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.

[Jijithecat]

OP are you parking there everyday and that's it or are you arriving with the music blaring, leaving your engine running for ages and then all slamming your car doors as you leave?

[SoupDragon]

Fact that you're there all day 5 days a week is probably really annoying. I'd find a different spot to park in each day and rotate them TBH.

There's nothing wrong with parking there of course.

If someone parks outside my house it can make it trickier to get on or off my drive for example. Not impossible and nothing wrong with people parking there but it would be annoying.

[ifIwerenotanandroid]

I'd like a diagram & a photo of the OP's car so we can decide whether it's hideous.

If it was me & someone told me not to park outside their house, I wouldn't - even if I had every right to. I used to work at a big site & parked for free in the car park there, which was near my office. But some people working at the other end of the site parked in residential streets nearby - until one of the residents got fed up & there was an incident involving paint stripper...

[FlyNow]

It might be legal but it can be very very annoying... my street has unreserved parking and it's so busy from people dumping their cars and going to work that workmen can never park outside with their vans, and I can never park outside my own house. Sometimes I have an 8 minute walk with heavy shopping because it's the closest parking space I can find.

But that's just part of living on certain streets. That's something you choose when you choose your house, to get a car space (especially for every car) you have often you have to sacrifice something else/a lot of other things. Unless you moved in, then your drive was taken by a sink hole, it's a sacrifice you knew about and accepted.

OP just park there. If you don't, someone else will. What's the difference to her whether it's five different cars one day each per week or one car five days per week.

[LondonStone]

YANBU and the woman should count herself lucky she’s got a driveway for four bloody cars.

It used to annoy me when we lived on a very narrow terraced road 5 minutes from a central line tube station that cars would park for 10+ hours a day and bugger off. We had a pretty serious incident when a large vehicle got stuck in the road due to a badly parked Merc and the owner was 15 miles away in the city. The police ran his plate and he had to come back and move his car. Anyway we got permits shortly after and it was bliss.

[EssentialHummus]

I live in an area with free parking and it’s full of bus drivers who park their cars as the depot is nearby. It’s irritating (in that I’d like to pull up in front of my own front door and magically find a parking space each time) but that’s the deal with a public road. In the OP’s example it doesn’t even affect this person’s ability to park, since they have a driveway.

I’d carry on OP. I might put a cardboard cut out of the Queen waving or something in my driver’s window when I’m out, but that’s just me.

[Egghead81]

@LondonStone

YANBU and the woman should count herself lucky she’s got a driveway for four bloody cars.

It used to annoy me when we lived on a very narrow terraced road 5 minutes from a central line tube station that cars would park for 10+ hours a day and bugger off. We had a pretty serious incident when a large vehicle got stuck in the road due to a badly parked Merc and the owner was 15 miles away in the city. The police ran his plate and he had to come back and move his car. Anyway we got permits shortly after and it was bliss.

When was this?! Now it would be parking permits only

[HumunaHey]

@BrumBoo

What are they doing wrong?

In my case, they're taking away from residents who need the space more. You park on a residential street all day, you are possibly taking away from someone who lives there. Especially when there is available parking at the people's place of work, they're just too cheap to pay for it yet they know they're off for a 12 odd hour shift.

It's par for the course. If you don't have your own drive, you don't have your own parking. Saying people are too cheap to pay for parking is silly. Are you too cheap to get a house with a drive?

[BungleandGeorge]

How far do you live from school? If it’s only a couple of miles why not walk or cycle as you’re getting picked up anyway? If it’s primary there should be a school bus you could use if it’s further than 2 or 3 miles.

[ifIwerenotanandroid]

btw I've reported that post by 'Jannetra', above

[Meirou90]

5 days a week is taking the piss a bit, out of curtsy I’d change up the parking every so often.

[TheVamoosh]

It's like going to your local park and being outraged by someone else's children using the equipment.

I think it's more like living next to a local park and the same child using the slide all day, every day.

[Egghead81]

Sorry I’m thick!

[Egghead81]

@TheVamoosh

It's like going to your local park and being outraged by someone else's children using the equipment.

I think it's more like living next to a local park and the same child using the slide all day, every day.

But they’re being two dozen slides in the playground and indeed you have exclusive use of 4 of them

[Boxtroll]

It's a public road. You have the right to park there. It's not like you've parked on her driveway or have blocked her in.

Honestly the small things that people get angry about is astonishing. So territorial over the public road.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

How on earth can anyone be annoyed by a car parked on the street in front of your house, on a street with unrestricted parking?? You don't own the space! You knew when moving in that anyone could and might park there, and you knew that you had no control over who and when. That's the deal.

Who sits and looks out their front window all day, getting themselves wound up about there being a car parked there?? It's just bizarre behaviour.

[Tianatiers]

You are not doing anything wrong. If she damages your car while it's parked on a public road then she is in the wrong.

My mum gets livid about people parking outside her house. She has a parking space with her house but refuses to use it and parks her car outside her house just to stop other people from doing it. She says she'd rather look at her car than someone else's, even though her car is old and not very attractive! It's the principle for her. So I know how strange some people can be about this. I really don't get it, just don't live on a road if you don't like seeing cars parked outside your house!

You're not doing anything wrong but I'd maybe try and find somewhere else to park. She'll soon get someone else parking in front of her house though.

[Docsmix]

DH smashed the back windscreen on his car last year mowing the lawn. He went over a stone and it smashed clean through.

Maybe she's genuinely concerned it could happen to your car if you're close to the grass. We move both our cars right down the road when we mow now.

[HeyDemonsItsYaGirl]

How on earth can anyone be annoyed by a car parked on the street in front of your house, on a street with unrestricted parking??

There are a LOT of sad weirdos out there.

[Egghead81]

@HeyDemonsItsYaGirl

How on earth can anyone be annoyed by a car parked on the street in front of your house, on a street with unrestricted parking??

There are a LOT of sad weirdos out there.

Many of them gravitate towards any threads on covid rule breakers

[Dizzybrunette445]

You're not doing anything wrong but I can imagine it's a bit annoying for the people who live there having the same car parked outside 5 days a week. I'd be a bit annoyed but there's nothing she can do it's not her patch of grass?

[tcjotm]

To be honest it annoys me when people park outside my house because it does block my view (the layout with the hill means the street is kind of eye level with my living room windows and I’d rather be looking at the nice gardens beyond and not someone’s car. And very few people park on my street so I get a bit whyyy my house 😂

But of course I’d never say anything because it’s perfectly legal and perfectly reasonable for them to do so and I might be a weirdo but I’m not a total nut case 😂😂. Also being annoyed by things people do is a part of life.

[PattyPan]

Are you too cheap to get a house with a drive?

Has it occurred to you that some people literally cannot afford a house with a drive or live in areas where none of the houses have drives?

[Zzelda]

How on earth can anyone be annoyed by a car parked on the street in front of your house, on a street with unrestricted parking?

I know it isn't strictly rational, but for the same person to be heading for the same parking place for hours every day does feel a bit entitled. If it means that legitimate visitors to your house can't park, it gets understandably irritating.