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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Really shaken up. Did I do anything wrong here?

1000 replies

seventymodules · 10/05/2021 10:24

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.

OP posts:
MrsElijahMikaelson1 · 11/05/2021 07:41

Tbh 5days a week for two years is a bit much. Can’t you vary it up a bit and go somewhere else occasionally?

IloveJudgeJudy · 11/05/2021 07:42

My DD's colleague got threatened by a resident when she parked like this. The police took it very seriously and spoke to the resident.

SunflowersAndLavender · 11/05/2021 07:48

Doris86

I’m always amazed at the entitled home owners who think a section of the public highway is their own personal parking space just because it happens to be outside their front door.

Yes, so am I. I think we are argueing for the same side here!

RubyFowler · 11/05/2021 07:51

@MrsTroutfireVII

Who said anything about disorderly? Just a nice picnic and some drinks on the grass opposite your house.
Fine, enjoy the public piece of land!
unwuthering · 11/05/2021 07:51

It is interesting, the OP has not returned; and despite being so astonished and 'really shaken up' at 10.24 Monday May 10 when she posted this thread, and also while being at work, she managed to start another thread on another topic of concern one hour later, on the same day.

Meanwhile, we huff and puff... Grin

I have missed parking threads so much, so I thank her, anyway!

Lampzade · 11/05/2021 07:51

It’s common decency not to park outside someone’s house five fucking days a week
We all know it is not against the law, but it is annoying.
My dh once packed outside someone’s house which was near Luton airport.
Dh was away for ten days, when he came back someone had let his tyres down.

longwayoff · 11/05/2021 07:52

People are mad and can be uber possessive about 'their space'. A friend has a house with personal parking space. She guards the space, and the road outside her house, like a Jack Russell terrier on speed. She doesn't drive and she doesn't own a car. It irritates me a lot.

Lampzade · 11/05/2021 07:53

@unwuthering

It is interesting, the OP has not returned; and despite being so astonished and 'really shaken up' at 10.24 Monday May 10 when she posted this thread, and also while being at work, she managed to start another thread on another topic of concern one hour later, on the same day.

Meanwhile, we huff and puff... Grin

I have missed parking threads so much, so I thank her, anyway!

Ha ha I love a parking thread
HannaHat · 11/05/2021 07:56

@unwuthering

It is interesting, the OP has not returned; and despite being so astonished and 'really shaken up' at 10.24 Monday May 10 when she posted this thread, and also while being at work, she managed to start another thread on another topic of concern one hour later, on the same day.

Meanwhile, we huff and puff... Grin

I have missed parking threads so much, so I thank her, anyway!

To be honest I believe barely anything I read on here, the parking thread topics are always brilliant though for the polarising comments they produce.
AmandaPlease · 11/05/2021 08:07

I get why the woman is annoyed. Buys a house probably with a reasonable expectation a visitor can park next to it, or that they wouldn't be looking out at someone's car all day - and the same stranger is there 5 days a week for years. It'd annoy the shit out of me after a while. Not everything has to be illegal to be irritating.

RichardMarxisinnocent · 11/05/2021 08:15

@Lampzade

It’s common decency not to park outside someone’s house five fucking days a week We all know it is not against the law, but it is annoying. My dh once packed outside someone’s house which was near Luton airport. Dh was away for ten days, when he came back someone had let his tyres down.
But why exactly is it annoying? Would it be equally annoying if it were the car of someone you knew such as a neighbour? Or your own car?
sunglassesonthetable · 11/05/2021 08:21

get why the woman is annoyed. Buys a house probably with a reasonable expectation a visitor can park next to it, or that they wouldn't be looking out at someone's car all day - and the same stranger is there 5 days a week for years. It'd annoy the shit out of me after a while. Not everything has to be illegal to be irritating.

Would you make veiled threats of damage to her car?

TinyTear · 11/05/2021 08:25

Goodness leave some posts for the OP to come back, 10 pages of get off maaa laaand posts... (when it's not your land and it's the public road)

AmandaPlease · 11/05/2021 08:32

@sunglassesonthetable

get why the woman is annoyed. Buys a house probably with a reasonable expectation a visitor can park next to it, or that they wouldn't be looking out at someone's car all day - and the same stranger is there 5 days a week for years. It'd annoy the shit out of me after a while. Not everything has to be illegal to be irritating.

Would you make veiled threats of damage to her car?

No I wouldn't, and I still think OP is wrong.

Anjo2011 · 11/05/2021 08:35

And so it goes on 😂

sunglassesonthetable · 11/05/2021 08:38

No I wouldn't, and I still think OP is wrong.

Acknowledge Mower Woman is annoyed, there are pages here of other posters who say they would feel the same. It takes all types .

But threatening and intimidation. Pathetic.
She lost the argument right there.

AmandaPlease · 11/05/2021 08:47

sunglasses the actual question from the OP was if she did anything wrong, hence the huge number of replies like mine.

sunglassesonthetable · 11/05/2021 08:58

sunglasses the actual question from the OP was if she did anything wrong, hence the huge number of replies like mine.

Wrong enough to be threatened?

Cleverpolly3 · 11/05/2021 09:04

Seriously? 37 pages for this?

sunglassesonthetable · 11/05/2021 09:05

Seriously? 37 pages for this?

👍🏻 Fascinating tbh.

AmandaPlease · 11/05/2021 09:12

sunglasses she didn't immediately threaten. She waited 2 years and then first asked if OP would stop leaving her car there, and was met with "it's a public road".

We can invalidate the woman's annoyance by focusing on the implied threat but OP's question was is her parking unreasonable. Yep.

Cleverpolly3 · 11/05/2021 09:14

@sunglassesonthetable

Seriously? 37 pages for this?

👍🏻 Fascinating tbh.

Happy to help. Grin
unwuthering · 11/05/2021 09:14

To be honest I believe barely anything I read on here, the parking thread topics are always brilliant though for the polarising comments they produce.

Oh, I absolutely think it's real. She's not as bothered as some of us, though!

MrsMackesy · 11/05/2021 09:24

@unwuthering

It is interesting, the OP has not returned; and despite being so astonished and 'really shaken up' at 10.24 Monday May 10 when she posted this thread, and also while being at work, she managed to start another thread on another topic of concern one hour later, on the same day.

Meanwhile, we huff and puff... Grin

I have missed parking threads so much, so I thank her, anyway!

Yes, I was also wondering how OP fits in working 5 six-hour days a week for the last 2 years with being a uni student for the last 3 years and with all the demands of being a lone parent? Hopefully she will return....
ArcheryAnnie · 11/05/2021 09:26

Nearly 1000 posts, and I still don't understand why the homeowner is so upset, or why anyone is defending her actions.

The homeowner has a driveway, so her own parking isn't impeded at all.
The road is public, and she has no rights or ownership over it at all.

People have cited stuff as "it's inconvenient for her", "she has to look at someone else's car all day", and "she might have visitors".

How is it inconvenient for her? She has her own drive. It would be inconvenient to the OP if she didn't park there - why doesn't her inconvenience count for anything? She's paid for the road as much as the homeowner.

As for looking at someone else's car all day - please. If you don't want to look at someone else's car all day, you are out of luck unless you live somewhere really remote. I look out of my living room window to a sea of other people's cars. I wish they would all vanish, tbh, but that sadly isn't up to me.

Might have visitors? Why should someone from even further away have any "right" to that space? Ridiculous.

"Common decency" - no, not unless you think it's "decent" to claim as yours something that's in common ownership.

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