Kids Playing In Cul De Sac

[StressieBessie4]

I’m aware I may get slated but this is starting to get to me! I have name changed.

I am a carer, and I have a 7pm appointment daily down a cul de sac which seems to now be mainly families living here and it’s turning into a nightmare.

As you enter two chairs are in the middle of the road with two parents sat on them, and it’s a struggle to get past. Then when you get around the corner the kids leave bikes and scooters over the entrance to the car parking spaces so you can’t get in without many shuffles. But when you’re trying to, the kids are walking behind your car! There is no consideration whatsoever and I’m starting to dread this call.

I feel so sorry for my client, who is lovely, but it’s an accident waiting to happen and . They all look at me like I’ve got three heads when I pull into the road yet they see me every day. What’s worse is the houses back onto a park!

AIBU to tell the parents it’s a road not a playground?!

You'd only get a barrage of abuse

There's always children playing out down my road (one way in and out and I live opposite the park)

But no one's stupid enough to put chairs in the middle of the road and act like the cars are in the wrong 😂

There's often scooters all ver the pavements which can be a pain to get over dropped kerb to your driveway/ car park but I usually get out and move them into the bushes next to my spot! Ps they are high bushes so are off pavement and easily retrievable before anyone starts to abuse me.

I think its just a mumsnet in-joke, asking for a diagram whenever there is a car / parking related post. No need to take it so seriously.

I don't get some of the snarky comments aimed at OP. Where did she say that she doesn't drive in carefully, mindful of the children playing?

If you'd complained about them playing or making noise, I'd have said you were being unreasonable; but cul-de-sac or not, you can't just block off a road and stop residents and their visitors/service providers from entering and parking outside their homes.

It's one thing for the children to be playing, but when they see somebody needing access, they need to move to allow it. The kids might be little, but it's outrageously arrogant for their parents to just sit there and stare at you, denying your vulnerable client necessary access to his own home.

@TooLateForRoses i think you’ve missed the joke

My grandparents lived on a cul de sac. We played in gardens or the park because roads aren't for playing on

What joke?

Oh right sorry didn't realise I wasn't in the know.

If one has described the situation well and the layout of the road, the position of the chairs and taken the time to really fill everyone in on all the relevant details it is really annoying to then have someone to almost immediately demand a diagram.

As I and others said it’s a mumsnet rule (note, this is a lighthearted joke). You missed the joke and were snarky instead. My initial misery guts comment was accurate! It wasn’t even me who asked for the diagram.

I think it's lovely they are playing out. We need more of this. Can you park a bit further away?

It's a sort of Mumsnet in joke

Yes, an annoying unfunny in joke.

It’s got nothing to do with kids playing out and everything to do with their parents, and by extension them, being inconsiderate as fuck to someone just trying to get to their job. Have people become such dickheads now that they can’t even be arsed to get out of the fucking way for a few minutes?

Thats the prob with cul de sacs, creates a safe-ish park for urchins to play in, with these parents on chairs like bouncers!

Urchins? It's a cul de sac in 2024, not Victorian England.

How am I supposed to tell it's a joke?

Funny how this is ok but the man doing gym in the cul de sac wasn't.

Report it to the council op, they should not be obstructing the highways.

Tell me you don't have ANY idea at all about what carers are up against without telling me you don't have any idea

I think it's lovely they are playing out. We need more of this. Can you park a bit further away

OP will have a tight schedule and is probably not paid for her travel time. And her client won't be getting in a carer for the hell of it.

I guess I would never drive down a cul de sac where children might be playing faster than 5mph so i can't see there's a time saving.

Yes!! 100% this.

children out playing is one thing BUT parents sat on chairs in the road!!?? Ridiculous and so entitled!! I’ve never heard of this before thankfully.

No you are absolutely not being unreasonable. The adults can supervise without blocking the road.

They're acting like they own the road, literally. Home care workers practically all have trackers etc and every minute is accounted for so parking down the road and walking isnt a viable option.

Would you like your neighbours to arbitrarily decide that your access and parking was their children's playground - so you can't use it? Or your workplace?

This is part of the gentleman's property, for which he may well pay extra in mortgage/rent, that he cannot use; as well as being OP's workplace.

OP didn't say if the man is housebound or whether he is able to get out at all; but if the latter, I think it's a pretty safe bet, owing to his age, disability and/or medical circumstances, that he isn't able to walk a long way unaided easily/at all.

Regardless, a daily care visit is essential for him, and these horrible, selfish neighbours are trying to wilfully deprive him of it. I presume that water is an essential for your household? How would you feel if a neighbour decided that they were going to dig themselves an underground enclosed playground for their kids and seal off all the pipes - so you would 'just' need to go out to a bowser every single time you needed water?

Even if OP could easily and willingly park further away and walk in to her client's home and back again (carrying any equipment or supplies that she has to bring), that seriously eats right into her client's (paid-for) visit time. If he has, say, a half-hour visit provided by the council, who deem that he needs half an hour of care per visit, which part of his daily dignity in living his already-challenging life should he just accept that he needs to give up so that his neighbours can take over the whole road for a playground and OP has to spend half of his essential visit walking to and from her car?

Should he be forced to sleep in wee-soaked sheets overnight, because OP just did not have time to change him in the evening and leave him dry, and his neighbours don't know the difference between a garden/pavement/park and a road/parking space?

My interpretation..