Unable to move the car AIBU?

[MrsElizabethShelby]

So, I know DH WBVVU but was I?

This morning we took the car on the school run. Don't usually but needed to today.

I cannot drive. I don't have a license. DH parks across a driveway with a car in it.

I said to DH 'you can't park there' he objected and said ' oh, il only be a minute' and jumped out to run DD1 into school.

The minute DH was out of sight owner comes out of her house keys in hand and mouths at me that she needs to leave.

I rolled down the window, apologized and said husband will be back in a sec.

She repeated she needed to leave. I apologized again and explained that I can't drive and that even if I could DH has the keys and he will be back any minute.

This time she shouted she needed to leave. I said I'm sorry I've tried to explain and rolled my window back up.

I could have taken DD1 into school but DH had jumped out and gone before I had even had chance to suggest it.

Woman begins banging on my window shouting at me to move the car. Frightening my infant DD2 and making her cry.

Husband told her to wind her neck in when he got back and we ended up falling out as it was his fault as he parked there is the first place.

All of this took place over the space of about 5 minutes.

[Myimaginarycathasfleas]

If someone did this to me I would be incandescent so I don't blame the woman at all. I imagine she thought that even if you weren't the driver you had effectively colluded with him, which in effect you did by letting him leave the car.

Your toddler getting upset is a side issue I'm afraid. If he carries on like this, your DH is going to create all sorts of upsetting situations in front of your DC.

[Phineyj]

Look, what you do in this situation is the driver drives round the block, the non driver does the drop off and then the non driver gets back in. It's what you do!

[Nanny0gg]

As soon as he parked there you should have immediately said that you would take your DD in so he was there to move it if necessary

Yes, because he's clearly the type of man who listens to his wife...

[pootyisabadcat]

He's a complete and utter dick and you're his apologist with all this 'I don't need to learn to drive' 'She made DD2 cry' 'Whatever DH'. And of course, subsequent posts have backed it all up. The leaving all his crap at Maccie D's - I'd have dumped any cunt who did that pronto.

[ScrewyMcScrewup]

If you choose to associate with twats then you get treated like one. I don't blame the woman at all.

[SofaSurfer20]

I have to deal with what that woman has to deal with every day. It's fucking annoying when selfish pricks come along and park on MY driveway, sometimes I'm unable to park after getting home from work as they are parked across my driveway, cheeky twats.

Tbh, if I'd have been told to wind my neck in by your dickhead husband, I'd have kicked the car and left a dent.

[Lifecraft]

@OP No, I have no need to learn to drive.

Yes you do. So you can move the car after the bell end you are married to has parked it like a twat.

[Pinkyyy]

If your DH had left you the keys, she could have moved it a few yards for you

There is no way in hell of let a potentially uninsured and infuriated stranger (or any stranger for that matter) drive my car, not even a few feet.

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

He shouldn’t have done it but it’s Sod’s law the one time he does that happens.

Or, to put it another way, 100% of the time when HE parks illegally, it prevents the householder from legally accessing the road from her own property.

Then, every other day, she's prevented again by whomever else decides that they are more important than she is.

If you have your driveway blocked every morning when you need to get your car out, it makes no practical difference whether it's the same selfish idiot each time or a brand new selfish idiot every single day - or a relay of selfish idiots throughout the extended drop-off and pick-up period.

Logically, her complaining and banging once she knew that you couldn't drive and that the keys had been taken was pointless; but don't you understand the sheer frustration that she would have been feeling that, yet again, a selfish entitled idiot had decided that he had the right to dictate a stranger's schedule for her? By being in the car and being associated with the perpetrator, you were obviously 'part' of the problem.

I'd have been very inclined to demand that you release the handbrake (or do it myself) and push the car out of the way (by nudging it with my own big old banger if necessary) - and leaving it in the middle of the road. The occupants wouldn't have been endangered in a big metal box in a low-speed residential area, but enough people would then be annoyed (and the police probably called) that your husband would in no way get away with trying to gaslight them that they were the unreasonable ones and not him.

Some time ago, a selfish driver near us parked in the middle of the yellow hatched area at the end of the road where the fire station was. THAT'S why the area was hatched. The inevitable happened and the fire engine couldn't get out. They gestured furiously to him to move, but he ignored them, so they used the fire engine to slowly push him out of the way and left him pointing the wrong way and at an odd angle, with quite a bit of expensive damage to his car. Did everybody think the fire crew unreasonable? Going on the grins and the cheers, I assume not.

I know it would never happen, but how wonderful it would be if some burly PCSOs could be there, waiting for the selfish parker with a pair of handcuffs, and slap them straight on their wrists for a short time. When they inevitably protest, simply tell them "Oh, you'll only lose your legal liberties and your ability to go about your day for 5 or 10 minutes or so - just like you forced this poor homeowner to do. Wind your neck in, mate...." There could be a £50 release fee, to cover their salary for the time.

