awake, would it be unreasonable of me to go and knock on every door in the building until I find him, and then demand that he entertains my children for the rest of the day? Not just 2 hours - the rest of the day. My reasoning is that I am now so irritated that I will need a cup of tea and a bit of MNing before I can possibly be expected to do anything constructive.

I could also then ask him why moving out involves taking stuff out of his car and into the building because last time I checked, the moving out process involves removing stuff from the place you are vacating.