Just been abused on the school run.. parking!

[Notthedreadedschoolrunagain]

My three children attend two separate schools on the same road. I always make sure I park somewhere that isn’t blocking someone’s drive etc. DH parked in the usual spot today and I waited in the car today (I have a disability and get flare ups in the colder weather). She pulled up to the window effing and blinding then she got out the car and started recording me swearing in front of all the school kids. DH returned back and she started to recording DH and the kids. It was her dad’s property and she had accused us of blocking him in. We left more than enough space for him to get out I even offered to move the car.

I have attached a pic (the silver car wasn’t in front so if her dad needed to get out he had more than enough space. We parked on the white mark and there are other parents parked behind us.

I am trying to move my kids to a nearer school so I can walk and finally put the parking drama to bed. However currently going through the appeals process as the local school has stated that they have no space.

Were we unreasonable? I’m at the stage where I don’t even want to take them to school now because of lack of parking and the dirty stares and arguments being caused by this. I can appreciate it’s frustrating living near a school!

And you still haven’t answered what would happen to disabled people in wheelchairs or the elderly who rely on dropped curbs to get across the road in their wheelchairs or if they’re unable to climb down raised curbs etc. How are they going to navigate the streets if you block their access to crossing the roads by allowing people to just park on dropped curbs? Come on I’m waiting for your rather ‘peculiar’ and ‘erratic’ response!

You weren't blocking them. The white mark isn't in front of their drive.

OP you have posted a misleading photograph of a car you don't own, partially parked across a dropped kerb. Why didn't you just do a drawing? People rarely read the op properly, they just look at the picture.
This thread is mad.

One dropped kerb often gives space for more than one car. And parking in the road should be predominantly for home owners. People pay a premium for their own personal driveway, which can often accommodate two or more cars.

And please could you explain how this would work for wheelchair users and people, who need to leave their home, especially in an emergency, when their car is blocked in?

On the photo with the red mark, it looks like there is a H bar (albeit faded). Your car was on it so YABI.

Until you live opposite/near a school it’s impossible to fully appreciate just how entitled some people are.

I live opposite a school. We spent a long time trying to find a house that was suitable for disabled access and could have an annexe built on the side. Lots of houses are large front-to-back but not side-to-side. We also needed one that was relatively close to a hospital as DS is disabled and we’ve needed to do an urgent dash in the past. Our house was perfect and not something that could easily be found elsewhere.

It’s a bit mad to suggest that we shouldn’t have bought the house if we were going to get irritated about people parking across our dropped curb and blocking us in. It’s not even just twice a day - the school allows a dance club to use its facilities as well as providing wraparound care until late. So we have the problem at the morning dropoff, at lunchtime for children doing half-days at the attached nursery, then at 3pm, and then hourly until 9pm (when the last class finishes).

We have a double driveway. I don’t really care if people infringe a little bit (even though it’s fucking rude). As long as I can actually get out, it’s ok.

However, people constantly park across the drive and block us in. I’m always really nice and I ask people to move/not park like that again please. I explain there are multiple disabled people living in the household and that sometimes we need to get out urgently. I cannot tell you the abuse I have had. Men are the worst, to be fair. I’ve been told they can park on my drive if they want. That they’ll block me in and leave their car there. And so on. Some people are unbelievable pricks.

I would have said that I’m pretty laidback but until I lived here I had no idea how rude and entitled people are. I expected them to be a bit annoying, but nothing like this. The suggestion that I shouldn’t have bought my house and that I’m at fault, not the people parking like arseholes is just wild. I’m assuming you’re one of the people who thinks they can park wherever they want and blames the homeowners for hoping that car owners would park with a shred of regard for the law. I can’t think of any other reason that you’d blame the homeowners here!

As it happens, it’s fine. That’s because I park my car on the road and in a position that takes up two car spaces. I refuse to risk being blocked in. That means two fewer places for parents to park.

Also, just to give you an idea of how some people park - take a look at this. There is no way for a wheelchair or pushchair to get past. There were other spaces free on the other side of the road, about 30 feet further away. Carowner rocks up in her slippers and dressing gown and just can’t be arsed to walk further. This car (and another one) always parks here like this. Absolutely unbelievable. (This isn’t outside my house, btw).

OP, your attitude stinks. Your posts on here reek of self-entitlement. You shouldn’t have been shouted at but parking on a dropped curb, even by a little bit, is selfish and thoughtless. It doesn’t matter if the daughter only visits once a decade, you still shouldn’t have parked so close. Get there earlier to park closer to the school if you really need to or else just suck it up. You are in the wrong here.

