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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Parking one - with a diagram!

56 replies

RidersOnTheCalm · 01/05/2023 14:24

This week I had a dental appointment and was running just on time. The only space in the carpark was next to a 4x4 who had parked directly on the line to the right of their spot.
I just pulled into the middle of thr spot next to them - there was a car to my right and I wanted to be able to get out.
The couple were standing by their boot, they had just arrived, and they noticed they wouldn't be able to open the driver door very far ( I could probably have slid in but I'm tiny).
The husband shouted at me across the carpark "can you move your car so she (his wife) can get in."
Other shoppers were staring at me, I definitely felt intimated. Tried to calmly say no, I have to get to an appointment. I suggested they should move their car, going via the the passenger side if they couldn't get in the driver side.
I dashed away to dentist, had to stop to tie shoelace and he continued to go on at me being very loud and insistent I should come back and move.
As a parting shot, I blurted out that it was actually their shit parking that caused the issue, not mine. Idk why, it just came out.
Had my dental appointment and came back - they had evidently managed to move their car and the wife was sitting in the drivers seat, door open, videoing my car.
She videoed me as I drove away, making sure to get my face and numberplate.
Why the hell would she do that?
Evidently thought I was being vu, but I am slightly concerned what she could do with that incredibly boring footage of me leaving a parking spot.....?.
I know my comments about their shit parking was rude, but I don't cope very well with confrontation and find it hard to calmly stick up for myself. I sort of said exactly what was in my head without thinking.
Is this pathetic incident going to go viral 😂

Parking one - with a diagram!
OP posts:
Mortimercat · 01/05/2023 15:15

rwalker · 01/05/2023 15:09

spaces in car parks now aren’t really big enough for larger cars
that said he should if reversed out and then his wife could of got in
the drama was all of there own making

Well presumably his wife was the driver as she was the one that couldn’t get in and drivers sit on the right.

OP you didn’t do anything wrong, but you could have been more considerate, instead she seems to have deliberately made matters worse.

Rainbowshit · 01/05/2023 15:15

Id have done what you did.

diddl · 01/05/2023 15:16

spaces in car parks now aren’t really big enough for larger cars

I agree-especially if you want to open both doors fully.

Sometimes you just have to use a bit of sense & maybe for example the passanger gets out before the car is parked!

PuppyMonkey · 01/05/2023 15:16

Ignore me, I thought they’d reversed in.

Original poster
RidersOnTheCalm · 01/05/2023 15:19

SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 01/05/2023 15:03

If he was stood at the boot of his car and you were at the side of yous, I doubt he was shouting loud enough for other people to hear or be interested.

Of course he should have asked nicely but there are any number of reasons he might have been blunt. I don't think I would have given it much thought!

Show quote history

I was at the parking meter.

OP posts:
GeorgeGerald · 01/05/2023 15:24

They parked badly and they were inconvenienced by their poor parking - sounds like they don't really comprehend that. Sound very entitled. I'm sure it would've gone a lot better if the man had apologised for their bad parking and asked you to allow them out politely.

I had a similar situation before...my work shares a car park with a sports centre. I get there are find there is only one space left but someone has parked very badly and over the lines. I've got a small car so I go in anyway being very careful to exactly position my car right in the middle of the space (next to me on the other side was a wall). This would mean the other people would struggle to get in the drivers side but it was the only space left. I came back hours later to a furious note on my windscreen complaining about my parking.

MysteryBelle · 01/05/2023 15:25

You are 100% in the right. They were classless and rude in how they parked and then making a scene. Don’t worry, it is they who looked really bad in front of whoever were around.

BirminghamNewStreet · 01/05/2023 15:28

Fully agree with @GeorgeGerald
i don’t know how these CF people get through a driving test !!

OneTC · 01/05/2023 15:28

You could have easily got out if you'd parked over a bit?

YABU although they were dicks through their ensuing behaviour so I have no sympathy

Piony · 01/05/2023 15:28

I imagine she was just trying to intimidate you.

I think what you did was fine including the comments. Maybe next time she will park a bit more carefully.

