Entitled parents (parking)

[SexyBoris]

My dentist has a small car park. Unfortunately it’s across a main road from a secondary school. I had an emergency appointment at 2:50pm (infected wisdom tooth) on Tuesday. Storm Barra was doing its worst …. The car park was full - vast majority of the cars had people sat in them with the engines running. I had to drive around and park near the local shops and walk around with the cold rain and wind battering my already agonising mouth.
Anyway, I got there just in time. They let me in and as I was sat waiting I saw the receptionist panicking running to the door saying “mrs Thompson is walking up, get her inside! She’s in her 90s!”. Elderly woman comes in struggling to breathe, said they couldn’t get parked and had had to walk from the shops. Receptionist said “that’s the bloody parents from XXX school using our car park!!”

WIBU to email the school and tell them that the parents selfish and inconsiderate parking is not on and they should do something about it??

The dentist needs to contact the school.

Even doing that, it probably won't be enough. Are there big clear signs on each and every space saying "Dental patients only - no school parking" or something to that effect?

On the other hand, I can see why the school parents are parking there. People need to pick kids up from school and it adds time to the commute if the child has to walk 2 or 3 streets to get to the car. Nobody wants to add even 5 or 10 mins onto their commute. Not only that, given that there are many big cars, it could actually be very dangerous to walk those couple of streets, and the child could end up drenched, which is a pain. Really, it's a problem for the school to solve. They know the kids need picking up, they could look into solving the problem.

Surely the driver could have let Mrs Jenkins out & then parked elsewhere.

Is it a private car park on land owned by the dentist, or a car park that happens to be outside the practice?

Oh Lord-where on earth did I get Mrs Jenkins from?

I think I'd roll my eyes at the receptionist behaving like that.

Just open the door-n oneed to panic!

@diddl

Surely the driver could have let Mrs Jenkins out & then parked elsewhere.

Perhaps Mrs Jenkins is the driver?

"Perhaps Mrs Jenkins is the driver?"

Yes-the driver for Mrs Thompson![grin)

I took the "they" couldn't park as her having someone else with her, but of course that's not necessarily so.

Couldnt they have dropped Mrs Thompson off first then parked around the corner?

Why have the dentist surgery not emailed the school about this already? It's not up to you.

The dentist could sort this by having a parking company run the car park. Notices up, telling patients to log their registration number on entry. Fines for anyone failing to do it. The company pays for the equipment and admin. A car park barrier would cost a lot of money, this would solve the problem.

Our school has plenty of parking and a long dedicated space for a car loop. Couldn’t be a more perfect situation. We still get parents who zoom up and cut the line both to enter and to leave. The worst are the ones who drop their kids outside the drop off area in a spot the school has desperately asked the parents not to drop kids because it’s a blind spot and at least once a year a kid gets hit by a car there. The parents who insist on breaking the rules just don’t listen. They are clearly more important than anyone else.

Next time you should park blocking them in and they'd have to wait until you were finished.

I had this somewhere I used to work. An office I attended twice a week had limited parking and someone who lived in a flat above the office had the right to park there overnight. One day his car was still there at midday. I parked blocking him in and saw a client. Early on in the meeting the receptionist popped her head round the door to say someone was asking me to move my car. He had to wait another hour before I was free. As far as I know he never overstayed his time again.

@gsaoej

The dentist needs to contact the school.

Even doing that, it probably won't be enough. Are there big clear signs on each and every space saying "Dental patients only - no school parking" or something to that effect?

On the other hand, I can see why the school parents are parking there. People need to pick kids up from school and it adds time to the commute if the child has to walk 2 or 3 streets to get to the car. Nobody wants to add even 5 or 10 mins onto their commute. Not only that, given that there are many big cars, it could actually be very dangerous to walk those couple of streets, and the child could end up drenched, which is a pain. Really, it's a problem for the school to solve. They know the kids need picking up, they could look into solving the problem.

The parents were in their cars in the car park before 2.50 p.m. so you adding 5 minutes to the commute argument is balderdash.

The school parents do not need to park there, they are just selfish. So what if the child has to walk a little way and get wet? It's okay for the customers of the dentist to walk and get soaked instead and spend their appointment sitting in wet clothes, then getting wet again to go back to their car? As I said selfish.

@Collaborate

Next time you should park blocking them in and they'd have to wait until you were finished.

