To be baffled by obsession over parking

[m0therofdragons]

We live in a small cul de sac and so generally people have 2 cars, one on driveway and one on road outside their home. There's no reason for random people to park here so all is fine. At the end of the road is another road where homes have big driveways so when we have guests they park there and walk down (there are only 7 homes up each side so it's 30seconds walk).

We live in the corner of the cul de sac and have no pavement outside our home just the entrance to 3 driveways so nearest pavement is directly outside neighbour's house. First couple of months living here we parked 2nd car at end of the road and walked down but nobody parked on pavement nearest our home so I started to. For about 14 months all was fine but then neighbour mentioned her son had split from fiancé and is moving home so would be parking there. I naively thought she meant whoever gets home first would have the spot so I said something like "oh yes it's the road so I know we don't own it. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Her son is in the forces so not home often and we've carried on parking there but he's now home and she's parking her car there so he can use the drive. I didn't think much of it - yes it's nice to park outside my house with 3dc but they are primary age and capable of walking, although I did notice she's around more than usual (but her son is home so didn't question it).

Other neighbour has just told me that my neighbour has told her how cross she is that we "steal her space" and she's had to change her work hours to ensure she gets home before me so she can get parked there!

I'm planning to ignore the crazy and carry on smiling and calling out hello. Although I don't mind walking down the road, if the space is there then I'll park there. She is a very large lady so I appreciate she cannot walk far but her son is perfectly fit and able late 20s so she can use her drive and he can park and walk 30 seconds occasionally.

Sorry for the essay. I can't imagine changing my working hours for a parking space!

YANBU OP! People are crazy

Completely bonkers

This sort of thing happened to me NDN wanted to park outside my house where I always park , I don't own the road so if they get home before me fair enough but sometimes they world guard the space so that someone ie me wouldn't steal it .
Eventually they got the drive done so can fit 2 cars in the drive but they don't want me parking outside my house as it's awkward for them to get out . Anyway I said no so dh parks down the road and I use our drive our drive won't fit 2 cars .
Dh can't be bothered with the fall out but really unless someone is blocking you in you can't tell someone where they can and can't park .

Why are you parking on the pavement?

I love watching the neighbours squabble over parking spaces.

Batshit crazy lady moved which is a shame but we still have old fella and the nutters that think they own the lay-by outside their houses. Normally they all fit in but sometimes a randomer parks and notes are left all over the place. Wouldn't mind but they all have drives for 2/3 cars at the end of the block but refuse to use them. 😂

People get weirdly possessive about their patch of pavement I find!

I find it odd that neighbours can get so worked up about this. We have limited parking outside our terraced house, it's all on a first come, first served basis with nobody having a drive. Our neighbour is obsessed with "saving" his space and regular swaps cars around to make sure he is always parked there. I'm always saying that if "his" space becomes free (which it never does) then I'll park in it and catch a taxi to work just to send him over the edge

Our neighbour is currently arguing with us over a similar issue.
We have told him we will park there (outside our house) when we have the kids as it is easier than walking them down the street. We are apparently being very unreasonable!

There was one opposite the dc school. She would go nuts if anyone parked completely legally on the road outside her house and phone school threatening to blockade the driveway
I appreciate that a lot of parents DO park really badly for school pick up and drop off but this wasn’t the case at all. Once at a school event I got called out ( by reg number) as apparently I was blocking her access. I was a bit baffled as I was sure I had parked considerately but went to check and she was standing by her car having a meltdown because I had parked outside her house. I just said “nope, not moving” and left
A friend of mine actually broke down outside her house and had to wait 3 hours for the AA - the nutty woman almost imploded ( she had to park about 100yds further up) and spent the 3 hours standing at her front window glaring. She was always on FB as well, usually trying to get a campaign going for permit holders parking only.
I hear she’s moving.

She's bonkers.

