to think people who do this are selfish twats?!

[motherbeyond]

take the sofa's in places like costa,when there are only one or maybe two of them?god,it annoys the hell out of me.
i come in with kids hanging off me..pram/double..buggy board..nappy bags..and mother! the only place to stick the pram is by the sofas.the only area with enough space to sit comfortably with everyone is the sofa area.but.fucking.no...there's some old bloody biddy nursing a luke warm americano.aaarrghhh.

i went into our local(coffee house..not pub!!) the other day and there was a guy sitting on one sofa(30 ish..slob-like).i had usual baggage and said "excuse me,is anyone sitting here?"

he replied " my wife is going to sit there" and looked away.

"oh,right" i said..thinking,why cant she sit on the sofa next to you and we'll have the other?! just rude.

if there's only one or two of you.sit at a table,with two chairs!

[simplesusan]

Went shopping today and saw several coffee shops, thought to myself how nice it would be to go in with my 3 dc and have a cuppa. Then remembered this thread and it brought a shudder to my blood. What if we went in and some lazy sod was lounging about taking up all the sofa space?
Made a rapid retreat and plumped for McDonalds instead. I know where I am safe, or at least thought I did until I was served by a poor trainee who couldn't get her head around the fruit bags instaed of chips option.

I made sure that the 4 of us only took up a table for 4 and not Hell forbid a comfy recliner one for 5.

[GodzillasBumcheek]

OMG i'm a boring woman. I want to complain about the lack of parking space in front of my house but i have no car

[EyeballsintheSky]

Ah well, they are obviously nuts then It's a nightmare parking here too but all I ask is a space in the same road. A driveway is definitely a must in my next house.

[Bigmouthstrikesagain]

We lived in se London eyeballs and the commuter parking problem lead to the introduction of parking restrictions and us paying for parking permits but our neighbours still put their bin in the space outside their house.

[Bigmouthstrikesagain]

Yes they did and it was a change from the boring old cones I suppose

still it is so very important to be able to see your car from your front window that the inconvenience of replacing your wheelie bin or retreiving it from it's regular local jaunts were worth it?!

[EyeballsintheSky]

That is common around where my mother lives in South London. TBH though, although you don't have the right to the space outside your house, it is farking annoying because you cannot park in her street between 7am and 7pm because people dump their cars there and walk round to the station. My mother doesn't drive but her elderly neighbour used to put cones outside his house. And before someone says it, he was born in the house which was there before the station!

[expatinscotland]

oh, i'll bet people had lots of fun with that, Bigmouth!

[Bigmouthstrikesagain]

Our neighbour used a wheelie bin and a plank of wood slanted on it to save 'their' space in our road when I lived in London. But as I used to work for a central London borough in the parking permit office nothing surprises me when it comes to parking spaces in london.

[expatinscotland]

he found many uses for these cones. he and DH and the mates would fill them with wet sand and put them in that neighbours' wheelie bin. or use them to direct these neighbours to where they'd hidden their garden gnomes (off the trail on a disused railway line), etc.



eventually they took the hint.

[motherbeyond]

mayorquimby just pmsl at the thought of you reversing into the space whilst edging 4 people out! that's a big pair of cahoonas you've got there!how old were the people by the way..young student types,or old enough to know better?

expat we had many, many cones in our living room as students.hope your dh and pals run off with them on their heads? it's obligatory you know!

[expatinscotland]

Some people used to do that in the ILs street, the cones.

DH and his mates had much fun nicking them. His mate Sean had a stack of them in his room.

[mayorquimby]

"We also used to live in a street with on-street parking, and there was this couple a few doors along who used to put parking cones out to try to save what they obviously thought was 'their' spot!! We used to giggle when other people kicked them away to park!
"

there is nothing more guarenteed to make me park somewhere than that.

[violethill]

4 people standing there 'saving' a parking space?! Good grief, have these people got nothing to do with their lives?!

My theory is that it all boils down to a fundamental lack of confidence. I mean, what are they afraid of, that they might have to park a bit further away and walk? Reminds me of when my kids were at primary school, and one mother on the school run used to arrive literally about 30 minutes before end of school time so that she could park slap bang outside the school gate, and she'd then sit reading a magazine til end of school time! I guess at least she was turning up herself, rather than getting some one to 'stand in' for her!