I had this somewhere I used to work. An office I attended twice a week had limited parking and someone who lived in a flat above the office had the right to park there overnight. One day his car was still there at midday. I parked blocking him in and saw a client. Early on in the meeting the receptionist popped her head round the door to say someone was asking me to move my car. He had to wait another hour before I was free. As far as I know he never overstayed his time again.

Only problem with that is that you could block in legitimate dentist customers.

Yes you should complain to the school, OP, and ask the dentist to do so also and perhaps to consider ways of stopping access by those parents to the car park in future.

The only way to stop it is for the dentist to get one of those register your license plate thingys for their customers only and to start handing out fines.

A private dentist near me has a camera system recording number plates. You have to key your plate number into a keypad on arrival or get a whopping fine. This would be a great idea!

Some parents who pick up/drop off children are appallingly entitled about parking. In our last house, our street backed onto a track that led to a very nice secondary school. The street itself had no connection to the school but the track was walked down by some students and dropping students off there meant the parents did not have to use the street the school was on- where the exit onto the road through the village had more traffic. The school let them drop off right outside the gates and there was a big turning space but the exit at the other end of the street was busy. Also students who were late could sneak in the back way through an old gate in a hedge if they were late and avoid staff on the front gates.

I never noticed it until I went on maternity leave and would see parents lined up dropping off strapping lads who couldn't be bothered to get up on time or they were parents who couldn't be bothered to use the system the school had set up to protect local streets because it might hold them up by 2 minutes.

None of the students were bussed in, they all live locally and the school is over-subscribed. Every single child could walk to school in 10 minutes max. but these parents inconvenienced the local community because it suited their purposes.

I spoke to neighbours who hated it but had just got so sick of it and used to it they let it happen. We emailed the Head and told him about the sneaking over the back gate and the parking problems. The back gate was changed quickly for a much higher, locked security gate and he came along several mornings and spoke to parents asking them to use the school drop-off systems. It worked on the whole.

The dentist could organise something similar for a week- once they get the message most will stop.

The onus is on the dentist to enforce a parking system so that only patients can park there. A barrier or cones might work. The school parents can find somewhere else to park or the children walk or use public transport.

Nothing works, they'll park where they park but at least there in a car park not causing a danger on the road like most.

The only thing that got a reaction at my DS school was when traffic wardens came to ticket people on the double yellows and no parking areas but honestly, they only do that like once a month so it doesn't stop them, they just moan for a day and carry one.

Your dentist could get a private parking company, really it won't stop them if they are determined (private companies' fines can be appealed easily) but it will likely deter them if they keep getting fines as its a lot of PITA work appealing them.

I had to complain to my DS prep school once when people were parking where they shouldnt do, driving into a space and then backing out onto the path that kids were walking on!

This stupid parent backed out, on the phone and I literally had to bang on her back windscreen to tell her she was about to run someone over.

She said she needed to call the GP for an urgent appointment hence the need to be on the phone!

I wrote to the Head and he read out my letter to the whole school at assembly telling the boys he was ashamed of the parents who parked like this and to ensure that they fed this back to their parents.

It did make a difference.

And anyone who leaves the engine running is a tosser

It's up to the dentist to sort it.

the dentist could pay for a swing barrier with a token, use the token to get out of the carpark and any non dentist customer pay £10 for parking.

the carpark would soon be empty

People need to pick kids up from school

secondary school - they can get the bus or walk, there not babies

@gsaoej

The dentist needs to contact the school.

Even doing that, it probably won't be enough. Are there big clear signs on each and every space saying "Dental patients only - no school parking" or something to that effect?

On the other hand, I can see why the school parents are parking there. People need to pick kids up from school and it adds time to the commute if the child has to walk 2 or 3 streets to get to the car. Nobody wants to add even 5 or 10 mins onto their commute. Not only that, given that there are many big cars, it could actually be very dangerous to walk those couple of streets, and the child could end up drenched, which is a pain. Really, it's a problem for the school to solve. They know the kids need picking up, they could look into solving the problem.

A whole TWO OR THREE streets?? A whole FIVE OR TEN MINUTES. Oh my gosh, pass the smelling salts.

The reason it's dangerous for kids to walk is because of entitled wankers in their big entitled wanker cars, parking like entitled wankers.

Being 'drenched'? Oh for the love of... Kids aren't made of sugar, they won't dissolve. Some of the biggest laughs I ever had with the DC were when we got home having been soaked to the skin on the twenty minute walk home and we stripped off in the hallway & threw all our coats, clothes & shoes into the bath.

The answer is very simple. Don't be an entitled wanker.