Bad parking, I don't feel bad.

[Scoobydoobywho]

We live very close to a school, our 2ds go to this school. So thank God as of yet we don't have to tussle with finding a place to park. But it annoys the hell out of me that people think it's ok to park either a little bit over the drive or completely blocking it. How do they know I'm not going anywhere. So anyway I get back with ds5 and there is a car 2 feet over the dropped kerb. Luckily there were parking/traffic wardens out, so I spoke to one of the who came and had a look. Took down the car details and photos and gave them a ticket. The amount of times the school has to send out messages saying please park considerably is ridiculous. Is it wrong that I don't feel bad about it.

At older DCs school the PCSOs patrol at home time. They go knocking on car windows to ask the driver if they're aware this is not a parking space

I wouldn't do it. It's petty. I remember someone going ape because I backed onto their drive about 2 foot doing a three pointer- as I said I would compensate them fully if they could demonstrate the wear and tear I had done to their tarmac. They said it wasn't the point, it was the principle. From a person without any, imo.

How did this parking affect you this morning? Presumably you were on foot?

I’m with you OP. I’m sick of the abuse I get from the “I know my rights brigade” when I ask them to move off my dropped kerb so I can get on or off my drive. I think in 13 years there’s only ever been a traffic warden there once or twice

Probs best not to get me started on the ones who rock up for pick up 30-40 minutes early just so they can get a good parking space blocking my drive AND leaving their engines running the whole time 🤬

The parents that cause a problem at our school generally weren’t the working parents at all because their kids were in the wrap around care. They were the parents that turned up at 2:30 to get the parking space as close as possible to school regardless of whether it was safe or not because they’re too fucking lazy to walk .

We live behind a large secondary school and at 8:30 and 3:15 we can’t leave the bloody house
Parking is a bit of a nightmare as it is (but we all try to not take the piss as nobody has a drive)
These parents don’t give a fuck-they park where they like and sit for up to an hour,waiting for their teenage princes and princesses to grace them with their presence
I wouldn’t mind-but the school has a car park!
They just cannot be bothered to drive their tanks an extra 20 yards and then turn round to come back out-its much easier to drive up our street then just keep going to get out
God forbid we (who live here) need to get in or out to go about our daily lives-we been screamed at a few times by these entitled dickheads
I know for a fact that one lives 3 streets along but of course their little Prince cannot walk 5 minutes down the road

Boils my piss and the school does fuck all about it (well they send out a wet sounding letter which gets ignored)

'Being kind' can backfire! We have a chapel nearby and there's always a problem with parking when they have an event on, rural so people have to drive here and a large percentsge of elderly people. We once said to a lady looking for a parking slot 'park in our drive, just leave us room to get in when we come back', the drive's plenty wide and long enough. When we returned she had managed to park at the road end of the drive and almost diagonally, we couldn't get in and had to drive round to park somewhere else.

@Honkytonkyhonky

We live behind a large secondary school and at 8:30 and 3:15 we can’t leave the bloody house Parking is a bit of a nightmare as it is (but we all try to not take the piss as nobody has a drive) These parents don’t give a fuck-they park where they like and sit for up to an hour,waiting for their teenage princes and princesses to grace them with their presence I wouldn’t mind-but the school has a car park! They just cannot be bothered to drive their tanks an extra 20 yards and then turn round to come back out-its much easier to drive up our street then just keep going to get out God forbid we (who live here) need to get in or out to go about our daily lives-we been screamed at a few times by these entitled dickheads I know for a fact that one lives 3 streets along but of course their little Prince cannot walk 5 minutes down the road

Boils my piss and the school does fuck all about it (well they send out a wet sounding letter which gets ignored)

Other than sending out 'a wet sounding letter' what exactly do you think the school should do for your convenience? Patrol the area? On MN schools are expected to deal with all the problems that happen within a 5 miles radius at any time of the day. I totally agree with your comments about lazy parents but the school isn't some magical place that can solve all problems. Before someone comes along banging on about 'safeguarding', surely the parents should be number one safeguarders.