[Thesnobbymiddleclassone]

I'd have gone up to you and waited until your DH came back.

It's so rude and annoying when people block your drive or designated space. Your DH should kniw better and as you commented on it, should have insisted on taking your child to school so he could move.

[havingtochangeusernameagain]

IN WHAT WORLD IS IT OK TO PARK ACROSS SOMEONE'S DRIVEWAY?

STOP DOING IT!

OP, your husband caused the issue and I don't think the lady was unreasonable, she probably didn't believe you couldn't drive. If your DH had left you the keys, she could have moved it a few yards for you.

I live at the end of a cul de sac and the people on the other side of the fence have had a lot of work done on their trees. For some reason, the tree surgeons think it's better to park my side of the fence and block me in. Without asking if I need to go anywhere. Last week I made a point, went out and asked them how long they would be there, and moved my car into the road.

It is NEVER ok to block a driveway. Unless you know the homeowner and they know you are doing it.

[SillyLittleBiscuit]

I’d have been mortified by your husband’s actions - selfish then rude. Ugly!

[MRex]

Winding your window up was unnecessarily rude and you should have taken your DD into school. Your DH sounds like a selfish and nasty piece of work, is he really who you want to be with?

[TeaStory]

Your husband is a complete twat, but I think you know that.

However, if you had been the one to take your daughter in, I don’t think he would have moved the car either given his shitty response to the reasonably irate woman. He is a twat.

And, for the record, I drive a 2008 car that does not have electric windows.

[Vulpine]

You need to learn to drive so you are never at the behest of your husband like that again

[ScarletPower]

If I were your husband, I wouldn’t be leaving for work ten minutes earlier than I needed to because of idiots parking across my driveway during the school run. Instead, once I was up and dressed, I’d park my car across my own driveway and then go back inside, have my breakfast with ten extra minutes to enjoy it, and drive to work happy in the knowledge that I’d prevented some selfish oik from parking across my driveway!

Procrastination4

Honestly, even if he did that, someone would park nose to tail with him not leaving him enough space to get out and even if they left him space to get out, he'd still have to contend with all the traffic. If cars are parked on both sides of our road it's only wide enough for one car to get up or down. So on the whole it's just easier for him to set off earlier. He does get a lie-in on school holidays though - it's bliss then!

I don't understand why my street was not included in the traffic measures the council implemented.

[Namechangeforthiscancershit]

Surely you can drive the car forward a bit even if you don't have a licence?

That would be a terrible idea on so many levels

[SoupDragon]

Surely you can drive the car forward a bit even if you don't have a licence?

Of course you can't. Especially if you don't know how to drive a car. And have no keys.

[Procrastination4]

@Scarletpower
If I were your husband, I wouldn’t be leaving for work ten minutes earlier than I needed to because of idiots parking across my driveway during the school run. Instead, once I was up and dressed, I’d park my car across my own driveway and then go back inside, have my breakfast with ten extra minutes to enjoy it, and drive to work happy in the knowledge that I’d prevented some selfish oik from parking across my driveway!

[Shoxfordian]

He's really inconsiderate. Is he like this with you as well?

[thatmustbenigelwiththebrie]

Surely you can drive the car forward a bit even if you don't have a licence?

[HeddaGarbled]

Time to learn to drive?

[jessicawessica]

I live opposite a Deli and every man and his dog park across my driveway to go in and buy Naice ham.
Pisses me right off and have lost count of the times I have had to sit in my car waiting for some arse to move their car so I can actually get off my driveway in order to pick my DCs up from school.
DH so in the wrong. Does he not know what a driveway is?

[BackforGood]

it was his fault as he parked there is the first place - you’ve summed it up. And no of course you shouldn’t have attempted to move the car when you don’t have a license and can’t drive. Driveway lady shouldn’t have banged on the car but I 100% get her frustration. I also can’t believe your DH told the woman to ‘wind her neck in’ when he was the one blocking her driveway. He sounds like an entitled arse.

This.
However, what you could have done, when he parked in such a selfish and inconsiderate way, was to jump out and say "I'll take her in, then you will be able to move the car".

As for whichever idiot said something about not understanding why you would buy a house by a Primary school . Here's a thought - maybe people assume other adults know how to drive and understand that their desire to be a little bit closer to where they want to be, does NOT entitle them to block people's drives. Maybe it doesn't occur to them, when house hunting, that there are so many inconsiderate pricks around in the world ? My house isn't by a school, but is by something else that people feel entitled to just stop at. I get blocked either in or out of my drive at least 3 or 4 times a month, but I bought the house before MN was invented, and it never crossed my mind in a million thought that people would just block my drive, as it is just not a thing that I - or any other driver I knew at the time - would do.