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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think it's embarrassing to put cones outside your house?

119 replies

Oby1802 · 22/04/2024 12:17

I have a neighbour who does this.. they aren't elderly or disabled but every time she leaves for work she gets out the cones and puts them in "her" parking space.

It's just a road so it's not an owned space.

I find it so cringe worthy and entitled? I couldn't personally bring myself to do it.

Does anyone else's neighbour do this? I've never said anything because really it doesn't make much of a difference to me except occasionally when the road is full and I could potentially have parked closer to my house if her cones weren't in the way but it's not worth moving them and falling out over! But I do find it a bit ott.

OP posts:
DuchesseNemours · 22/04/2024 13:13

They are screaming out for someone to pop comedy glases and a moustache on them overnight.

StrawberryWater · 22/04/2024 13:14

My neighbour does this. He stole them from a works site up the road a few years ago.

We like to mess with them and put faces on them. Occasionally we've given them speech bubbles asking why Kev has taken them out of their natural environment and why it's cruel they can't be with their own kind. He still doesn't know it's us doing it.

mitogoshi · 22/04/2024 13:16

We had a neighbour at a former house that did this, I deliberately moved them, road was hard enough for parking as it was. Before ring doorbells existed and she either never released I loved them or didn't let on.

gamerchick · 22/04/2024 13:16

Id hide them me just to wind her up. Or put them in obvious places in odd positions just to fuck with her. But I'm easily amused.

Someone near a family member has a little camera and a sign in the window saying nobody was allowed to park there. I have at times because she doesn't own the road. I've came out to her sitting in her car in the middle of the road waiting for me to come back. She's never said anything apart from with her facial expressions like.

But then if someone's parked on my drive I've no issue in blocking them in.

There is something about parking the car that just brings out the demons in people. There should be a study done.

BaconCozzers · 22/04/2024 13:17

If it was the closest space to my house I would definitely move them and park there.

Do you know or speak to her? Is she otherwise 'normal'?

LolaSmiles · 22/04/2024 13:19

I'd probably move them and park if that was the only space. They don't own the road and that's the risk you take by choosing a house without off-road parking.

People only get away with this because lots of other people let them.

neverknowinglyunreasonable · 22/04/2024 13:21

nervousweddingguest · 22/04/2024 12:38

I believe legally u less the cone has been placed there by a police officer, highways department or other such official... you are in your right to m

....oo loudly like a cow outside your neighbours door in the early hours of the morning

KreedKafer · 22/04/2024 13:32

The one and only time I’ve ever thought it was OK for someone to do this was when my FIL died, and MIL was worried about the hearse and funeral cars being able to park on her very busy city road. The cones were there just until the hearse arrived mid-morning and we asked a neighbour if he’d mind taking them away again once we’d left for the crematorium.

It’s not OK to do it every day just because you fancy parking near your house. It isn’t ‘her’ space and she isn’t entitled to stop anyone else from using it.

VioletLemon · 22/04/2024 13:43

Did the neighbour steal the cones?! My DH would mince them in the back of a bin lorry as it would be seen as obstructing a public highway.

sleepwouldbenice · 22/04/2024 13:45

Look on the brightside. Our not so lovely neighbours took over half the on street parking for 6 houses by applying for a dropped kerb and putting a white line there
They now have room for 6 cars whilst we all struggle to park

Some people only think of themselves

(Yes move the cones unless a specific event eg a skip coming as suggested)

caringcarer · 22/04/2024 13:48

I did get a few cones to put in the road when we moved house years ago, because I knew the removal van wouldn't get close else, as it was a busy street for parking.

WickedSerious · 22/04/2024 13:48

We had a neighbour who'd do this when we lived in our first house,the cones would come out if he was expecting a delivery or a visit from one of his daughters.
Neither of his daughters could drive and delivery drivers would see the cones and park on the other side of the road.

The couple who were next door to us back then had a hell of a thing about parking too; being outside their house wasn't enough,the driver's door had to be perfectly in line with their front gate.

Tagyoureit · 22/04/2024 13:52

Wow, I'd only do this for a skip or a funeral not just for every day parking! That's so cringey!

daffodilandtulip · 22/04/2024 13:53

I've got a drive but the other side of the road don't. The musical cars and parking rage, entertain me and drive me nuts in equal measure.

FuzzyWuzzyWuzABear · 22/04/2024 13:54

I've never said anything because really it doesn't make much of a difference to me except occasionally when the road is full and I could potentially have parked closer to my house if her cones weren't in the way but it's not worth moving them and falling out over!

I voted YABU because of this ^^

Stop encouraging her and just move them and park your car.

