To have taken my sweet time on purpose...

[FTM91]

(light-hearted just curious) In a service station McDonald's car park changing my baby on the front seat, so door open and me tending to her meant the space next to us couldn't be used (if that was completely unreasonable of me then fine)

The car park however was probably about 70% full...there were at least 6 empty spaces I could see from where I was standing and then some.

Woman drives in and decides she wants the space I'm stood in. She pulls half way in and REVS her engine loudly to make herself known. This pisses me off, so I take my time making sure every single thigh roll is sparkling clean, carefully apply barrier cream, put on new nappy...you get the gist. I then pick her up so revving lady can see I have a baby to faff with and maybe would wish to choose a different space. Nope she chose to sit there the entire time we strapped in and settled baby into the car seat. When she pulled in she gave me the weirdest sarcastic smile.

So:

YABU: Woman should be able to park wherever she chooses and if she wants to rev her engine and wait then so be it.

YANBU: any normal person would have just gone to a different space once they realised, and the revving was rude.

She was probably being " difficult", but it's possible that she experienced the same phenomenon that I came across in a car park today - several free spaces which, on closer inspection, had been rendered completely unusable by cars in adjacent spaces parked over the lines. I had to drive around for a while before I found a space that wasn't badly encroached on by the Chelsea Tractor next door.

Well when you say there were plenty of other spaces, what kind of ‘spaces’. Were you parked in a regular space or the extra wide disabled/parent spaces where you effectively took up two extra wide spaces?
YABU

“Took my time getting the kids out, strapping them slowly s as no carefully into their seats, unpacked my shopping into the boot etc. He was getting more and more agitated so imagine his face when I turned round, put the trolley back (trolley park was beside my car), came back, reopened my boot and got out the double buggy and started to get the kids back out of the car. I genuinely thought he was going to run me over! Made my day.” - I don’t think it would’ve made your day if he had gotten out of the car potentially swearing /shouting/being violent towards you, would it!?

Reminds me of the time I parked in a motorway service station. At least 100 free spaces, car park less than a third full. I parked away from the doors. Very hot day. My mum took my too eldest to the toilet whilst I breastfed my baby in the drivers seat. It was so hot that I had the passenger door wide open to let some air in.
As I was sat breastfeeding I heard beeping. It was a woman blasting her horn because despite over a hundred free spaces she insisted on parking next to me. Another motorist saw what was happening and gestured that he would close my passenger door. She then drove into the space so fast that she lost control of her car and banged straight into the pedestrian walkway in front of the space, mounted the curb where my mum happened to be walking on with my 2 young children. My mum was horrified and so was I.
Wtf.
There wasn't anything special about that space at all.
Still think about how strange she was.

You were rude. Fair enough you chose to change your baby there, fair enough she had to wait for the spot she wanted, but for you to deliberately take longer than you need to, is rather pathetic on your part and just rude.

Why didn’t you change your baby in the back seat with the door shut? There was no need for you to be across two spaces. It was rude and there was no need as you easily could have changed your baby without blocking a car parking space for someone else.

Assuming you weren't blocking a disabled accessible space, YWNBU.
She could have parked elsewhere and gone on with her day.

@Summerfun54321

Why are people falling over themselves trying to think of ways to criticise the OP for being harassed for just taking up some space in the world?! Honestly if you hate mums and babies that much, go find a different forum to vent on. OP had every right to be in the car park doing what she needed to do to get herself and baby sorted however long that took.

I agree with you.

Unless you have a valid reason (like it being a disabled or parent & toddler space) why on earth in a car park with plenty of empty spaces would you want to park in a space that is in use or almost in use by someone else?

Reminds me of people who use buses & moan that someone's in their favourite seat!

