AIBU to leave my engine running for ten mins at 6.45 each morning (M-F)?

[ThreeJumpersIsNotEnough]

Neighbours have just come to the door with a Christmas card and a polite request to be more quiet in the mornings.

I usually leave at 7am to drop dd at breakfast club and get myself to work at 8am (I work Mon-Fri only - no weekends).

Now it's getting colder, the car is unbearably cold in the mornings so last week I started nipping out 10-15 mins earlier while dd was brushing her teeth so the car would be warm for us getting in and the frost/ice would be mostly melted from the window.

Neighbours have revealed that they are normally woken by me leaving most mornings at 7am but they can put up with it as I leave immediately so they are able to go back to sleep. However, they are not willing to put up with what I've been doing recently as they have found it impossible to go back to sleep having been awake for so long waiting for me to leave with the engine running ...

They have suggested I park further away from the house.

This is my first winter with these neighbours. They only moved in beginning of the year and we're polite to each other but not any more than 'hello' acquaintances. We live very rurally - just our two houses - in woodland area. Any noise carries and it is mostly silent (why I moved here - now I'm the one being a noise pest, it would appear). No street lights. 5 minute drive down our landlord's private (god awful road) onto the public road where there are other houses.

If I parked further away, that is further for me and DD to walk to the car each morning - in the pitch black - with our bags. Likewise, it is further for us to walk to the house each evening when we get back.

Not sure what the solution is. I told them I wasn't keen to park farther away (due to the above concerns) but they've asked me to give it a try at least for tomorrow. I've agreed to try it.

AIBU to ask for your ideas on what a peaceful resolution to this would be?

We also live rural - hot water bottle for DDs seat and leave blanket on radiator to warm it up to take into car with your.

A Chamois doesn't work for me, they are as good as useless. I'll carry on with what I do until a better solution is found. I really don't think leaving my car for 5 minutes every morning for a few weeks a year is going to get me banged up in jail.

Obviously you have to run your engine to clear the windscreen on the inside while you scrape the car on the outside.

It's when people leave an engine running while they go back into the house for several minutes that annoys me.

As long as you are actually with/in the car it isn't a problem.

YABU sorry. That's sounds really irritating and your car could get nicked.
If you get in and start driving your car should be warm enough in less than five minutes.

Chamois and pads make a smeary mess for me. Live in arse end of nowhere and have dog so have tried - the only quick option is Karcher vac but that isn't quiet either and you need some warmth or it resteams...

We had this years ago. Security guard on building opposite used to start his car at 6.30 ready to leave at 7. Twat.

I am incredibly noise sensitive. Kids screaming, dogs barking, taxis dropping loud families off after midnight, the idiot who pulls up late at night and beeps rather than ringing the doorbell of her babysitting Mother then beeps again as she’s leaving etc. However, I must be weird because the sound of a car engine doesn’t bother me at all!

I can't imagine being thrilled with a neighbour idling the car each day like that, I feel sure if the car was stolen your insurance company might have an opinion on it as well, and what of the environment (fumes) and waste of fossil fuels?

MagnificentSevenHeaven I couldn't agree more.

It is an offence, however to drive a car when you can't see out of the windscreen and running it is the only way to clear it. I don't leave mine unattended but that has FA to do with emissions and is all to do with not wanting it to be nicked. It isn't an offence on your own drive to leave your car running if you want to (and some of my neighbours do)

Unfortunately the earlier you get up the worse it is so potentially more annoying for neighbours, and wiping from the inside quite simply doesn't work. I wonder if some people on this thread get up before 12pm or maybe live in places it rarely freezes.

If my neighour complained about me demisting my car going to work I'd think they were nuts. If I went on AIBU and asked 'AIBU to find my neighbour who is in the fire service demisting his car at 5.45am annoying and tell him to stop' I'd be flamed to within an inch of my life.

I just think increasingly there are people on here who automatically trill 'yabu' to whatever a woman posts tbh.

I have encountered a car with the engine running and a toddler inside twice whilst grocery shopping. I live in a small town and it was a parking space of a small aupermarket and bakery but in both instances, I waited to see when the driver would return. She was gone for about ten minutes both times. I was considering talking to her but didn’t because I would likely get an angry response. Might call the police next time.

I live in London so this wouldn't be disturb my rest as we're accustomed to noise and if your car is fairly modern the noise would be minimal - plus it's not that early and they can get earplugs. But YABU due to the environmental damage of the fumes - round here uber drivers sit with their engines running pumping toxic fumes into our street whilst they wait got a job and people are always banging on their windows telling them to stop adding tomorrow already polluted planet.

1. YABU for leaving your car running ....

BUT ...

7am is by no means EARLY .... That's normal getting up time? isn't it?

I don't know anyone who gets up past 7am on a weekday! Even my retired dad is up at 7am!

7am is by no means EARLY .... That's normal getting up time? isn't it?

Different people in different things shocker

I don't know anyone who gets up past 7am on a weekday! Even my retired dad is up at 7am!

My retired dad gets up waaaay later than this. But he isn't so much of a twat to complain about the noise people make going to work/school.

Your neighbors are twats.

Carry on doing what you are with your car. If your neighbors don't like it they can lump it. 'tgey don't mind you doing it then going right away' who do they think they are dictating your morning routine? They should get ear plugs

Yet another example of MN being a different, hysterical world. Where car noise is unreasonable and You Must Stop, but kids screeching at 1qpm on a trampoline in summer is perfectly normal, how marvellous they follow European bed times, and how you should buy ear plugs. Daft

You’ve fallen into the trap of assuming MN is a hive mind...

Madein1995 - glad you ain't my neighbour!

Get up, put a couple of hot water bottles on the dashboard. Go back inside, have shower, breakfast etc.
Hot water bottles will (hopefully) have cleared the worst of the ice from the windscreen. Put hot water bottles on seats to warm them up, use scraper/ cloth to clear rest of screen.

ThreeJumpersIsNotEnough
OP,I really hope you see this.
I've come to the conclusion that most of the women on here are absolutely nuts.Saying you're ruining the environment (ha-freaking-haha) and you're inconsistent to your neighbors....I've literally read through comments worried about the future of some of these people's kids!!
Soooo,ignore them!!!
Tell you're neighbor this situation isn't up for discussion but thanks.You're child trumps their sensitive ears. Give them some ear plugs!😉😉😉😉

Or ......You could just be a considerate neighbour

master I don't actually drive (pay petrol and parent drives me to work). But I have enough common sense to see that the neighbors are unreasonable, not OP. Yes, I would put my comfort (not being freezing cold for 15mins of my journey) over my neighbours sleep. It's normal, isn't it? I mean, you wouldn't hurt or harm others, but when it comes purely to comfort - when that person has no additional needs to require it (eg public transport), when it is purely comfort, and it is between you and someone you are on nodding terms with - well isn't it normal to put yourself first?! Ops neighbors aren't great friends of hers . They can ask. She can say no. I'd say no.

On all other threads over summer where the op complains about noise, she is told to buy earplugs. When the family next door are sleep training their child and it's crying every night for hours, she's told she's mean for complaining and told to buy the mum some biscuits as a sympathy gift! Those things are a lot more intrusive than a car being started for 10mins

It's madness how in virtually all other threads of the same theme, the OP is told she is unreasonable to complain. And should have more sympathy. But when she's the one making a little noise, she's unreasonable. Think some people just like saying YABU.

It seems this thread illustrates just how harmful exhaust fumes are, judging from some replies of posters who think it’s their right to idle their engine as much as they like.