If you don’t know what an ‘agony aunt” is, maybe I should have said “Dear Abby.” But I digress. A homeowner wrote in and said she left a note on a car parked in front of her house. Here is the note:
“My husband and I frequently switch vehicles and we prefer to leave this spot open for our use. Thank you.”
She then asked if the columnist thought she was rude. What do you think?
My feeling agrees with the columnist
Leaving a note (presumably on a windshield) — especially one worded the way yours was — is rude.
You do not own the parking spot on the street in front of your house, and it would help if you realized this, acknowledged it and understood that from time to time you will be inconvenienced.
When a family moves into a neighborhood there is often a period of uncertainty while they get their household sorted out and learn the basic protocol of living there. In writing your note you were asserting your primacy on the street.
Your neighbor did not respond well to this, but I give her credit for speaking with you directly, instead of engaging in a parking war (which, by the way, she seems to have won).
Its been my experience that on street parking in residential neighborhoods seem to sort itself out. The same cars park in front of my house most of the time, just as in off street locations, people who are monthly parkers tend to park in the same space every day. We are creatures of habit, and had this woman simply said nothing, the new neighbor would have quickly discovered that the spot in question was most often taken and would have parked somewhere else.
Read the entire story on PT’s Facebook page.
JVH