I'm now quite confused? Is your car the silver one in the first photo or was it on the other side where the red mark is on the second photo? I imagine most people are basing their view on the silver car which is overhanging by about a foot. To be fair the red mark would be over a bit as well especially if that silver car was parked at the same time.

If you parked near the gate and bush you are fine

When we bought our house, the school was much smaller. A lower school, with children from ages 5 to 9. The majority of children lived locally, and were walked to school.

Over time, the school added a 4+ unit, then wrap around care, then became an academy, and as a result, now takes children from ages 3 to 11 and children come from a much wider area, meaning parents need to drive.

Should we have anticipated this when we bought the house?

It is absolutely chaos around drop off and pick up times, with parents not so much parking their cars, but abandoning them wherever they like, justifying blocking driveways by saying "it's only a few minutes". It isn't a few minutes. It can be up to 15 minutes - or more.

And residents are in the wrong for having the audacity to want to access or leave their own properties.

If you live near a school I think it’s safe to say you should expect this mania twice a day, know the times when it’s worst and avoid attempting to leave or arrive at your home during those periods. If it were me, I’d leave early to avoid it and I’d make sure visitors knew too.

If people parked as they should, you wouldn’t need to. It’s not tolerated anywhere else; just because people are collecting their children from school, doesn’t mean it’s any different. There’s no justification for having to just park somewhere quickly because you have to get your child.

You get there earlier, park further away, and walk.

They knew the house was near a school when they bought it. OP is actively trying to change her children's school to avoid this.

Well no.

We bought our house in 2007 and my son started at the school very close by the following year. At that point there was around 250 children in the school. Parking wasn't a particular issue. Now there are more like 400 children in the school and parking is a huge issue.

We do have to try not to leave between 8.50 and 9.10 or avoid coming home around 3. But that does not excuse lazy, entitled parents. They park like idiots because they are too lazy to walk from the car park 5 minutes away.

When my youngest was at primary school there were zig zag road markings where parking for drop offs/pick ups was prohibited. Some arseholes used to sit parked there at least an hour before the school day ended. Busy road. Double decker buses squeezing past. Baffling.

Yes, three or four at a squeeze can park on my drive. If people parked on the dropped kerb it would possibly allow two small cars to park. So our three cars would park on the road and parking on the dropped kerb would provide one and a half or possibly two spaces. Very useful.

We don't have pavements so no issue driving over a pavement.

Not a unique situation, common set up where I live but some drives are smaller than mine but some are bigger.

Parking rules don’t change when it involves picking up school children.

My silly terminally I'll neighbour should have timed things better. How ridiculous of her to think an ambulance should be able to get to her.

When my neighbour bought her house the school had just over 200 pupils, when we bought the school had been extended and had about 450 pupils. It now has over 700 pupils.

Yellow lines have been put in immediately round the school, we are now the front line for parking. We used to get some parking now it is chaos.

I didn't have a crystal ball when I bought the house, I don't imagine my neighbour did either.

Why should people expect chaos because there is a school ? Don’t kids come with legs these days ? Don’t parents come with manners ?

If idiots park over my dropped kerb they're blocking driveway access to 4 different households as its a shared driveway to a private carpark for 4 houses, each of which would then need to park on the road.. so one twat = 4 less spaces for everyone else.

I just don't get the hoo-ha at the OP over 2 cms over the drop kerb, and i say that as a wheelchair user who lives right by a school and has to deal with parents and their chaotic parking every day.

I think some people must be assuming she's in the silver car and haven't read properly. Personally, I think the drive used to be wider and I can't see how a car coming out of the existing space would even be able to get close to where the mark is.

If seeing oncoming traffic is a problem for them, presumably they'd be better cutting down the very high hedge to give a better view.

Well the OP hasn’t been back for ages but just for the record, you are absolutely being unreasonable. Unless you live near a school, you can’t imagine the frustration that we face. Oh and to the posters effectively saying it’s our fault because we knew there was a school there are quite frankly ridiculous.
If selfish parents parked properly, it wouldn’t make a jot of difference if there’s a school nearby or not!
Even overhanging the driveway a little, especially at school drop offs and pick ups, makes it incredibly difficult to pull off onto the road.
Why people can’t park further away and walk a little bit to the school baffles me. Selfish, ignorant fuckers, raising selfish, entitled children.

Because of the barriers

I just don't see that she was overhanging the driveway, personally. How can you even get from where the car tracks are to where the mark is on the picture?

Well that would push the same problem
to another place

It’s a Google image that the OP has drawn a white line on to indicate where she was parked. The gate may or may not be there now, same as the barriers. But where she has drawn her white line is still on the dropped kerbstone which is highly unlikely to have been changed (unlike the temporary barrier or the gate).