I get irrationally annoyed by delivery vans parking across our drive (which has a yellow line and dropped kerb), so I ask them to move. We don't actually have a car. We do have family who park on our drive, but I ask them to move even when none are actually due over. It's the principle that they shouldn't just park across a bloody drive. DH thought it was bonkers, but today I reported one, it was a ten bloody minute food delivery so not quick and I'd asked him to move 3 times but he just said no. I know it's slightly batshit when we don't have a car, but most people do need their drives and how can they learn what a driveway is if nobody tells them eh?

(In each case there are always spaces further up the road by the way, it really is never necessary to use our driveway.)

@MRex surly no harm for deliver drivers to park while they deliver

Sometimes I think people focus on stuff like this rather than address other areas in their lives that cause them unhappiness. I am very stressed at the moment for various reasons and find myself getting ridiculously wound up about unimportant stuff.

Just ignore her if you genuinely don't think you're being unreasonable.

We inadvertently got involved in a parking war we didn’t even know we were in. We don’t have off road parking and only have one car, and quite often the space directly outside our house is taken, so we just park wherever there’s a space.

Last week there was a screw in one of our tyres, it kept deflating, so we got it fixed and the tyre guy said it’s quite common so probably not malicious. Two days later, my teenage DD noticed a noise when she was driving, 70mph down the motorway, and when she got home, noticed there was a 6 inch screwdriver sticking out of the same tyre!

Got a good idea who is responsible, but what can we do. We are now being very careful about where we park, but am very pissed off that a potential serious accident could have occurred

I can’t picture this at all, can you do a diagram please?

I'm usually all for being considerate when parking even when you're not legally obliged to but I don't get why she has any more claim to it than you do? It would be irritating if one household had 7 cars and took up all the parking but you're just parking your second car in the nearest spot to your house.

@Meandyouandyouandme

Bloody hell, that's absolutely mental. I would want to set up some CCTV to catch the psycho who's been doing it.

@Oysterbabe not parking on the pavement, parking on the road by the piece of pavement between driveways. I could fit my 7 seater there but feel it would be a pain for everyone so only park my little (4seat) car. I'm trying to be considerate but it's not enough for some people.

Mind you, she also went nuts at dh because over Christmas the rubbish collectors kept missing our recycling so he put it on the pavement outside her house (putting it on the pavement outside our house would drop access to us, that neighbour and other neighbour as pavement is all dropped across that area.

She can be super friendly to me but is vile to dh. He's really polite but dangerously sarcastic and struggling to bite his tongue

@MRex Really??

@BottleOfJameson I know, it’s completely deranged. See photo, we’ve had no notes on the car, or any indication that there was a problem, we’ve been here about 9 months. Been thinking about getting a dashcam on the car now, this happened on Thursday, and we’ve been able to park outside ours since then.

@ifyouneedmenow - they could park by a bit of free pavement only one or two houses further up instead of blocking a drive, or park fully in the pavement space in front of our house to not block the drive, but they just park over the drive regardless. We've had family arrive before and have to wait, then back up to let the driver through because the road is narrow, instead of just driving into our actual empty driveway. I wouldn't mind if there were no spots, but there are loads of free spaces. When the profession is driving, the driver should be able to look and select an appropriate place to stop.

@MRex - that is absolutely batshit - while I'd be annoyed about my drive being blocked if I needed to get out or in that second, I can imagine asking a delivery driver making a drop off to move, especially if I didn't even have a fucking car. Surely in most cases, they'd have made the delivery and be driving off by the time you'd managed to have the conversation!!

What a weird hill to choose to die on.

@Meandyouandyouandme wow that's awful! Our neighbour is more likely to whine to other neighbours but can't imagine her doing that.

@areukiddingme I've been laughed at on here for my lack of art skills and not sure what apps others use. Does this make sense?

Neighbour A is bonkers neighbour.

I'm hardly dying on a hill by sending a company a photo that shows a van parked across our drive with 4 metres of free unparked-on pavement space behind it.