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.

I’d think after 2 years of no complaints cutting the grass is genuinely the problem otherwise she would have been out there much sooner.

I really don't like looking out of my window at someone else's car

🤪

Park outside a different house every day OP.

I never understand people who spend so much energy for moving their cars from their drives on to the road and back just so that no-one else can park there. Or the ones who park permanently on the road rather rather than use their own drive which usually would be much more convenient surely. All that wasted energy!

My SIL's neighbours are like this, they do the switcheroo every day. I also once chatted to a woman (we live in the same village) who told me a story how she put some builders right who tried to park on front of her house. Her house is on a mini roundabout but she was adamant it's her space.

In our previous house TWO of our neighbours seriously believed that the their boundary line meant they owned all of the road next to it too.

Years ago we were interested in a house in London suburb but it didn't come with parking. It was clear as day to us that we'd be competing for a space with everyone else and might often have to park 2-3 blocks away from our house. Never crossed my mind that we would "own" the section of the street. Didn't buy the house for that reason.

OP, I think tomorrow go and park a lawnmower out there!

Everyone is focusing on the parking, the woman doesn’t care about the parking, she just wants to be able to cut her grass.

I don’t believe that. She’d have just spoke to OP politely if that was the case.

*This is exactly why this parking spot is a problem.

People make assumptions to suit their needs.

Why do you assume baby swings aren't for teenagers to stand on? How can you be so sure they're even 'baby' swings? Because somebody told you? Because that's what you've always known?

Bigotry plain and simple. Here we have one person with the firmly held belief that the space outside their house is morally theirs to command, and another with the equally firmly held belief that it's public property and as long as it's 'legal' it's not causing any harm.

Both are right, and both wrong since morality and the law do not need to be coincident or aligned, and, in fact can be completely contradictory.*

Barking mad.

Kale- but why wait 2+ years to complain then. What tipped her over the edge?!

I live by a school and school staff park outside my house everyday thise that need a quick getaway to collect their own DC dont want to be blocked in in the car park. Would it be different if OP was a teacher parking in the same spot everyday.

I have no issue with it at all btw, so long as no one blocks the drive.

I think you should log the threat on line, just in case.

woman doesn’t care about the parking, she just wants to be able to cut her grass. I think from the OPs original post it sounds if the woman said that the car might get damaged by the lawnmower if the OP refused to move.

From what the OP said I think you have that wrong.

@KaleSlayer

Perhaps Mower Woman should have calmly explained her issue ( if mowing the lawn is the issue 🤷‍♀️) rather than making threats of damage to legally parked cars.

Imagine that, eh.
But I think it’s likely that cutting the grass isn’t the problem, she’s just one of ‘those’ people.

I would say that after 2 year's of silence from the home owner, she clearly isn't one of "those" people but really just wants to mow her lawn.

Sunglasses Reading the first post the OP said that the woman said if you refuse it to move it I have to make you aware that it could get damaged as I am mowing the grass today. The damage comment was made directly in relation to mowing the grass.

Ahem! On the moving to the country suggestion. We live on single track lane and have had to put stumps on the grass to stop people driving over the grass. Some people navigate between the stumps and park up. Some people park in my garden, it might be near the road but it's still my garden, unload their bikes, leave the car there and go for a bike ride. I wish I knew where they lived so I could reciprocate. I could park on their lawn whilst I did a little shopping in town.

Kale- but why wait 2+ years to complain then. What tipped her over the edge?!

People keep things inside and then eventually just explode. The fact she basically threatened OPs car just makes me think she’s been pissed off for a while. If you just genuinely wanted to cut your grass, you’d just pop out and say ‘hi, would you mind just moving along a bit as I really need to cut the grass today and I don’t want to damage your car or have to work round it.’

@sunglassesonthetable
Perhaps Mower Woman should have calmly explained her issue ( if mowing the lawn is the issue 🤷‍♀️) rather than making threats of damage to legally parked cars.

The implication was that cutting the grass could damage OP's car. I'm assuming this is because the lawn goes directly to the road, as OP has said. The woman didn't say she going to go and damage the car.

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

the owners garden then.

Sunglasses Reading the first post the OP said that the woman said if you refuse it to move it I have to make you aware that it could get damaged as I am mowing the grass today. The damage comment was made directly in relation to mowing the grass.

Yes and the implication from the OP is that it was not done in a " just to let you know way" but in a sarcastic and somewhat threatening way. We all know there is a difference.

@sunglassesonthetable
From what the OP said I think you have that wrong.

Why, the woman hasn't said anything for 2 years but clearly stated that she wanted to cut her grass today.

@Zzelda

I don’t get why it’s annoying to have someone park outside your house. The same car parks outside my house most days as they get the bus into town. It’s a residential street in a village, all the houses have driveways. All it means is any visitors have to park behind her and walk an extra 4m to my house. It never occurred to me to get annoyed by it

Why would you assume that everyone else's circumstances must be the same as yours, @Almostascot? Might you be a tad miffed if the situation was that, as a result of this, visitors (including, perhaps, carers, disabled visitors etc) can't park anywhere near, or if it makes it impossible to offload important deliveries without blocking the road? Because that is very often the result of this sort of conduct.

Well my best friend has mobility issues due to MS and she is my most frequent visitor. Neither her or I get annoyed by someone parking legally the street outside my house.

Of course it would be frustrating for people in some of the situations you have described and I can understand and have sympathy with them. But none of them seem to apply to the OP. I don’t imagine someone with a four car driveway struggles with visitor parking or deliveries. I was mainly responding to the posters who were saying they just get annoyed by having a car parked outside their house even though it wasn’t causing them an inconvenience. The car used to park outside my neighbours until she shouted at the driver. She says she doesn’t like looking at it and it makes the street look untidy

I live just over from a train station, people park on my street to avoid paying the station fees. Its the same cars every week but who cares ?they don't block my drive way so I don't mind.

yes and that OPs car "could" get damaged. She said it in a manner that shook OP up. hence the thread.

@Michaelangelo467

It might be legal but you’re taking the piss.

To be fair if she wanted to park on the ladies drive, she's legally entitled to do so, so not sure parking on the actual road can be classed as 'taking the piss'.

YANBU

@OhTheIronyOfItAll - if I have understood the OP correctly, she is parking legally on the road, next to the edge of the lady’s lawn, which runs right down to the edge of the road (no pavement). So she isn’t parking on the lady’s garden, but next to it - a significant difference, I’d say.

You are idling anything wrong but it is fucking annoying.

I live on a road where we have no ORP and people have left their cars outside my house for weeks (gone on holiday).

SO annoying if you have a weeks worth of shopping.