We also used to live in a street with on-street parking, and there was this couple a few doors along who used to put parking cones out to try to save what they obviously thought was 'their' spot!! We used to giggle when other people kicked them away to park!

It's just so strange though really. Do these people genuinely believe they have a superior entitlement? Or are they just shitting their pants that the world might end if they don't get the best parking space, or the best seat for the show?

Weird.

[expatinscotland]

'Saving' space on a public road. Yeah. The cops would have loved that one!

[serendippity]

I am amazed how many of us are forced to do this! Are our nearest and dearest trying to get us bumped off at the hands of several peed off drivers?!

[MarshaBrady]

lol at all these people being slowly edged out of saving a space.

[mayorquimby]

"serendippity thank you

A few months ago I saw the weirdest thing in my local high street.
A woman was standing in the road, being edged towards the curb by a pissed off looking man driving his car into the parking spot.
I assumed it was some kind of fight but realise that the stupid mare woman was trying to save a parking spot and expat the irate driver was refusing to play"

haha that happened to me in town a few months ago.
there was a space free on the side of the road with about 4 people standing in it.
i presumed they were just chatting having bumped into each other or something so pulled up past it and started to reverse in.
when one woman came up to my window and said , "sorry we're just holding this place for someone they're just around the corner", i actually didn't know such a practice existed. i just kind of looked at her in confusion and said "are you serious?" to which she replied "yes i've just phoned them they're just around the corner". and went back to her friends.
i just sat there open mouthed for a minute not knowing what to do. i almost drove off just because, sometimes you just go with what your told when your taken by suprise and aren't sure of the etiquette in a certain situation. and then i just thought, wtf are you doing, it's stephens green at 5 o'clock there's no spaces effing anywhere, why are you listening to them. and started reversing into the space slowly, just inching and waiting for them to move.
the names they called me for that one.

[pagwatch]

serenfipity


ah - but she was only a stupid mare because she thought she was going to win the 'woman vs pissed off man driving car and refusing to stop' encounter.

[simplesusan]

Reminds me of the time when my mum and me were going into town by train.

The train was empty except for us plus my dd and a young woman. We were sat in a group of 4 facing each other with a table between us.
The woman was sat behind us in the same set up, she was wearing a suit and talking quietly into a mobile phone, looking out of the window.
The train pulls into the next station and a very loud family get on mum,dad, 2 kids.
They could have sat ANYWHERE on the train but where did they sit-surrounding the woman in the set up for 4. Obviously one of them cannot fit around the table so the dad shouts to one of his kids "Son you sit there" and points to the seat across. Why the whole family didn't sit around one table baffled me. The poor woman didn't say anything to them, even when they all stared at her as she was speaking into the phone.

My mum and I exchanged glances and both of us just burst out laughing it was like something out of Shameless.
Nobody moved until all 8 of us got off at the same station.

[Sheeta]

yeah serendipity it was always when we were near the space, and always on holiday, but because I was the eldest I got kicked out the car and instructed to stand in the free space!

I always thought it was fairly normal. Fucking hell, my Dad was just being an utter arsehole, wasn't he! What was I supposed to do if someone confronted me/drove towards me?

but then.... he's always been a bit of a twat.

[serendippity]

Got my test on tuesday motherbeyond. I'm looking forward to being able to drive for reasons exactly like this

[motherbeyond]

god,would just refuse if dh suggested i stand in a space to bagsy it!! i'd tell him i'd drive and he could stand in the spec looking like a tit!

[GypsyMoth]

but op you have already said that you like to use up TWO sofas,so you can block off one end with your pram so that your dc can have space to walk around between the two sofas!!!!!! soooo....you are hogging 2x 3 seater sofas.....just for you!!!

yet you're moaning about other people!!???

[IdontMN2makecopyforlazyjournos]

As a side issue, if you really don't want someone to sit next to you on a train I find patting the seat and smiling and nodding encouragingly does wonders.

[serendippity]

wow expat, that really is insanity. Though dp did threaten me with "divorce" if I didn't do the exact same thing should I encounter any lunitics drivers who wanted the space