To not want to be rushed out of a car park?

[MsMarvel]

Travel around for work, so regularly use public car parks to then work at client sites (hotels, bars etc) always arrive early so never have any issue getting spaces in busy car parks.

Because i work in a public area at a client site, when i get back to my car like to grab my lunch quickly and make some phonecalls before heading home (todays journey is a 2 hour drive home)

Im fed up of people trying to find spaces in car parks seeing me going into my car, amd sitting behind me waiting for me to leave! I normally end up feeling rushed and just leave, but today i decided to sit and eat the steak bake i bought on the way to the car. Woman sits behind me for like 5 mins, then goes past slowly peering into my car giving me proper evils. Should add, engine not on, so not sitting with idling engine.

Aibu to take some time before leaving a parking space??

'Sneakily selfish' was your (absolute comedy gold) phrase of yesterday.

People have explained that there are many, many reasons why they and others might need to sit in their car, in a car park, including many different reasons why they might need to eat lunch in their car.

It is completely normal and acceptable for them to meet their needs in this way.

A few weeks ago I had to pick up DH from the local train station, this station has a few 30 minute only spaces for picking up (usually always full) anyway I timed it perfectly, someone was just leaving so I got a space.
I had about ten minutes before his train was due in so I popped in the station and bought a few bits for dinner, on return to the car an elderly gentleman saw me and was obviously waiting for me to move, I made eye contact and shook my head. His window comes down and he tells me that it's only a 30 minute space and he KNOWS I've been there for an hour. I try to explain the situation and that I hadn't but he started shouting at me!
I don't like confrontation so I got in my car, and he proceeds to pull up behind me and blast his horn incessantly... I leave the car and head back to the safety of the station while he's shouting obscenities at me!

I was quite shaken up and thankfully he was gone when we came back out but I don't understand why people can get so worked up over parking spaces!

If he 'knew' you had been there an hour where had he been @HelloThere1234? Circling the car park?

I was really grateful last week when a kind lady told us she was leaving hospital car park and where she was parked. The car park was very busy. I usually leave pay car parks quickly as obviously you are charged more the longer you stay.

I will move out quickly if someone is waiting if convenient to myself

However it's fair enough to do what you need to do first and if you are not ready to leave then so be it

Explain
You appear incapable of considering perspectives/ life experiences that are different to your own, and cling rigidly to your own interpretation of the situation even though it may be illogical. You fully encapsulate the group you are denigrating, yet cannot see it.
Why are you so lacking in self awareness?
Explain.

I have done that at the hospital car park @woodhill. They built a huge new hospital and genuinely expected people to go on the bus to it. There's a stupidly small car park and after 9.30am there's not a hope of a space without much circling and waiting. So as soon as I get back to the car I let someone in the queue know so they can have the spot.

Hi again!

First 2 properties done and a short walk completed. That's 3 residential areas I have availed myself of. I am now off to park on a trading estate to buy us lunch, hijack some wifi and eat said lunch, in my car.

I shall be ignoring anyone who so much as glances in my direction. Me and the pup are off duty for the next hour!

YouNeedIceForThat

I do not expect anyone to move for me, I just think it would be considerate, if they have been and done what they have to do and then returned to their car that they then move out the space to let someone waiting for a space have it. That's what I would do. I'm not sure what people aren't understanding about that. I wouldn't demend anyone move, infact unless I had been doing round of the car park for an hour, I probably wouldnt even wait to see, or gesture to ask if they were about to leave.
Love that you perceive me to be the only one "clinging rigidly" to my own opinion. When the people sitting faffing in their cars have no though for the people waiting for a space, or what's going on in their lives 😂 oh the irony.

Even more stressful is the pay & display hospital parking when your appointment runs late

Again. It seems people aren't allowed to have differing opinions on MN. If the majority believe something, they will hound and brow beat until they make everyone think the same as them. Life doesn't work like that.

We have pay as you leave @woodhill and a ticket which raises the barrier. No change given and £££ prices. Sometimes for a bit of fun when you have paid up and get to the barrier it's permanently up for no reason.

First half an hour is free but you can't do anything in half an hour in that hospital.

I expect we could all agree that excessive faffing is an undesirable behaviour, at any time, in any place but especially when holding other people up.

OP however, was not faffing, she was meeting her, very normal and reasonable, needs.

I had thought we could all agree (as OP also acknowledged, about a million posts ago) that sitting in the passenger seat, or otherwise indicating to hovering drivers that she was not ready to leave, was the polite and reasonable thing to do.

Case closed, useful discussion, job done.

But no... because one person considers this practice, of OP meeting her needs in a way that clearly indicates to others that she is not about to leave the car park - to be 'sneaky selfishness'.

I agree @lottiegarbanzo sitting in the passenger seat or in the back will sort all of this out.

Oh dear, strangest, you really don’t seem to understand. There are different ways of interpreting the same situation which you cannot seem to compute.. I said you cling rigidly to your interpretation without considering others. Not opinion. That is different. Have whatever opinions you want, nobody wants to change them.
Also self awareness is not the same as opinion. You display a marvellous lack of it whilst vociferously conveying your many opinions. I find the two seem to go together.

@Sparklingbrook

We did have a pay machine for after the visit in a lovely new car park but some nasty person vandalised the car park barrier so back to the p&d option😡

😂😂 Fun times

My lack of self awareness, yes that's what it is 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 fucking hilarious

We have pay as you leave parking in our local hospital’s car park too.

The barrier system won’t let you into the car park unless there’s spaces, which is nice in theory, but they’ve set it up so you have to go right through the staff car park to get to the visitor car park, so once you get beyond a certain point on the way into the hospital, it’s absolutely impossible to leave the queue for the visitor car park.

I missed an antenatal appointment because of that, despite getting to the hospital grounds in my car an hour before my appointment.

I can't believe I'm actually discussing this with a 12 year old with a dictionary 😂. I really need to get a grip and move on.

It's annoying when people sit around in the school car park as there aren't enough spaces for everyone (rural school with no where else to park within a 15 minute walk) so people need to get in and out quickly and let other people in. In your situation you'd be taking up the parking spot whether you ate your lunch in the car or if you sat in a local park to eat it and one would complain if you did the latter.

If it was somewhere where parking is in short supply and people have no choice but to use it e.g. hospital then yes you should probably leave and eat your lunch elsewhere though.

I'm sure there is a name for people who try to use unnecessarily "big" words in an attempt to sound more intelligent .

And now the puppy and I are off to park in a supermarket car park where we'll both have a wee and then I will avail myself of some of their generous 3 hour parking time to do my next job. I'll even hang around when I get back to use their WiFi to send the files off, and to give the dog another walk as there's a nice green lane down the side.

Who is using big words? Must read back and see if I can spot the miscreant.

I’d be really annoyed @MsMarvel if the carpark was full and you were leisurely eating a steak bake. It’s kind of selfish