My sister’s and I take turns taking our kids to swimming lessons at the Punxsutawney Middle School every Tuesday and Thursday morning. On the days it’s my turn, I take all three kids, as I’m the only one with a vehicle big enough to hold everyone. (The reason we bought the big old school bus, or Dodge Durango as Russ calls it.) The other days, both Het and Hil have to go to haul everyone.
It seems though that every time I park at that school, the same gray/silver van parks me in. She parks so close to my drivers side, the side that clearly has all the car seats it in, that even I have to climb though the passenger side to get it. Then the kids have to stand on the median while I move the car so that they can load up.
Space is not an issue in this parking lot. The parking lot holds almost 50 parking spaces, there was only maybe ten cars in it, with at least 5 empty spaces on either side of my car. And I am always within my parking space lines. (When you drive a huge SUV, you learn to be very careful where you park, because getting parked in causes more problems than just not being able to get in, but also backing up and trying to stay off the grass. When someone is too close I can’t cut my wheels hard, and the parking lot is long, but not very deep, so if I have to back straight out, then I’m in the grass.)
Today, after I dropped them off and headed out to the car, I watched that same van once again pull in within 10 inches of my drivers side. So I hurried up and caught the lady as she was getting out, and explained the problem. I don’t think she was too happy with me for complaining about her parking, especially because we were not alone in the parking area, the other parents were around too. She asked how I was sure it was her every time. So I gave her the license plate number that I had taken down, in my cell phone the last few times. She promised to try and not park me in again. Yeah, we’ll see come Thursday, as I’m taking two turns this week, since I couldn’t make it last week.
When I told my sisters about it after taking the kids home, they laughed. They couldn’t believe I had actually approached the lady.
Was I out of line in speaking my mind?
In my opinion I did the only thing I could do. I hate to have to have the kids stand and wait for me to back out to let them in, there are so many cars coming and going at that time, that I don’t feel it’s safe for three little ones to stand there, because some “lady driver” can’t park her dang mini van.
What would you have done in my place?
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