KittyAlfred · 01/05/2023 15:29

Foodylicious · 01/05/2023 14:29

To be honest I would have just got back in the car and moved it a bit. Should have taken 1 min max.
Yes their parking was crap, but I think in your rush you made a bad situation worse!
She was totally unreasonable to film you.
Probably will do nothing with it. Just trying to intimidated you.

Are you kidding? So a car parks badly, positioned poorly in a space, and you would make yourself late for an appointment to enable to that car to stay badly parked?

KittyAlfred · 01/05/2023 15:31

Ignore all the people saying you should have moved. You parked perfectly between the lines. They parked their big car badly. That’s their problem, not yours.

greyhairnomore · 01/05/2023 15:33

They parked badly , just trying to intimidate you for no reason. Twats

starfishmummy · 01/05/2023 15:35

THEY could have ‘just’ parked properly to start with!

Maybe they had had to park to the side of their space because when they arrived someone had parked badly on the other side?

Mephisneon · 01/05/2023 15:36

Yeah if you park your massive car badly it's in you if you can't get in. So they were absolutely in the wrong. Serves them right.

justhavinalook · 01/05/2023 15:36

If he requested you to move it in a polite or neutral way then of course, why not? His fault in the first place but no harm in doing someone a favour to help overcome their own indeptitude/carelessness.

If on the other hand, he 'demanded' or had some kind of attitude then I suppose you could reply with the same kind of attitude in return.
I guess that's kind of the key point, for me at least.

Don't worry about the filming - that's just standard Karen-type behaviour these days.

UnicornsHaveDadsToo · 01/05/2023 15:40

You did nothing wrong, their crap parking caused the problem in the first place. If they were videoing me, I would've videoed them back, along with a couple of still shots of their parking and would've posted their car here:

The Bad Parking Thread (Volume 4!)
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=1680748&i=12320

And here:

You Park Like A C*
yplac.co.uk/

The BAD PARKING thread [vol4] - Page 617 - General Gassing - PistonHeads UK

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=23&h=0&i=12320&t=1680748

HisNibs · 01/05/2023 15:43

starfishmummy · 01/05/2023 15:35

THEY could have ‘just’ parked properly to start with!

Maybe they had had to park to the side of their space because when they arrived someone had parked badly on the other side?

The space on the other side wasn't a parking space. Whilst it is possible someone was previously parked in that non-parking space, it doesn't entitle them to be the way they were with the Op who did park properly. Two wrongs and all that...

kitsuneghost · 01/05/2023 15:46

She video'd you 100% to try and intimidate you. She would look like the idiot if she tried to put it on social media or anything.

kitsuneghost · 01/05/2023 15:50

rwalker · 01/05/2023 15:09

spaces in car parks now aren’t really big enough for larger cars
that said he should if reversed out and then his wife could of got in
the drama was all of there own making

The size of their car is not OPs issue. If you can't park a big car, don't buy a big car.

DaaamnYoullDo · 01/05/2023 15:51

You were not unreasonable at all. They were inconvenienced slightly by their own shit parking, not your problem.

ohnonowwhat · 01/05/2023 15:54

HisNibs · 01/05/2023 15:05

You did nothing wrong OP. Well done for standing up to the asshat. The only thing I might have done differently would have been to take a picture/video of his (badly parked) car before I left in case I came back to my car and found a great whacking dent in the side of it (and told him and everyone else being nosey why I was taking the pictures).

This

ActDottie · 01/05/2023 15:55

Foodylicious · 01/05/2023 14:29

To be honest I would have just got back in the car and moved it a bit. Should have taken 1 min max.
Yes their parking was crap, but I think in your rush you made a bad situation worse!
She was totally unreasonable to film you.
Probably will do nothing with it. Just trying to intimidated you.

I wouldn’t have done this! Their parking was the issue!

woodhill · 01/05/2023 15:56

They need to get a life and like you say they were parked badly itfp

The videoing is embarrassing on their part

starfishmummy · 01/05/2023 16:10

HisNibs · 01/05/2023 15:43

The space on the other side wasn't a parking space. Whilst it is possible someone was previously parked in that non-parking space, it doesn't entitle them to be the way they were with the Op who did park properly. Two wrongs and all that...

Show quote history

People Park in all the non spaces where I go, unless there are bushes or bollards to stop them. And I agree their behaviour was wrong. However we don't know kw the while story

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