AIBU to be so upset about this note left on my lovely MIL's car?

[Degustibusnonestdisputandem]

My MIL comes to look after our 2 year old twins for half the week. Today she found this note left on her car:

Your parking is very inconsiderate. You leave huge gaps between your car and others making it hard to park. My children need to go to school and should be able to park outside our own house in the mornings. Please learn to park better! Annoyed neighbour

For the record I don't think she leaves huge gaps between cars (you need to leave some gap of course!). And no one owns the parking space on the road outside their house (we have people parking out the front of our house all the time and don't think anything of it)

Anyway, I'm probably feeling unreasonably upset on her behalf!

I'd encourage MIL to leave a huge but not quite big enough space next time she parks with a note left on the car something along the lines of 'how d'ya like them apples!'.

Twatbag (the neighbour)

I'd deliberately leave a massive gap and stick a picture of two fingers on the windscreen.

Wankers.

Thanks everyone, just what I was thinking really (still chuckling at the idea of leaving the note on more aggressive neighbours car!).

I think I might be a bit unreasonable I. your eyes then. I'm on the brink of putting a note on the car that has been plonked outside my house for the last 4 days. It's in the middle of what should be 2 spaces, so I'm having to march up to the top of the hill every day to use my car, wresting DS and all my bags.

I know I'm not entitled to park outside my house, but people on this street are usually such considerate parkers. It wouldn't bother me if it was a one off, but it's been there for days. If I knew the person, is speak nicely to them, but as I don't know who the car belongs to, a note is my only option.

Last week DH got back late from work (2am) and parked in the last place available in the street next to ours (none available in ours).
Went back the next day to find a note thanking him for taking up 2 spaces and telling him never to park there again
People get stupidly wound up over parking...ignore it...or buy a Humvee

That's a mean note, and I would be upset too - you like to think that people living on the same street will have an attitude of give & take etc. Also, why does it make any odds to them if all they have to do all day is drive their children to school and then sit on their arse till 3 pm? I mean, surely parking round the corner isn't going to put that much of a dampner on their hectic schedule. And how do they know that the gaps are being left by your mother-in-law? Cars come and go all the time on most streets. Presumably she parks, then someone else moves, then someone else parks etc. Unless they are monitoring the situation with cctv I don't see how they can know who is responsible for leaving gaps.

Arseholes, anyway. Ignore.

YANBU

Just write on the back "dear knob cheese, learn to write" and leave it on MIL's car for them to find.

I leave anonymous notes for shitty parking - but it is only when I don't know the car owner and only when they have parked on the pavement to the extent that I have to take a buggy and 2 children into the fast main road to get round the cars and vans that have completely covered the pavement so they don't get in the way of the poor drivers who would otherwise have to go round them... I do the notes now because every time I have remonstrated with somebody over their inconsiderate parking, I have been shouted at, intimidated, sworn at etc. which is obviously something I would rather avoid when I am with 2 children and pregnant... I have also reported to the police and PCSO has spoken to one of the repeat offenders.

It's possible the person doesn't know who you are and has had bad experiences when complaining about parking before like me - you don't know their reasons for leaving a note versus trying to talk face to face. Having said that, if she really isn't leaving big gaps then it sounds like they have much less to complain about than I do so probably YANBU

A friendly word is probably the best way to resolve it. Don't try to escalate it - this never works.

SaucyJack You must lead a very sheltered life to find that upsetting tbh. It's a complaint about her parking- not a death threat.

Shouldn't you be off somewhere eating a frozen lump of poison before walking to work in the snow uphill?

Very rude and cowardly if it was done anonymously.

Poor mil. Hope she's not fuming as much as you!

Nancerama-I think notes arent always a bad option,it's just the tone really isn't it?
'is it possible to park a little more to the left as currently your car is taking up 2 spaces meaning it's difficult for me to park easily with my young son.thanks!'
'hey fuckwit,your shitty parking means I have to walk,I would suggest you learn to park in one space not 2 that you seem to do before you come back, asshole'
It's all in the tone!

Well ... it is a cowardly note, not nicely expressed, but it is annoying when people don't park close to the next car along a terraced road, rather than slap bang in the middle of a "space" outside a house.

Just ignore.

I suspect the person who wrote it was having a bad day for other reasons, or is just a bit stupid.

I would imagine it's far more of a pain to wrangle 2 year old twins into a car parked in the next street than school children, but sometimes that's life.

Have they considered that the parking situation may have been different when your mother-in-law actually parked?

Well, quite. What looks like shitty parking is in fact just accommodating other vehicles which have subsequently moved!

If your mum is a crap parker and that has been observed several times then they should talk to her, not leave a note. I leave notes on cars which block my drive but if I knew where they were, I'd knock on the door

We used to live on a street of terraced houses - without cctv there was no way of telling whether 'half spaces' were caused by somebody parking inconsiderately or other cars/vans/lorries/motor bikes had come and gone. However, am sure that 99.99% of the time it was the latter.

I actually live on a street where loads of non-residents park in order to get to local amenities etc. Yes, it's a pain in the arse having to drive round finding a space just in order to get home, but some of my neighbours expend their frustration in extreme ways. For eg, one woman has taken to writing down the car registration plates of everyone parked anywhere near her house, quizzing people who (perfectly legally) park as to whether they live on the street and generally being a bit fucking mental about the whole thing. It's kind of funny and a useful reminder that however bad at Life I get, I will never be quite as bad as her.

Anonymous notes are horrid but I live in London and when I visit friends I do often huff and puff about the fact that if people parked properly with no more than, say, 18 inches at the back and front, you could actually park about six or seven more cars in the road. Nothing annoys me more when I am looking for a parking space and someone comes along and parks a little mini right in the middle of a space that should be big enough for two normal sized cars and leaves it there for the whole day

I would never ever send an anonymous note though.

Have to agree with Mintyy - twatish to leave a note, but equally it is annoying when 2 spaces are taken up by one car on a busy street.
Plus as others have said, cars may have moved...

Could you ask her to make sure she backs up to the nearest car the next time?

I got a note from someone once. I was there 20m.

I knocked on her door, got her out of the shower and told her I was checking her new neighbour in, sorry to park within her view as it must have been oh so inconvenient and handed her back her note.

It depends on where you live. I used to live in an area where parking was a nightmare and I worked nights 45 miles away. I'd get back at 2am and not be able to get a space because of inconsiderate parkers leaving 1m+ at either end of their vehicles. and it wasn't because of previously parked cars/vans etc as I saw lots of them parking and walking away. you'd also get to know which cars were parked for a long time in the same place, but not necessarily whose it was as were we in a street of terraced flats (200+ addresses). it drove me up the wall and is still a big bugbear of mine

If the note leaver didn't know whose car it was how were they supposed to speak to you directly? Though I do agree there's no need for aggressive anonymous notes. the tone could have been better

Said cowardly custard neighbour doesnt happen to drive a tank and needs all cars to be bumper to bumper so they can park the thing.

FYI, in the nearest big town to me, some guy got killed over parking.

[[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087226/Police-probe-double-death-Braintree-neighbours-war-dead.html

Shit link fail

Two dead actually

Also in Asda

Had be Asda