As the parent who has never lived in walking distance to school I say yanbu. When I park up and wait for mine I'm embarrassed by the bad parking. As most of the school pick ups are done by mums, unfortunately they give us women drivers a bad name. They not only park close to junctions, they double park next to junction, they park opposite junctions, across drives, use private drives as turning points. Embarrassing. I was able to walk to nursery, and I would be the cross woman with a pushchair knocking on car windows to tell people to get off the pavement and let me pass. I would love to be a traffic warden, I bet its so satisfying.

We have a pair of entitled parents who block the exit to the school car park every morning, both parents get out of the car and take both DC to the other side of the school. They literally do not give a shit that 35 cars can not leave the car park until they saunter back, usually about 10 minutes after the bell goes - normally making me late for the first meeting of the day.

Nothing school sends out or says will lead to any change

I have less sympathy for those home owners who pave over their gardens, claim it’s a drive but don’t get planning permission and a dropped kerb installed, and then get all uppity when someone parks legally outside their house.

What's annoying is that if everyone stuck to the rules and was considerate parking would not be an issue. There are frequent threads on problems with parking and it's really very easy, if it's not your land of if you are going to block a dropped curb or someone in then don't park there. It is irrelevant if they 'still get out', you are not entitled to park there.

Unfortunately many people are lazy and entitled and think they can do what they want.

@Upamountain43

Ok - well most parents now drop the kids and shoot off to work so have little choice about taking the car - maybe we should ask why after years and years of this being an issue no one is tackling the key problems surrounding parking not just outside schools.

Personally i think if you did not need to go out and they were only just over the dropped kerb it was pretty mean spirited to involve a traffic warden.

If I lived close to a school I would have a sign outside saying I'm not going out please feel free to park over my drive and another one saying I need to get out today please leave clear.

If you can only be one thing in this life - be kind - you are actually in a position to try and help out this difficult situations.

Are you for real?! 😂 OP can't just decide to suspend the law and encourage people to park over her dripped curb even if she wanted to! For the love of God stop the be kind bullshit. Nobody is obliged to "be kind" and allow obnoxious, selfish parents to take the piss on the school run.

I live a 5 minute walk from my DD's school, so obviously i walk and dont drive to it. I also live on one of the main roads to the school. No way would i be putting up bloody signs telling people to block my drive, nobody would be able to read them anyway without standing on your drive.

99% of the people who park on the road are very respectful, never had my drive blocked or had anybody overhanging.

The closer you get to the school (different road) the worse the parking gets and the school are always sending texts out about parking. The PCSO's have also been out lately.

I wouldnt involve the traffic warden if it hadnt actually inconvenienced me. Obviously if you live really close to a school then you are going to get parking issues at dropping off and kicking out time. Thems the breaks. Like if you choose to live next to a pub there will be noise, or next to a restuarant there will be smells, or in the countryside, youll get animal noises.
parking in this country is so shit, and yet loads of people get given school places miles from home since the right to choose schools came in and yet public transport is also ridiculous in many areas.

Well done you.

We are in a similar situation, live very close to a school at the end of a cul-de-sac which parents use as a carpark/playground. Often can't get my car off the drive when I need to go to work. In the 12 years my own kids were at the school we must have had a letter/email every 3 months reminding parents to be considerate to local residents and to use the (large, free) car park 5 minutes walk away.

Most don't care. They are special, they are in a hurry, they'll "only be 2 minutes", it's raining, their child is tired, they have a baby. Have heard it all.

Recently had a flier through the door that the local Council are consulting on imposing exclusion zones around schools which would operate 8.45-9.15 and again 2.45-3.15. Only residents with the correct permits, delivery drivers, taxis etc would be allowed within the exclusion zone. All the lazy fucker parents would have to park further away and walk to school or risk a fixed penalty fine.

