to have declined to move my car.

[risinghighinapril]

I live in a cul de sac. We don't have drive ways just residential parking at where the street ends. I came home from work and got my DD's dinner ready (she's 2.4) and sat her at her table to eat. Door gets rattled and my neighbour says "you're going to need to move your car please" I asked her if I was blocking someone in and she said no...she just wanted the parking space i used because it was closer to her house and she was going to have to park 70 yards up the street. She has a 4 year old and a 10 week old who was in a car seat. I asked her where she thought I was going to park and she said the place up the street I said to her my husband wasn't home and I didn't want to leave my daughter unattended in the house (the way the street winds the house wouldn't be visible from where she expected me to park the car) she got really huffy and said I was being unreasonable that she would have to carry a car seat down the street with her baby. I apologised and said I wasn't willing to leave my daughter alone in the house. It's a rubbish street for parking - built when people didn't have cars so it cant cope with the volume that's now using the street and parked on it.

I feel bad but also a bit annoyed that she rattled my door to demand I move my car.

WIBU?

"She just needs to deal with it. It's not your problem."

^This.

All. Day. Long.

I don't think the poor woman deserves to be slagged off by strangers on the internet. She was a little unreasonable (what parent hasn't been at some point?), she didn't kill a kitten or kick a dog, ffs.
God forbid any of you ever make an error in judgement.

I don't think the poor woman deserves to be slagged off by strangers on the internet. She was a little unreasonable (what parent hasn't been at some point?), she didn't kill a kitten or kick a dog, ffs.

Hmm, I don't know. If it had been a bloke banging on the door, it'd be 'log it with 101'

Lol. She should be bringing you biscuits to apologise for being so bloody rude!

Your neighbour would go mad if she was me then OP... 100yrd walk from our designated space then up 3 flights of stairs with 4 month old who is 18lb even without a car seat...

She is being entitled. Just because you're sleep deprived doesn't mean the world should revolve around you.

Couldn't she just park outside hers temporarily, unload the kids and then park the car 70 yards away? No different to you leaving your child for

Unless she has allocated parking I'd say she can bugger off! Parking on a street like that can be a nightmare though and it's one of the reasons we moved house, especially when someone parked right in front of our house and left it there when they went on holiday for 2 weeks.

It is a case of first come first served so YANBU especially with the way she asked. Why didn't she knock on someone else's door?

She probably did knock on someone elses door, only to rightfully be told to "fuck off".

The same words the OP should have used prior to slamming the door in her entitled face!

YANBU

I have the same problem in my road plus a pub who's customers park outside meaning I have to carry my baby in his car seat from the next street or two away but I wouldn't knock & ask a neighbor to move for me - maybe she had a rough night? it's hard to give people the benefit of the doubt when their rude though

I have the same problem in my road plus a pub who's customers park outside meaning I have to carry my baby in his car seat

Out of curiosity, why do you have to take the car seat as well? Not being funny just wondering why carry the car seat (which are sometimes heavier than the baby itself)
I always just left ours in, unless I was having to move it into another car, and carried DS in one arm and bags in the other. I wouldn't have managed carrying him in the car seat.

I used to live on a street of terrace houses, no drives, and you parked where there was space. None of this "I want to park outside my house" because it was simply first come, first served, taking whatever space was available.

I frequently ended up well away from the house with 2 small DCs and having to lug everything to the house. At no time did I think it was an option to kncok on someone's door to ask them to move their car. Chances would have been high that the car outside their house belonged to someone else anyway!

Umm if the neighbour is so sleep deprived that she is not entirely rational and thinks it is ok to demand her car gets priority parking... Why the fuck is she driving with small children in the car. Sounds very dangerous. Or is she only irrational enough to make poor parking rationales?

I think I am very glad to be a non driver, when I was a parent of 3 children new born, 2.5 and 4yo I was hideously sleep deprived and just about managed on foot/ bus / train if I was also negotiating roads manoeuvring a tonne of metal I would have caused accidents, scary thought.

Op you were not unreasonable, she made her request but it was her issue and hardly a massive hardship.

Down with DD1 I tended only to carry her in it if she was asleep.

With DD2 I used to take her inside in her seat, leave her in the hall and then go back and get DD1. Because there's less than 18 months between them, that was the safest way to do things.

Also you can put a baby in a car seat down outdoors more safely than a baby which is a consideration when you have an exuberant older one to manage!

Ah ok. Thanks middlings I just hadn't thought about it like that.
Tbh even when DS was asleep I would take him out of the seat instead of carrying it, because I just found them so bloody awkward and heavy to carry. Just found it easier in my situation, and the seat I had is such a faff to strap in again.

Definitely YANBU

Um......where was she parked when all this was going on? Surely not 70 yArds up the street where she could not see her children? This is not your responsibility, you have done nothing wrong.

Sorry if parking space near house is imperitive she should have got a house with a drive.

You were completely reasonable.

No, you are perfectly entitled to have that space. She has no right to demand you move. Anyway, surely there is more than one space in the street? Was she going round knocking on every door until she found someone who was intimidated enough by her to move?

Some people are utter scum when it comes to parking. People have no right to a space because it's convenient for them, the road outside their house is still a public road.

The only right they have is that someone cannot block their car in on their driveway. (It's legal to block someone's driveway to prevent them getting on to it from the road, but not to block them gaining access to the road from their driveway. Still rude though.)

When you have the time, I would suggest you bang on her door and demand her to move her car for some spurious reason or other (the more spurious the better). You need the space because you want to park between a red car and a white one, or because on Thursdays you like to park within 30ft of a garden gnome, for example.

You have my sympathy for having such a horrific neighbour, by the way.

YWNBU OP, yes it can be a tricky with littlies but not impossible. Really selfish is my next door neighbor, we have parking bays around the side of our block but the road in front is just road, ndn likes to park in a certain spot, that's fine if nobody else is home but if other cars are parked and he still parks with his car door in line with his garden gate it means the gap left would be tight for a skinny pushbike!! If he parked a little further forward or a little further back another car could get in front or behind him, it's madness and drives (no pun intended) me potty!!

My road sounds like yours! The parking is a nightmare. However, me and my neighbours who do not have any parking behind the houses said we will all block each other in if needs be - never been a problem.
But some crafty Sod's from the top end have been parking directly outside the houses! The 6 houses down my end including mine have 11 cars between them... It isn't fair!
I've also parked outside someone's house and because it's "their" space they tipped flour all over my car and called me a "inconsiderate bitch" even though they saw I had a small child in the car from when they was stood staring at me in the window. I called the police for criminal damage

But you have every night to say no, sorry but she'll have to struggle I'm afraid. As 1, you'd get done for leaving a child unattended if something happened whilst you went to move your car. And 2, it's not designated parking so you can park wherever you like

If she's so bothered, she should dig up her garden and put in a driveway (if she is able too!)

You definitely ANBU

Tough titty neighbour.

Always had unreasonable behaviour where I've lived where it comes to parking.... One neighbour left her car outside my house for a week! I've had to park on another street before. Some people just don't do 'considerate'. But to knock on your door and req you move, ridiculous!!!

She's a twat for even asking! You did the right thing.

I would tell her that if she wanted a space outside her house that badly then she should buy a house with off street parking.