AIBU to find this annoying? Car parking one

[Lyra87]

Lighthearted one, not actually annoyed but got me wondering what other people think.

Went to a supermarket earlier to pick up some groceries. DH drove and deliberately parked at the back of the car park (so not close to the entrance) as we had 1 year old DD with us and wanted room to get her in and out of the car (not a big car btw, small ford focus). Loads of empty spaces on either side where we parked.

Come out of the store, and someone with a much larger car is parked beside us on the driver's side which is where the car seat is. Was very difficult to get DD in her seat. Loads of spaces around us so the driver could have parked one space over and had an empty space on either side of their car but instead parked beside us with little space on our car's driver side. They of course had 3 empty spaces on their driver side!

I know people can park where they like, but aibu to think that parking etiquette is a bit like bus seats- don't go beside someone when there's room to leave empty spaces between cars?

It happens everywhere.

i don’t park next to a car the other end of the car park.

I agree it’s annoying

It's really annoying and unnecessary!

I wonder if it's drivers that struggle to park in a straight line, so they use other people's cars as a guide...

I can't remember where I read this but apparently it's a thing where people subconsciously want to herd together. That's why some people will sit next to you on an empty beach.

I had a family sit next to me and my baby while we were having a picnic in an empty and they started smoking.

Why didn't you just back out of your space and repark in the 3 empty spaces to load ?

Drivers are not mindreaders and you don't know anything about what may or may not have happened in the spaces when you were not there.

Always happens - I parked in the motorway services overflow carpark on the M6 toll road a few weeks back. It was pretty empty - I fell asleep for about half hour. When I woke up there was a very large 4x4 which took the entire parking space behind me and parked right up on my boot - rest of carpark was free. I had to move my car to get my dog out!

Why didn’t one of you just move the car? I hate people who take the whole family to the supermarket (it’s a one person job and you just make the place busier) but the benefit of it is that one of you can stand with the trolley and baby and the other can move the car so
you’ve got space to get the baby in.

I don’t understand why your dh couldn’t move the car forward 10 feet so you can comfortably get dd in her car seat.

I wonder if it's drivers that struggle to park in a straight line, so they use other people's cars as a guide...

I always assume it's this.

I agree it’s annoying but if there’s just one car seat in the back, put dd in from the other side.

An even easier idea is for just one adult to do the shopping.

I think it's laziness. You can't see the lines when you drive into a parking space because the bonnet is in the way, you can only see them on the approach. They do appear in the mirrors but only once you're 'in' the space. So you have to open the door to see where the lines are, and if necessary, adjust. It's the adjustment that people can't be bothered to do, so it's "Meh, that'll do." They could have been complete dicks and parked across two spaces.

I think it's a herding thing too. If you stand in the street and look up interestedly, it is amazing how quickly you'll have a crowd around you all looking up too.

Sat on an empty beach at the weekend. About 5 metres from the sea. A lady came and sat down right in front of us.... and took her bikini top off. There were miles of beach with about 3 other people on it. Some people just don't feel comfortable on their own

Just to clarify as it's been asked a couple of times:

We were just about able to get her in the seat so didn't need to move fortunately but of course could have if needed since there were 2 of us.

And we were out doing other things and needed a few things so went to the supermarket on the way home rather than one of us going out again but I do agree that one adult doing the weekly shopping is easier. Yes one of us could have stayed in the car with DD but just didn't think of it at the time!

Glad to know I'm not alone in finding it mildly irritating though 😄

The bay lines are straight so anyone uses another car to do confirm that they are straight (opening the door a bit to see how you are).

If you can't park in a parking space without being next to another car, then you shouldn't be drivinh

YANBU I would find this totally annoying. Although I'm aware they're absolutely allowed to park there, it's not as if they're parked illegally or anything, it would still annoy me.

Why didn't you park in a parent and child space - they have the extra room to manage car seats

Maybe another vehicle was parked in the now-empty space when the 'offensive' vehicle parked next to yours?

Not everyone is thoughtless and/or a dickhead; but seriously OP, as you did have a work-around available (DH), it's hardly worth batting an eyelid over, there'll be plenty more ahead to really get some angst going.

When meeting friends after work for a meal and had time to kill I would go to a nearby shopping centre. I would park in an area with no cars to do my make up and lo and behold someone would park beside me or quite close. Infuriating.

It's precisely because of this I don't park right next to someone if I don't need to - much less chance of catching a door or scraping another car if you're not great at parking straight and need a couple of goes at it, I'm getting much better (licence less than a year) but I'd rather have to mess about away from another car than right next to it.

You don’t know that the spaces next to them were empty at the time they parked.

The OP said in their opening message "DH drove and deliberately parked at the back of the car park (so not close to the entrance) as we had 1 year old DD with us and wanted room to get her in and out of the car (not a big car btw, small ford focus). Loads of empty spaces on either side where we parked."

So, I'm basing my response that yes, they did know that the spaces to the other side of this vehicle were empty at the time that they parked there.

I think it's the FOMO effect. They think they will miss out on something so they park beside someone even if the rest of the car park is empty at the time.

Yes I've heard similar to this. I remember reading something about research on this - that if there is an empty car park and one car, most people will park next to the car.

I think it's a safety in numbers thing.

This

Thanks @LookItsMeAgain a few posters have said I don't know the spaces were empty while I was away but there were many spaces on other side of us and we were only in the store about 15 mins.

Also, mother and baby spaces were taken, hence why we went to the back of the car park to have room.

Thanks everyone who's replied so far, as I said this is a lighthearted one as I wasn't annoyed, more amused mixed with very mild irritation 😁