Reminds me of a thread where a woman visiting her sister saw her sister's neighbour trying to park in the road. She realised that the neighbour ( with three children in the back) wanted her space and so unloaded her own children and took them back into her sister's house to spite the neighbour.
I just don't understand why some posters are so provocative in their unkindness to others. It is malicious. Do it enough times and others will start to treat you in the same way.There are some very entitled people on MN

@Thatsplentyjack

I once had an older man do this to me while I strapped 3 young children into the back of the car. He started beeping the horn ( I am actually really quick at putting kids in the car and I was on the second child when he appeared, so it took me all of around 10 seconds before he started beeping). Once I closed the door I asked him what the fuck he was beeping his horn at and I was strapping my children (they were not actually mine) into the car, apparently he thought I was (just standing with my arse hanging out". He got an absolute mouthful from me.

What is it with men, especially the older ones and their impatience and blatant rude behavior? Of course I am generalising but it happens all the time.

How is the neighbour wanting the only available space near their house even remotely the same as wanting to park in a particular space in a service station car park that has other available spaces?

I hate seeing people with their arse sticking out of a car as they strap kids in etc.

I've seen them do it on the side of the road where they might get their arse knocked off too.

Why change your baby on the seat of the car anyway? And if you were, why not sit in the seat next to the baby and do it there?!

@WonderfulYou

YABU if there was only about 6 spaces left I too would have saw an empty one and waited for it.

She also didn’t get out and shout at you she waited for you which I would have thought was quite polite.

It annoys me when people take up 2 parking spaces for any reason.

So what should OP have done? She's sorting out a baby, have you tried to do that before in a car? It's not easy without having the door open.

It's very annoying when people sit and wait for a space in a car park that has plenty of empty spaces. Puts pressure on the person leaving to hurry up and also causes a queue behind.

Just drive round to the next space ffs.

You are not entitled to two spaces because you have a baby. You were petty and wrong to drag out the process to make somebody wait when you shouldn’t have been there in a second space in the first place.

I used to change my babies on the back fin of a Subaru Imprezza, ideal! Get one of those.

People have done this with me when I’m unloading two carts of shopping and trying to get my elderly mum and her stick in the car.

I took my sweet time too.

Fortunately now she has got a blue badge so the parking spaces are more generous and other people forgiving.

@RedHelenB

YABU. Why deliberately take longer, very petty.

This ^^

I expect you took a good 5 minutes to do all that
The polite grown-up thing to do would have been to have a word with her and explain so she knew what the hold up was.
How childish of you.

you were both wrong imo

*I hate seeing people with their arse sticking out of a car as they strap kids in etc.

I've seen them do it on the side of the road where they might get their arse knocked off too.*

What? How else would you strap a child in?
Utterly baffled. I've got twins, pray tell how i would strap them both in without going onto the road side and without my arse sticking out of the car? If my arse gets knocked off its the drivers fault.

@FortunesFave

I hate seeing people with their arse sticking out of a car as they strap kids in etc.

I've seen them do it on the side of the road where they might get their arse knocked off too.

Why change your baby on the seat of the car anyway? And if you were, why not sit in the seat next to the baby and do it there?!

How/where else are they supposed to strap kids in? You possibly could by getting into the back seat on the other side, but that's more risky as it means if they leg it they aren't going into a car that has the other door shut, but they're fleeing outside of the car. Plus there might be more than one in the back meaning no space to do so. Such a weird thing to be annoyed by.

I’d have popped back in for a McFlurry

And then eaten it in the car…

@Bimblybomeyelash

So she waited until you were ready, and then she smiled at you? I think you are making a bigger deal of this than you need to.

^This OP is seriously projecting by mind reading sarcasm behind a smile. And revving the engine is not rude, it’s the polite option to let someone know you are there without blaring your horn.

@5zeds where else in the car would you have OP do it? If all other seats are occupied?

Sorry but most people with babies get a free pass for lots of things and that’s the way it should be. Eg letting parent and baby go first in a queue etc.

I must have missed a memo somewhere

@MzHz

I’d have popped back in for a McFlurry

And then eaten it in the car…

Presumably you would have closed your car door both when you went back in to buy something and when you ate it in the car so it would have made no difference.