Parking- a new am I being unreasonable thread

[MPV]

OK, changed name to prevent embarrasment. I work in a office with a small car park. Spaces are allocated on a rota so you get to park one month in 6.

Last time I had a space it was under the building. You park 3 in a line between pillars with the first in at the back, so when they want to go you have 2 people moving their cars. I managed to scrape my MPV down one of these pillars on my last day parking (my own fault- I forgot I'd gone in on a different angle) & did £300 damage to my car.

I now have a new MPV which is a lot bigger than the last one & doesn't fit lengthwise or width in a space. My new space starts on Monday & I went to the people who do the rota who kindly allocated one outdoors on an end to give the extra width.

Late Friday someone came to me with the rota in their hand to say that my space would be ideal for a girl who is pregnant & would I swap for a space under the building!! She is very far gone & having trouble with her hip.. I felt like the biggest cad out, but I said no, explaining that my car was too big to fit under the building.

He went away to ask someone else, but in my head I can hear my mothers voice telling me I'm being selfish & thoughtless, while the other part of my brain says if she's having that much trouble moving around she should have started her Maternity leave (she's got less than 2 months to go till the baby comes).

He came back to say the person behind me has swapped & could I park in their space so she can be in front. (Apparently she COULD still get in behind if I didn't). This will mean reversing up to motorbikes & manouvering around her car when I leave. It's reversing I have most trouble with & it's worrying me sick but I felt so mean I said I would. DH says I should have said no or they'll keep expecting me to compromise. I'm usually really scathing of these girlies who can't reverse or park so I feel really stupid that I can't... Difficult to judge how close you are in a big MPV...

OK, am I being unreasonable?

MPV, I do think that if the pregnant woman were to post her own thread explaining her dilemma, the majority of MN would be in support of her having the parking space! (see the comments re pregnant women and parking spaces on the Parent and Toddler Spaces thread). Parking seems to provoke the worst of people's competetive territorial instincts (see that thread for much evidence!) and your DH is clearly aware of the company hierarchy battle with his talk of compromise. In this case, I think YOU are right, your conscience is a better guide than your DH, so don't fret about having agreed.

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly, tra la la la laaa
TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY..."

Please can we lay off MPV now - I'm feeling very sorry for her....(this message not directed at anyone in particular who has recently posted)

...not to say I am unsympathetic to the pregnant woman's issues either. Just that the point has already been well made, lots of times...and if I was MPV I would be near to tears by now (but then I am a wuss)

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is victoria peckham a pseud to reply? i know have seen this before but not often.

i understand changing name to post original thread - but change your name to reply - thats just chicken shit

the pregnant woman shouldnt have gotten pregnant in the first place - didnt she think of the potential problems re parking and pregnancy - how selfish of her.

i see no problem in driving an oversized car that you have trouble parking either - i reckon you lot are just jealous that MPV has an MPV all shiny and bigger than your cars

yes MPV you are completely right some mumsnetters are mean in their responses remember that next time ....... i have certainly learned not to leave open my vulnerable side to mnetters. those who are calling you the most screaming " you unccaring bitch" dont see the irony.....dont see how mean they are being.

the english language is so rich and beautiful. the written word ....so descriptive in tone and gesture. and it is this that matters - the tone & gesture, the meaning behind the words.

some people have disagreed very well, being kind and articulate in their responses. others not.

yes MPV let this be a lesson to you, mumsnet is the font of all knowledge - the kindest bunch of online people your ever likley to meet. also e nastiest too.

the wrath of Mnetters is truly something to behold

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Custy - I don't have any jealousy about the MPV coz I don't drive and actually don't know what it is! What is it?? Don't be technical... I just about know the difference between a saloon and a hatchback!

I think it is awful for something that is quite trivial to MPV ( I mean she really only has to continue parking where she normally does 80% of the time!!) can really compare to something that is quite clearly a medical issue with the pregnant woman!

No comparison in my book. If pregnant women shouldn't work on the 8 th floor then women who can't park big cars shouldn't drive them!

There.... sorted.

MPV - multi people vehicle.

They look like a small minibus

Thanks HMC.

KS - Nothing wrong with being bad atparking..... as long as your not using that as an excuse to get car parking space preference over a heavily pregnant woman with a hip problem.

ks, it's embarrassing, isn't it? my trouble is i hardly ever drive... since i work in the city i just don't need to use the car monday - friday. if i'm doing something local with ds, i'll walk, if we go into town, i'll get the tube... going anywhere together as a family, dh drives. i'm going to take some confidence builder lessons in the new year.

I can't park to save my life and I have got a rather small car.I have been driving for over 10 years and in my case it hasn't improved with age. I am a good driver, but a crap parker.

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don't you just loathe it when people try and direct you into a space? the officious busybodies - i find the pressure just makes things worse.

ks - have you looked at having advanced driving lessons? I'm only good at parking because my instructor so happened to be good at teaching it (and he insisted on doing real-life parking situations before I had passed my test). Plus my enormous wing mirrors help as I keeping boring on about.

We have a landrover (don't drive it much though - I am very green really! ) - it has long wing mirrors on it which let you see right down to the kerb and right along the length of the car. Just as well in a landrover really because you can do a lot of damage without realising it.

I assume you have "magnifying" mirrors - you can get used to these, but I agree, they can confuse things.

BK - I also get directed into spaces, even when I am clearly doing quite alright, thankyou very much. Last month a passing stranger actually grabbed the wheel through the open window - I was quite put out. Funny how they never do it to dp, despite our parking abilities being about the same.

Oh, so you are supposed to look in the wing mirrors when you park? I didn't even know what they were for....(See! I am the worst parker!)

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Some of you have missed the point. I am not depriving a pregnant woman of a space! I CAN park in the space I've been given, but someone else was trying to move me into a different one. We are both parking. Why should I have to spend another month & more money on P&R, just to leave a wasted space? I live a long way away from work & appreciate the reduced journey times.

Got there today & parked with no trouble at all. The car did overhang the space on all sides, as expected, but the motorbikes are farther away than they looked on the plan. The pregnant girl arrived after me & left before me.

All this fuss started because she needed the extra room at the side. She didn't reverse in, as expected, but went in forwards, so her drivers door was up against the car next to us, with all the extra space on the passenger side of her car. How she got in & out I don't know. So much for needing extra room. I take it she just didn't want to park her little car under the building.

(& no I'm not a troll. I used a pseudo for obvious reasons & yes I expected people to disagree but not be so bl**dy rude! )

I'm not entirely sure what you expected though You did say she should start her maternity leave early rather than expect you to give up your space. I also think things also deteriorated after the "fire hazard" comment.

Ignoring VictoriaPeckham who I believe lives under a bridge, I don't think the attacks were as bad as you imagined them to be prior to the "fire hazard" bit. They seemed to offer a suggestion for alternatives.

Live & learn and join in a rousing chorus of We Three Kings to cheer everyone up...

We three kings of Orient are!
One in an MPV one in a car!
One on a scooter, beeping his hoooooter!
Following yonder star....

alltogethernow
Star of wonder.... tails off into echoey silence.

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ROFL Soupy!

star of wonder
star so bright
why's that parking space so tight?
A camel parks sweetly
slips in neatly
Maybe that will be alright...