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Original poster

row in parking lot with head teacher! (longish)

467 replies

sansouci · 01/10/2005 18:33

There is next to no parking by dd's school. Everyone complains but for the moment, nothing has actually been done about it, except for the police coming round & taking photos of pick-up & drop-off times. The yummy-mummies make it even worse with SUVs but anyway.

Yesterday when I went to pick up dd from school, I had to double park. I left my warning lights flashing to show that I was coming back soon. Unfortunately, dd didn't come to the car easily & then I got chatting with another mummy, as you do, forgetting completely about my precarious parking place.

On returning to the car, a group of angry women were clustered in front of the school & of course I apologised profusely to the one or two I had blocked.

One woman made a rather bitchy comment as I was charging by & when I saw her heading for her car a few minutes later, I asked her what she felt could be done about the parking. It's not my problem, she replied shortly. We got into an argument, which escalated, as things do on a Friday afternoon. She said, I'm a teacher at this school! to which I retorted, My daughter is a student at this school & if you're part of the staff, you should care about the parking problem! I wasn't rude, but I was very angry with her & she was angry with me.

I eventually roared off, furious and shaking, cursing the woman aloud. Do you know that silly woman? I asked DD. Yes, she said, she's the head teacher. Oh SH*T, I thought, Now I've done it.

How can I face her again? She'll be dd's teacher one day. I think I was right to be cross but I was at fault & certainly on the defensive. What do you think I can do?

OP posts:
hunkerpumpkin · 02/10/2005 23:18

How could you be arsed to walk a jay, PC? Is that like starling trotting?

pumpkincarrier · 02/10/2005 23:23

well I was just going to put it on a lead and let it run along beside my 4x4 while I drove very slowly, but then I realised I needed to get OFF MY FAT BACKSIDE and do some exercise for once.
they take these things very seriously in Switz though. you need a licence for jay walking, starling trotting or even blackbird jogging.
(of course I wasn't actually arrested, just mildly reprimanded, but that would be a rubbish story)

allhallows · 02/10/2005 23:26

Ya, we do take ever-ting ver serious, you know!

edam · 02/10/2005 23:28

Um, don't want to start another slanging match, but when you park on the pavement, can you make sure you leave enough room for buggies and wheelchairs? Please?

Won't even mention the fact that pavement parkers are responsible for all the cracked pavements that trip up little old ladies...

allhallows · 02/10/2005 23:32

Mais oui, ma chère edam! I'm very sympathetic as I am still at the buggy pushing stage also. But there aren't too many pedestrians around there at all. Even the Mac-doh is a drive-thru.

aloha · 02/10/2005 23:34

I park over drives sometimes, if the car isn't there. I hate bloody dropped kerbs. It's like they pay tuppence to have the kerb dropped (or don't bother, just tarmac their front garden) and sudddenly they own the whole blooming road. I can't stop anyone parking outside my house, so why do they suddenly own the public highway? It's not my first choice of where to park, but I will do it if there isn't anywhere else. It's not illegal. I'm not talking about school parking btw. There is always a place outside ds's nursery and the school he will go to is about a minute away from my front gate, thank God.

jacobsmummy · 02/10/2005 23:34

hee hee hee, this is good!

allhallows · 02/10/2005 23:36

get me out of here! argghhhhh!

Janh · 02/10/2005 23:39

Is this a good time to say "walk away from the computer"?

aloha · 02/10/2005 23:44

Ooh, I don't care, me

serahscarer · 02/10/2005 23:50

Is it just me, or has anyone noticed irony in the double parking outside a school being on a subject thread sponsored by Rosemary Connelly Diet and Fitness Clubs?

If this doesn't kill it, nothing will.

ThePrisoner · 03/10/2005 00:39

Hehehe ... no such luck serah! Just thought I'd throw my thoughts in - comments made earlier about kids these days having it easy and being driven to school ... I used to walk about 2 miles to school from one village to the next, across isolated fields, tracks and farmland. I was 10, my brother was 8. There is no way on this planet that anyone would let their children do this now!!

ggglimpopo · 03/10/2005 08:53

Message withdrawn

Nevada · 03/10/2005 08:57

aloha - it is illegal to block someone's drive.

SoupDragon · 03/10/2005 09:20

Yep. Definitely illegal to park over a dropped kerb, Aloha.

SoupDragon · 03/10/2005 09:21

Oooh, the parking up on the pavement thing bugs me too. Unless it is permitted by signs, that's illegal too. Saw loads in the road I parked in for school this morning. Competely unnecessary if they weren't too lazy to walk the extra 100 yards it would need to park legally. Grrrr!

suedonim · 03/10/2005 09:30

Lol, Ggglimpopo! We were in France last year and observed exactly that sort of parking. We felt terribly prim and British, tut-tutting about the way the French abandon their cars wherever and whenever they feel like it, even in Paris.

allhallows · 03/10/2005 10:45

Funnily enough, I lived in Paris for ten years & never once double parked. But they are generally awful drivers in France, aren't they? There's something vaguely admirable somehow about their "je m'en foutisme"!

Shall we end it there?

Love to all and safe driving!

xx

aloha · 03/10/2005 14:46

You certainly can't get parking ticket for it!

Caligula · 03/10/2005 14:48

I thought it was illegal if the car is parked in the drive and you block it in, but not if the drive is empty.

I'm sure I've read somewhere (possibly on Mumsnet!) that it's not illegal to park on someone else's drive!

Roobie · 03/10/2005 15:08

Just looked it up (as I've also always wondered..) and, subject to certain exceptions, you definitely cannot park next to a drop kerb. Section 86 of the Traffic Management Act 2004.

Cam · 03/10/2005 15:12

It is illegal to block someone from leaving their drive but not from getting back into it.

katierocket · 03/10/2005 15:14

come to this thread very late but FWIW, sorry sansouci but don't really have any sympathy. You shouldn't have double parked, you were in the wrong and I think it was pretty rude to shout at the teacher about it.

Roobie · 03/10/2005 15:17

If there is no drop kerb then blocking someone getting in would not be illegal ... it is the presence of a drop kerb that renders parking there illegal.

serahscarer · 03/10/2005 15:34

I could be wrong here, but it is not strictly illegal to park across someones drive unless there are double yellow lines across it. It is classed as obstruction, but I think that obstruction is classed as a moving offence as opposed to a static one (such as parking) and as such the offence has to be viewed happening by a police officer. I could be wrong here, of course.

It is bloody rude and inconsiderate though - Aloha... tut, thought you were nice!!!

The issue of parking on their drive is another matter - it is virtually impossible to do anything (legal) unless you have signs up stating what you will do if someone parks there. Not many people would have the nerve though! (Aloha????)