WIBU Parking Related

[Domaby]

I just wanted to canvas some opinions as I'm genuinely not sure if I was UR or not yesterday. DS1 goes to an activity after school in a hall in a very residential area. There's no parking at the hall, so everyone parks on the residential streets. Every house there has a long drive ad they are big houses, si space to also park two cars in front, so there's loads of parking. Everyone patks on the left since to park on the right would block the road.

Anyway, I parked in the first available space on the left and got DS1 (aged 4) out of the car. I then went round to get DS2 (18 months) out. As I was unstrapping him a mini bus pulled up on the right opposite to drop off a child in a wheelchair. This obviously blocked the road and cars stopped from both directions and one started to get quite aggressive.

I wasn't really sure what to do. The next few spaces had cars in, so if I had got back in the car and driven on, it would have been quite a bit down the road so, obviously, I couldn't leave DS1 on the pavement to move the car. I would also need to re-strap in DS2. So, I kind of hovered for a bit ineffectually until the mini-bus moved. When it did one of the car drivers yelled at me.

To be honest, it may have looked like I had parked next to the mini bus (although, obviously, I hadn't), so I can see why the driver was annoyed. I obviously wont park opposite the house where the child lives again since I expect they will always be dropped home from school at that time and I don't want to cause any problems. But do yu think IWBU? Should I have put the children back in the car and moved?

YANBU. More faff to put your children back in and move. The driver who shouted at you was obviously on some life saving mission and those precious seconds she/he had to wait may have been crucial. That or they're a cockwomble.

No of course you weren't - the yelling driver was being impatient and rude.

cockwomble

Na, you hovered, the problem resolved itself YWNBU.

So it was a car driver that yelled at you and not the mini bus driver ?

Well, I would just let it go, it sounds as if you were following the 'rules' in that street and just unfortunate that the mini bus arrived back at the same time.

I would just check next time that the house with a wheelchair hasn't got any markings painted outside it on the road to stop people parking.

If you had got there 3 mins beforehand and had managed to get out of the car and leave it before the minibus arrived you would not have been aware that this was a problem and no one would have shouted at you as it would be fairly clear that it was a temporary blockage caused by the minibus and that no parked cars had been parked badly - so, no, you were not unreasonable to have parked there to start with - and you could have done nothing about it once parked as putting your first child back in and getting back in to drive to a different spot (could you have got past the minibus?) would have taken as long as the mini bus in any case.

Dear Domaby - I was the driver yesterday. My behaviour was unacceptable. I'd mis-timed my journey, so my outburst was frustration at my own inadequacies and you, unfortunately, were on the receiving end of my cockwombleness. Please accept my apology.

I'm pretty sure this is what was going through the driver's mind as they drove off. Don't beat yourself up about this.

I thought we'd witnessed the biggest MN coincidence ever there!