It sounds WONDERFUL and I've filled in the consultation form saying how much I support it.

(And before any of the lazy fucker parents pipe up that I knew the school was there when I moved in, yes I did. But in the 15 years we've lived here, the school roll has grown from 240 to 440. )

I really want to be a traffic warden and would take great pleasure in ticketing twats like that. Well done OP.

And @BackBackBack, excellent post 👏👏

And as for putting up signs and "be kind".

Get a fucking grip.

I can see both sides. When my dc were at primary school I had to take the car as had to go straight to work after. BUT I parked further away if I needed to so that I wasn't parking illegally/dangerously.

Also, I wouldn't live close to a school for this reason as it's exactly what I'd expect to happen.

@Upamountain43

Ok - well most parents now drop the kids and shoot off to work so have little choice about taking the car - maybe we should ask why after years and years of this being an issue no one is tackling the key problems surrounding parking not just outside schools.

Personally i think if you did not need to go out and they were only just over the dropped kerb it was pretty mean spirited to involve a traffic warden.

If I lived close to a school I would have a sign outside saying I'm not going out please feel free to park over my drive and another one saying I need to get out today please leave clear.

If you can only be one thing in this life - be kind - you are actually in a position to try and help out this difficult situations.

I fucking love it when people bend over backwards trying to be doormats on mumsnet

@Upamountain43

Ok - well most parents now drop the kids and shoot off to work so have little choice about taking the car - maybe we should ask why after years and years of this being an issue no one is tackling the key problems surrounding parking not just outside schools.

Personally i think if you did not need to go out and they were only just over the dropped kerb it was pretty mean spirited to involve a traffic warden.

If I lived close to a school I would have a sign outside saying I'm not going out please feel free to park over my drive and another one saying I need to get out today please leave clear.

If you can only be one thing in this life - be kind - you are actually in a position to try and help out this difficult situations.

That would be advertising when you are going out. Which would be very handy for thieves/vandals etc.

I do live near a school.
I had one entitled mother refuse to move her car (over my drive and she was sitting in it at the time) when I was trying to leave for a brain scan. The police dealt with her.

Since then I adopted a different tack. I have several animal garden statues in my front garden. The school children love looking at them, so it’s cute seeing their wee faces! And nobody parks over drive anymore. Presumably cos they think we are nice/totally bonkers!

So all those years of leaving time to park legally to do drop off and pick up and I could have been using the excuse of 'it would be churlish for anyone to complain if I inconvenienced them because of my own lack of planning'. I mean, yes, we all have those times when we are running late, but it still doesn't ever mean you can inconvenience someone.

YADNBU OP.

I, too, live across from a school and the number of times I had to chase people who had parked me in 'because they were only a minute'. I was trying to get out to drop off my own child or pick them up from another school!!

And I would just get one to leave and another would take their place as I was getting into my car! and off I would have to go again.

One person made that decision for me (that I wouldn't be too inconvenienced because it was supposed to be 5 minutes) when I was taking my child to a doctor's appointment. Their 5 minutes turned into 45 minutes and I couldn't leave and of course, missed the appointment.

Then there are those who have blocked in the trades people who have come to fix things and then charge me extra because the CF have taken longer and the school puts a call out over the loud speaker and it still took that person 15 minutes further to come back.

No. There is no excuse for CF parking. If you do park encroaching on someone's dropped kerb, own up to your actions.

Put a large sign up pointing out that this is an offence and that people who park illegally will be reported.

If I lived close to a school I would have a sign outside saying I'm not going out please feel free to park over my drive and another one saying I need to get out today please leave clear.

Wow guys Mother Theresa is not only back from the dead but she's on Mumsnet!

YANBU OP. They used to do that here and some would mount the pavement too, so a traffic warden started appearing every morning. So many got tickets. If you've parked illegally and got a ticket, there is no one to blame but yourself.