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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Petty Car parking thread

36 replies

ElephantsEverywheree · 17/01/2023 14:46

I'll try and keep this short while trying to make sense.

I live in a cul-de-sac type area, I have a driveway which DP parks his car, I park mine usually on the road just outside my house, loads of room so not a problem and my car is smaller than DPs.
Over the road are two lay-bys and in between them are a row of houses which have an allocated parking space per house opposite. These have their door numbers in the parking space so they know which belongs to which house.
There is one parking space right on the edge which is a public one, not allocated to any of the houses, just a space for anyone to park if free.
So here's my problem, If DP has his work van he usually parks it outside our house where I usually park and I park in one of the lay-bys. The lay-bys are quite small and can fit 2 cars in each. On the occasion that they are taken up I park in the free public parking space, which a lot of neighbours do. No one argues or has a problem with it, if it's available then great if not then we find somewhere else (which isn't always easy in the evenings when people aren't at work).

I parked in the public space last night and this morning when I was getting my youngest ready for school while sorting out my other 2 DC who are off with a sickness bug I had a knock on the door. There was a man delivering a skip and demanding to move my car. Firstly he didn't ask nicely just bluntly said "you need to move your car so I can put a skip in that space" I then said as politely as I could that I'll be leaving soon to do the school run but the other guy who was in the truck delivering the skip came out and started swearing at me.
I then asked why they were putting a skip in a public parking space and not their own and I advised that to place a skip on a public road or parking space a permit/license is required. They then shouted across the road to the neighbour who ordered the skip and asked "have you got a permit?"
I spoke to said neighbour who I admit was really nice and she said the skip can't go in her parking space as hers was round the back and under a coach house which the truck couldn't fit under. She also admitted she didn't have a permit and just asked her next door neighbour if it was ok, who said they didn't have a problem with it.
We have a WhatsApp group for our street and she writes in there quite a bit apologising for noise from the work on her house etc. She didn't ask any of the neighbours on there about it to see if anyone else had a problem. It wasn't so much the actual skip being placed there that annoyed me but the way I was spoken to by the men delivering the skip made me want to be petty. They didn't seem to care that I can't just pop out the house and move my car because I was dealing with my 3DC. My mum was on her way over to sit with the other two who are poorly while I took my youngest to school.
AIBU for being stubborn in this situation? And should a skip even be allowed in this space without a permit just because one resident said it was ok?

OP posts:
twinkletwinkle89 · 17/01/2023 14:57

I would of shut the door in their face as soon as they started swearing! How rude! And I wouldn't have moved the car either! But I'm petty like that haha xx

Boswellonthesteps · 17/01/2023 15:00

I was with you until you used the term Karen🙄

Emmamoo89 · 17/01/2023 15:02

YANBU

NoseyNellie · 17/01/2023 15:05

Skip men were dicks and deserve a sled door in the face. I’m perplexed by a single public parking space tho - in any places I have lived with allocated parking spaces, the unmarked ones are visitor parking as the land is leasehold and owned by a single freeholder. Unless your whole estate is leasehold I would suspect the space is privately owned by the freeholder but not allocated iyswim?

NoseyNellie · 17/01/2023 15:05

*slammed door - sled door sounds pretty violent!

thaisweetchill · 17/01/2023 15:06

I would also have shut the door in their face, you don't deserve to be sworn at in your own home for parking in a parking spot.

They should have known they needed a permit and it's not your fault that they're unaware of that.

Kittykat9070 · 17/01/2023 15:06

Strap yourself in @ElephantsEverywheree

Your whole post is now going to go nowhere as people will mostly focus on the ‘Karen’ reference.

I wish you luck 🍀

Original poster
ElephantsEverywheree · 17/01/2023 15:17

Kittykat9070 · 17/01/2023 15:06

Strap yourself in @ElephantsEverywheree

Your whole post is now going to go nowhere as people will mostly focus on the ‘Karen’ reference.

I wish you luck 🍀

Dammit! I didn't think. I apologise for the Karen reference!! Especially if it offends anyone!!

OP posts:
Original poster
ElephantsEverywheree · 17/01/2023 15:18

Boswellonthesteps · 17/01/2023 15:00

I was with you until you used the term Karen🙄

I'm sorry. If I could edit my post and take that part out I would.

OP posts:
billyt · 17/01/2023 15:46

Can you report your thread/contact MN and then start again?

lanthanum · 17/01/2023 15:47

I think NoseyNellie may be right that the parking space isn't strictly "public" and a permit may not be needed.

Clearly, with hindsight, she should have posted on the WhatsApp group that she was expecting a skip and hoped people were okay with it going in the shared parking space, and please could people avoid parking there after date/time when the skip is due to be delivered. Knowing how long it will be there would also be nice.

Shampern · 17/01/2023 15:49

What's a Karen mean?

Vallmo47 · 17/01/2023 18:59

Why on earth are people so god damn rude about the name Karen…. It’s completely bang out of order and if your kid was called Karen you’d want it stopped too.

My kid isn’t called Karen.

But yep, it should never be used like this. 😡

Original poster
ElephantsEverywheree · 17/01/2023 19:05

Vallmo47 · 17/01/2023 18:59

Why on earth are people so god damn rude about the name Karen…. It’s completely bang out of order and if your kid was called Karen you’d want it stopped too.

My kid isn’t called Karen.

But yep, it should never be used like this. 😡

I did apologise and I've had it edited out. Really sorry if I offended anyone.

OP posts:
ghostyslovesheets · 17/01/2023 19:11

Thing is it probably does piss people off that you take up 2 parking spaces because of the van - I live in a caul-de-sac - we all have drives but two neighbours also park work vans on the road/pavement - makes it hard to get on/off the drive and all you see out of the window is a huge white van - the unallocated space is possibly a visitors space rather than one for you to use regularly

That said it's also not a space for a skip! he was rude and there was no need

Bobbybobbins · 17/01/2023 19:16

It was very rude of the men.

But I'm not really clear why you can't park on your drive when your DH has the van therefore not needing the public space.

doodlejump1980 · 17/01/2023 19:17

Never mind the skip, I think YBU for having two kids off with a sickness bug and sending the other into school…

LlynTegid · 17/01/2023 19:20

No reason for foul language. Find out who the skip firm is once they have collected the skip, and complain.

ZekeZeke · 17/01/2023 19:23

Your DP parks on the drive and on thr Road and you park in the lay by.
So basically you take up two public area spaces and also have your own drive to park on.

SavoirFlair · 17/01/2023 19:26

I think you should stop feeling as if everyone else and the world owes you your routine.

pocketvenuss · 17/01/2023 19:51

Boswellonthesteps · 17/01/2023 15:00

I was with you until you used the term Karen🙄

I can't see Karen

pocketvenuss · 17/01/2023 19:55

doodlejump1980 · 17/01/2023 19:17

Never mind the skip, I think YBU for having two kids off with a sickness bug and sending the other into school…

The other one may have already had it and recovered. We don't know. Don't let that stop you from going on the attack though huh?

pocketvenuss · 17/01/2023 19:56

SavoirFlair · 17/01/2023 19:26

I think you should stop feeling as if everyone else and the world owes you your routine.

Huh? The OP made it clear that her issue was the language used. Why are you making out otherwise?

Walterwhiteswifey · 17/01/2023 19:57

I agree with doodlejump1980 regarding the sickness bug!

Regarding the skip, the second he swore would have been game over for me! I'd have reported him to the company he works for and told him to poke it.

W0tnow · 17/01/2023 19:59

They were rude, but the neighbour who booked the skip seems like she is generally considerate, so let it go. She can’t help it If the men who delivered the skip are rude.