School parking

[Tameonefirst]

Received a text from dcs school tonight asking parents not to park on the roads around the school as neighbours are complaining that they can't park on the road outside their houses. AIBU to think that A: they don't own the road and as long as people are parked properly not blocking drives there's nothing to complain about, B: they bought a house next to a school, surely they knew this was going to happen, and C: the school should have explained point A to the complainer? Thank you

Inconsiderate parkers piss me off as do people who think they own the road outside their house.

Exactly this, you don't own the road outside your house and drivers pay road tax so can park there, it's just tough.
Mine and dh's first house had on road parking only and so started parking outside our house as you would (when there was space of course) as it was a back-to-back cottage the woman behind us complained that we had 'stolen' her space and could we park elsewhere well no actually, it's just first come first served isn't it? Sometimes someone else would park there and we'd go elsewhere it just comes with the territory. I never challenged anyone parking outside my house, the land wasn't on my deeds and parking there was legal for anyone.
Blocking drives, parking on grass verges/pavements is just bad driving, there's a difference.
Sometimes we walk to school, sometimes we drive but I always park considerately, there's many places to just dump the car and run as a lot of parents choose to do but I always park extra distance up the road to park sensibly.

Also not all residents are arsey, I was once outside someone's garden wall so not in front of their house or door as garden was to the side, if you can picture it, and dd had done an explosive poo and I was really struggling to change her on the front seat and didn't have a bag for all the mess, ds complaining he wanted to go home, I was getting in a right state and out comes resident, here we go I thought. She was a lovely elderly lady who asked if I was ok and got stuck in and helped, brought me carrier bags for the mess and let me put the stinking mess in her bin then asked me in for a cuppa. Lovely lovely lady. I think school parking is just confirmation that some people are arseholes in this world and some aren't.

That's true Pipbin and I get that residents don't have a legal right to park outside their houses unless it's permit only.

I don't live opposite a school myself but I just found it weird that some people were so aggressively dismissing the perfectly reasonable suggestion that residents might like to park near their houses...

As other people have said it's the sheer scale of inconsiderateness - parking on corners/ in driveways/ tearing up verges etc that must wear down the residents. And if you've just come home from shopping, heavily pregnant, with a 4 yr old's hand to hold and a dog on a lead you need to get out of the boot (so two journeys to unload given shopping/ child/ dog etc) then yes your heart is going to sink if the entire road by your house is rammed with people 'just there for 10 mins' meaning you have to park a way back from your own house just to get in it.

But maybe I'm just being overly empathetic given my somewhat autobiographical state as recounted above! (Without living by a school).

I did live in a house near-ish to the local station though and it was hell with people dodging car parking fees and parking on the street - this meant the fairly long road became a one-way street and any time you met a car you had to reverse back miles etc. LOTS of stress and scratched car when forced into the occasional small gap to try and let someone pass.

remembering this is probably triggering my rage/ confusion on this thread!

I do of course see that people would like to drop their children off near the school, and many of those parents may also be heavily pregnant/ running late etc. But a bit of consideration on both sides seems to be what's needed, not a bullish 'screw you' attitude to residents?!

This is such a problem that our local council is bringing in Public Space Protection Orders near schools. Each one is written specifically for the school concerned and takes account of local residents' views. They are enforceable with £100 FPN. Hopefully it will help prevent any more children getting knocked down outside our local schools.

Our school has this issue. They keep debating about bringing in a rule about no one being able to part within a mile of the school.

This fucks me right off. It's a huge catchment area, in a very hilly town. I would love to see one of the local councillors dragging my toddler and baby up and down that hill each day. And then get to work on time

I park legally.

It's the people who park in the school car park that really piss me off

What amazes me on these threads is every school is plagued by parents who park and drive inconsiderately.
And not a single one of these parents is a MNer...

YABU. They live there, you don't. Park your car elsewhere or stop being lazy and walk to pick your kids up.

This is what I said Alison. It's like the people who sit in traffic complaining about the traffic like it is other people.

I WALK. If you're not going to bother reading my comments then don't bother judging and making stupid comments

Pitbin, I sit in the traffic when the motor cars queue in the cycle lane and then I complain as the cycle lane isn't for cars to be queue. Yes I'm the traffic, but twenty bikes would fitvin the space of one family size car. That's why I feel that although I'm the traffic I have every right to complain.

Traffic doesn't have to mean cars, it can be a bus load of people or other forms of transport

What kind of twat would park across someone's drive ffs?! I've never seen that happen but that's so out of order.

Madmomma, I have followed a car down the road in the morning and the driver has pulled across and parked blocking my father drive, I was then left in the road so tooted. The man got out of the car, I put the window down and said " you are blocking the drive" ( talk about stating the obvious. He did then get back in his car and pull further down the road to get his dc out and take to school.