Or at least report her for obstruction.

OneTC · 22/04/2024 13:57

Was fully geared up for a thread about pinecone eccentricity and now I'm disappointed

LakeTiticaca · 22/04/2024 14:11

Pleasestopkickingme · 22/04/2024 12:42

My NDN thinks he owns the street. He currently has two cars - one that he doesn't drive. He ended up with two cars when his most recent marriage went tits up and I assume he had to ask for his car back (she was driving it.) Anyway, the car he doesn't drive has been parked outside his house for months and hasn't gone anywhere. He has a drive for his other car. Since he's previously been territorial about the road outside his house, I reckon he's deliberately not got rid of the car so nobody can park there. He's a petty, officious wanker who has form for this sort of thing. He once knocked on his window and waved my mother away from parking near his house Hmm not his worst indiscretion by any means but who does that?!

Have you checked online if his car is taxed/mot'd while parked on a public highway? If its not, get him reported

penjil · 22/04/2024 14:18

Those cones would be gathered up and put back near her house.

I'd do it again the next day too. And again and again.

paintingvenice · 22/04/2024 14:20

I’d be removing the cones every time

SquashPenguin · 22/04/2024 14:23

I used to live opposite someone who did this with bin bags. I just moved the bin bags and parked there. I would put them on the pavement, until they had a go at me and a few days later they slipped out my hand and launched themselves over their front gate 😂 Oh well!

YaMuvva · 22/04/2024 14:25

Only time I did it was when I lived in the middle of a town centre and I was moving out I needed the only parking space within a 200m radius (opposite our home) to park the truck. Otherwise if people want a designated parking space they need to get a car with a driveway.

id delight in moving the cones every day TBH

SeanBeansMealDeal · 22/04/2024 14:26

Yes, this is definitely out of order - and very embarrassing - to do this on a regular basis. As PP have said, hearse, removal lorry, massive delivery etc. is fine - but not just because you think you're more special than everybody else.

My FIL used to know a couple where, whenever he went out in the car to the shops, she would go out and spend the whole time sweeping that bit of road so that she was 'occupying' it and nobody else would feel they could park there. What a waste of your life - especially when there's no shortage of parking on the road anyway.

We have a neighbour who doesn't use cones, but he does leave notes under our wiper, telling us off for parking safely, legally and not blocking anybody in. He has two cars and a double drive, so he doesn't need to park on the road at all, but he has actually stated in one of his silly notes that he does own part of the road. It's just selfish, bullying behaviour, and extremely arrogant to presume to tell people that they can't use a resource that the actual owner/manager (the council) has clearly indicated that they can.

He threatens to call 'the authorities' on us, and we desperately hope that he does - as he will just look so stupid then, when he wastes their time to show them somebody doing something very boringly mundane and totally legal and they tell him off for harassing us.

I'm guessing he actually knows that, otherwise why wouldn't he have called them before? Some people are just so entitled and arrogant that they genuinely believe that whatever they prefer - even if it makes no odds to them at all - is accepted as de facto 'law' and everybody else must kowtow to their every whim. It usually comes from a place of having too much time on your hands and a self-imposed very, very small world. They could take up a fun hobby or volunteer for a charity/community cause, but instead, they genuinely get their kicks from monitoring where other people park their cars and finding any old thing to complain about.

Sharontheodopolodous · 22/04/2024 14:40

Our neighbour used to think she not only owned the road,but all the houses in it

We would park outside our house,perfectly legally-she'd park outside her house (again perfectly legally) and then she'd sit on her ring doorbell until she got a whiff of us and then she'd explode (she also went mental at next door for creating their own driveway and got nowhere reporting them so turned on us again)

Screaming and shouting at us to 'move or else'

We ignored her so she ramped it up and rang the police on us (they just told us to 'be careful and think of the neighbours when parking') and left us to it

We carried on ignoring them which got her back up even more-shed sit on that ring doorbell and scream at us for daring to leave the house or use our own garden

Then she and her family accidentally set their house on fire so they moved (I pity the next set of neighbours) and we've not had any issues since

Funny how if everyone just parks as normal and doesn't get shitty with anyone else,harmony is kept

FrannieGallops · 22/04/2024 14:43

I would (and do) happily move them. I quite often do it when I’m out and about visiting properties for work.

It’s so petty and small minded to ‘bag’ the space outside your house.

shams05 · 22/04/2024 14:43

There was someone around the corner from us who used to do this. It caused alot of angst to drivers trying to give way to those coming up the street. Nobody local minded though as they had an elderly relative living with them who didn't have a disability badge but needed easy access to their car.
He's since passed away and the cones haven't been used since.

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