Really shaken up. Did I do anything wrong here?

[seventymodules]

For past two years I have done the school run, I park on a street near the school. There is a detached house with a driveway and a patch of grass next to the driveway. I park in front of the patch of grass, not blocking the driveway whatsoever.

Once I drop my child at school I get collected by my workmate (we are cleaners so have company car) and then work till 3 until I have to return for school run and car.

This morning as I was getting out of the car the lady in the house came charging out, she said 'can you stop parking your car in front of my house?' I said 'it's a public road' and she said 'you park out here 5 days a week, if you refuse to move it I should make you aware that I will be cutting my grass today and any damage to your car is not my responsibility' said with a sarcastic smile on her face, she then walked back into the house shaking her head.

I've left the car but worried now she is going to damage it.

Am I being unreasonable parking it there? It's a public road and not on her property at all.

Youre doing nothing wrong, but it is a bit odd that you park outside this house and only this house. You must maje her wonder if you're stalking her!

What was said to you was really quite mild, so you shouldn't really be that shaken.

@BrumBoo

People use my street as all day free parking, and it's rude, inconsiderate, twatty behaviour even if it's not illegal. However, it's extra irritating as hardly anyone has a private drive on our street, so yes I do get angry seeing the same car parked outside my house just because I had to leave to do the school run. At least mix it up a bit, go make someone else's day a bit more difficult for once.....

Move house then. You chose to live there. Sounds like you need a house with a nice big driveway - if you live somewhere with no driveway and you get this annoyed by other people parking outside your house, your stress levels might be reduced if you choose to move to somewhere more appropriate to your needs and wants.

Op is not making the woman's life difficult. She just doesn't want someone parking on 'her' road.

Two years! Every day, all day, five days a week for two years!

It is a public road, and of course you can park where you wish, but sheesh, two years of acting as if this is your personal car park spot.

It's not rational, but that would drive me mad, looking out and seeing the same car there, day after day. Maybe she'd like to park her car out front sometimes, just pull up and park in front of her own house, not bother using the drive, etc. Surely there are other spots in this street, to share the love about a bit?

If a car is parked legally, then people should stop jumping up and down saying it's inconsiderate, spoils the view, visitors have to park a fraction further away. Get over it.

It's also perfectly legal to be annoyed at something and to find it inconsiderate.

This has my award for Mad Thread of the Week. Op parks on the public road and doesn't cause any obstruction. Then the mad stuff starts.

Crazy!

Take it lots of posters don't live in bigger towns or cities or in terraced housing. Cos you def don't 'own' the parking rights outside your house there. Even if there's Permit type parking.

All these pissed off and put out types would be SUPER pissed off and put out.

Does this aggressive woman want to see a different COLOUR car or something? What a joke.

But since she is actually threatening your property with VIOLENCE get a dash cam thingy . Mad.

YANBU OP, and you're right that you've done nothing wrong. Public road, no parking restrictions, end of.

However. If they're the sort to get arsey about it, it's not worth the hassle and worry that she's going to do something. I had a similar thing, I used to park in a side street for the station and walk for 10 mins rather than pay nearly a grand a year for a parking ticket at the station (which was often full by 8am anyway). I parked in a slightly different place one day and found a threatening note on my windscreen. I could have carried on parking there, put cameras in my car and gone to the police for any continued harassment but I just parked a bit further down, and varied it a bit. It grated that they'd 'won' but I couldn't face the stress.

The sort of people who are going to get bent out of shape because they think the piece of road outside their house is theirs are just not worth the bother.

she doesnt own the road, i park outside houses to go to work

The posters on here who think it's OK to do it because it's a public road would be just as pissed off if it happened to them, and I don't believe for a second that they wouldn't be.

As I posted earlier, it happens to me all day on termtime weekdays. It literally doesn’t register as an annoyance, I have a driveway like the woman in the OP. And like most people I generally receive visitors outside of weekday school/work hours, so it actually suits me great for the road to empty out after then. If I think about it at all I just think, lucky me that I live somewhere with a driveway and well within school catchment.

An apology to ginuwine though for her use of 'technically'. I don't have an issue with it in that context because it's correct - it's usually used by those asserting something that is bollocks as if it is fact.

I would honestly not notice which car(s) parked outside my house. Do people keep a spreadsheet or something? Or just not have anything better to do than stand in the front window fuming?

Maybe she'd like to park her car out front sometimes, just pull up and park in front of her own house, not bother using the drive, etc

What the fuck 😂

One of the residents further down complained that my car (parked on the other side of the road but opposite her house) was in HER space and she HAS KIDS!

Do we have the same neighbour? Mine is so territorial about 'her' space that she must be permanently watching out of the windows - it's seconds between it becoming vacant and her dashing down the road to reclaim the space. She will also park in the middle of a space you'd get two cars into, just so she can align with her front door

It's also perfectly legal to be annoyed at something and to find it inconsiderate.

I think it's 'the threatening to damage the car" thing that's the problem, no?

I wouldn't park outside the same house like OP, five days a week for the past 2 years ... because I'm not inconsiderate.

I wouldn't threaten someone'a car with damage because I'm considerate.

@AFS1

You’re technically not doing anything wrong, but I’d be irritated if I were in her position. But then, I wouldn’t have confronted you about it; I’d just have started parking my own car in the space you use!

This. You're within your rights, but you're being unfair. It's a public road, but it's really annoying to know the most convenient spot for your friends to park, or to pull up and dash in quickly for something, is never going to be available because some random has decided it's their personal parking space. Move around a bit.

What the fuck 😂

Oh, totes hilaire!

Birds of a feather flock together and this thread is particularly full of entitled types who feel they need to aggressively assert their 'rights', rather than exercise a little consideration for others.

2 years of the same car being 9arked right outside your house! I think the woman's been remarkably tolerant.

And its fair to assume that that the roads is fairly empty otherwise, if the OP always manages to park in her chosen spot.

Anyone else would have realised its bit weird and moved around a bit OP!

I had some man park his car right in front of my living room wiindow in a development where I lived for 2 weeks,and it creeped me out. There were loads of other spqces, ie actual parking spaces, not the bit in front of someone's house, which made it all the more weird. Every single time I looked out window, there was his car blocking my view.

When he did eventually move it, no did say something to him and he was very sheepish, which made it all the more weird!

Oh, totes hilaire!

love it. 😄

the most convenient spot for your friends to park, or to pull up and dash in quickly for something is never going to be available

The second most convenient spot, you mean, after the woman's own four car drive.

I think the poor woman has reached the end of her tether, with OP parking outside her house for two years, five days a week. If OP is like most inconsiderate parkers, she's probably blocking the pavement as well.

@unwuthering

What the fuck 😂

Oh, totes hilaire!

Birds of a feather flock together and this thread is particularly full of entitled types who feel they need to aggressively assert their 'rights', rather than exercise a little consideration for others.

Consideration for others with four car driveways, just in case they don’t feel like using them? Give yourself peace.

unwuthering, that entitlement goes both ways though, doesn't it? People don't park outside somebody's house for their amusement/to cause distress, do they? It's because there is limited parking and it's human nature to park in the closest (legal) space to where they need to be.

I really don't have a horse in the race as I couldn't park outside my house if I wanted to, not without being booked and/or pranged, so I park much further down the road - past several possible spaces - as I value my car and don't mind a walk.

@sunglassesonthetable

It's also perfectly legal to be annoyed at something and to find it inconsiderate.

I think it's 'the threatening to damage the car" thing that's the problem, no?

Yes, but that isn't what the poster I quoted was complaining about.