I have no idea what sort of person he was, looked normal, well dressed but oblivious to the car behind waiting with an indicator flashing - so possibly doltish

YABU. They live there, you don't. Park your car elsewhere or stop being lazy and walk to pick your kids up.

Some of us have to got to work. We don't have the luxury of being able to park further away (which would be outside someone else's house anyway) or being able to walk to the school because in the morning this would mean being late for work and in the afternoon, being late to pick the children up from school.

I don't this some people have any idea of what it is like to be a working parent with your working day shoe horned in between the school run.

I haven't read the entire thread but a question springs to mind. Why do the parents need to park at all? Except for the very youngest children (reception and Year 1 & 2) is it really necessary?

Couldn't schools just have a drop off point? Car pulls up, kids get out, car pulls away? Would take just a few seconds per car.

It's a junior school 80sMum so only goes up to year 2. Although I've heard that the parking at the other school from year 3 is even worse! Drop off point's a great idea though, I'll keep in in mind for a suggestion when my eldest starts there.

The school I drop off at has similar parking problems. There are loads of spaces on surrounding roads a few minutes walk away, but so many parents feel its necessary to park as close as they possibly can to the school gates; the road is narrow, so they park on the pavements meaning that people walking to school with prams have to walk on the road, they park on double yellows and zigzags. There are terraced houses on the street with no off road parking so the residents have no alternative place to park and the whole street is absolute chaos on a morning as 4x4s try to turn and squeeze past each other.

Last year the council instigated permit only bays for the residents, but still parents park in them and play hell with the wardens when they get ticketed.

The solution would be for parents to park on the practically empty road behind the school and walk for 3 minutes, but they all seem to feel entitled to get as close as possible.

Land mines is the only way to stop inconsiderate parents parking like twats outside schools.

On the pavement, on the school no parking signs, double parking, blocking roads.

Do enjoy when the parking wardens and police do the bastards.

So well done to the school for trying to deal with the issue.

I live a little way up the road from a primary school. Don't care who parks on the road however what pisses me off is people parking across my driveway so I can't get out. I do the school run so would like to be able to get in my car and go to work. I'll be just five minutes......

I've had a go a parents who park on the pavement so children have to go into the road to walk past and they look at me like I've got two heads - entitled arseholes.

Yabu. I live in the same street as a school.

The school was rebuilt so now our road is a one way entrance to the school, and the other road is an exit instead of being the main access route.

No consultation at all.

Now at school, nursery, and playgroup drop off and pick up I have the joy of eight to ten cars running their engines, parking on the pavement and using my front garden for their rubbish, or once memorably urine.

It is against the law to park without a permit or run an engine that close to the school gate, but they don't care. It's just for a few minutes as far as they see. Not for me, for me it is half an hour six times a day.

The damage to the kerb is so bad from poor parking that my son tripped over it and broke his wrist.

The council have repaired it but it is damaged again. My mum also fell there, she is nearly 70, and was lucky not to be badly hurt.

Finally our school isn't oversubscribed and every child lives within a mile walk, so they are only driven out of sheer laziness on the part of their parents.

I honestly can't see why you would be ignorant and selfish enough to keep driving to school when you have been told you are disrupting people's lives so badly.

Think of others, think of your child and their health, and walk to school or park 10 minutes away if it is too far to walk.

We live directly opposite a primary school and a middle school, the way some of the parents park is shocking. It's quite a narrow road with yellow zigzags on the school side. Occasionally a camera car sits outside our house to observe the parking.

We've often had cars block our drive, and there are the repeat offenders (yes, I'm talking about you Mr Mini Countryman Man).

If I'm out, I try to avoid getting home between 3:15 and 3:45 - it's not worse the hassle sometimes to battle though the chaos and attempt to get on our drive.

Oh my days, how many times do I have to say it I WALK TO SCHOOL. That was not my AIBU. Also it's not inconsiderate parking it's just parking on the road stopping home owners parking on the road outside their house! Honestly Coffeethrowtrampbitch you imply I'm too lazy to walk when you're too lazy to read and get your facts straight!

Hmm, tameone I actually wrote that if you are ignorant and selfish enough to keep driving to school despite knowing you are inconveniencing people, that is a horrible, and very lazy, thing to do.

I said 'you' meaning the people at your school who don't walk, because I did read your dripfeed that your aibu is about others being told off for being entitled twats, not you.

But thanks for calling me too lazy to read your entire thread properly when you didn't read my one post properly in the first place.

OP, keep your hair on!
No one has said that you personally are at fault

I apologise, as the start of a post is addressing my question by BU or not, if it's then followed by "you" I have taken that to be addressing me too. I've read it differently to how it was written, I can see that now

Zombie thread. Though I expect the same shit is still going on.