Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

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:
Jimjams · 03/10/2005 21:03

Serah! we meet on parking threads- and I should have CATed you! I forgot (whoops!)

We had off street parking in London (didn't put it in, was there already). Was very annoying when our access was blocked as ds1 would hit the roof (we had to park in the "wrong" place, he was not amused). Was even more irritating when people blocked me in as I would't realise until we got outside when I had the choice of wrestling ds1 back inside (changing mind is not allowed) or strapping him in the car then trying to intervene whilst he headbuttted the widow (getting in car then not driving off also not allowed).

Off street parking would be far safer for us. If we were moving now we would never have bought this house (on street parking). And yep I would be pissed off with people blocking access for the reasons mentioned above.

aloha · 03/10/2005 21:03

No my son's school-to-be is literally one minute away, but his nursery is a few miles away and I have to drive to pick him up (we moved recently) but there is always a space. But quite often I come home to find someone parked right outside my house. Que sera sera, I think.

magicfarawaytree · 03/10/2005 21:03

Any a hint to anyone who has a grassy verge and wants to stop parking is to out those heavy rocks at interval - works a treat!

ks · 03/10/2005 21:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

LadyCodofCodford · 03/10/2005 21:04

think this htread is etting hilarious

Caligula · 03/10/2005 21:04

Think it's a huge over-reaction to deliberately deface someone's car, btw.

serahscarer · 03/10/2005 21:05

Oh sh*t, is it Caligula? Now I wonder if I can just move my computer desk into the front room......

aloha · 03/10/2005 21:05

Come on then, what's the moral (not legal) difference between someone parking outside my house and my parking accross someone's drive?

serahscarer · 03/10/2005 21:06

(I meant Wifeswap starting, to clarify)

aloha · 03/10/2005 21:06

Damn, dinner's ready and Waking The Dead is on...see you later!

hunkerpumpkin · 03/10/2005 21:07

But if someone obstructs the access to off-street parking, they're taking up two spaces.

If I come home and there's someone across my drive, I have to find another space, also in the road.

Mind you, our drive is a shitheap (literally at the moment - bloody foxes) of rubble, weeds and broken path. We do get a car on it, but only just.

Caligula · 03/10/2005 21:07

I'm struggling to find a moral difference!

What's the moral difference between keying someone's car and parking across their drive?

serahscarer · 03/10/2005 21:09

You hit the nail on the head there Aloha, and I missed it at first... "I own my house" - yes you do, and everything within its curtilage. That doesn't extend to the highway as far as the centreline and that is the problem.

magicfarawaytree · 03/10/2005 21:12

Caligula it damages the car.
Aloha When I travel whether by day or night I usually park where there is legal parking. People park outside my house, and I dont have a problem with that at all after all it is public road. What I have a problem with is the council telling me I must keep off road parking for at least two vehichle when I extend my house and then not being able to keep my vehicles off the street. I live on a narrow road there is not space for two car to park opposite side of the road and access for two way traffic. You have to zig zag down the road when there are lots of cars parked and that is a price that I pay for the living here. Most older streets were not built for homes with two + cars let alone guests and on some streets you may have to park two streets away from your home, it is unfortunate - but why does that mean because you have been inconvenienced that you should do the same to others - I dont really get it.

moondog · 03/10/2005 21:15

Blimey...this still going on???
(Got carried away yesterday helping my friend compose her profile for an online dating site so no MN for me.....)

Nevada · 03/10/2005 21:18

aloha - can't believe you're serious.

Maybe it comes down to drive envy.

sunnyside · 03/10/2005 21:20

Going back to original post I would skulk around for a bit, y know lay low! Then in future (some time off) reintroduce yourself to the head saying something along the lines of....'We have met before actually but we were yelling in the road! I was double parked and it'd been a bad day... Can we put that one behind us?'

I think she'd have to be a right old cow not to have some sympathy with you. I think most of us have off days don't we?

Important thing is to forget it and move on. Maybe you can ask if there's anything you could do to help improve parking situ? Apart from walk that is!

swedishmum · 03/10/2005 22:54

When I went into labour with dd1 11 years ago dh had to go into the pre prep school next door (they had an evening nativity) to make someone move their car from across the drive so he could drive me to hospital. The school always seemed to try to prevent parents from parking across, and even in, our drive but it's a hard rule to enforce when some parents are so thoughtless they decide to park on someone else's property.

edam · 03/10/2005 23:08

Aloha, v. successful attempt to enliven the thread even more.

You know there's a difference - no-one has a right to park outside their own house on the road - it's a public highway. But if you have a drive it's private land. Obstructing access to it is rude and could cause serious problems - you never know, the person who lives there could be Jimjams or Misdee or going into labour or have whatever other very good reason you can imagine for getting their car out/back in again. What if someone with a serious disabilty needed access to that drive?

katierocket · 04/10/2005 08:13

I think that sums it up well edam.
I mean you only have to read Jimjams' post to appreciate it.

Cam · 04/10/2005 08:47

PSML at edam getting a parking ticket for obstructing her own drive

Did you actually have to pay the fine?

ROFL at the immorality of parking on the public highway outside Aloha's house

Wish I had a dropped kerb so I could say to people "Oi get off my dropped kerb!"

Especially wish I lived in a designated special enforcement area

bundle · 04/10/2005 08:49

mum & dad paid about £1,000 to have the kerb dropped in front of their house (dad has a blue badge) so if someone blocked them in on the public highway, would this be moral?

Cam · 04/10/2005 09:03

Depends what type of car they've got Bundle

ggglimpopo · 04/10/2005 09:08

Message withdrawn

bundle · 04/10/2005 09:11

deffo not an SUV, cam