People need to think before they complain because sometimes complaining can really backfire. One woman in this story found that out the hard way, but she can’t even say anything about it since she basically asked for this exact scenario without realizing how it would impact her day to day life!

Imagine living on a narrow road, and there’s an unspoken rule in the neighborhood that everyone parks on the same side of the street so that it’s easier to drive down the narrow road. What would you do if one neighbor complained that you parked in front of her house? Would you move your car or explain that you were simply parking on the same side of the street as everyone else and couldn’t park on the other side of the street without making it harder to drive down the narrow road?

In this story, one woman is in this situation, and she simply decides to humor the neighbor. Now, it’s not only more difficult to drive down the street, but it’s a lot more difficult for the neighbor to leave her house.

Keep reading for all the details.

Busy body neighbour thinks she’s the parking police

I have a busy body neighbour that lives across the street from me.

We live in small rural English village. The houses are old and quite tightly packed together with a narrow road running through the centre of the village thats just big enough for 2 cars to pass.

My house has no parking or driveway so I have to park my car on the road, as do a lot of the other residents.

Mrs Busy Body has a big house with enough space on her driveway for 3 cars and a fancy electric gate with a remote control. The driveway is quite narrow as it runs down the side of her house.

She explains the way street parking usually works.

In the village we all try to park on the same side of the road so that people going through don’t have to weave in and out of the parked cars and it’s safer for children.

This means I park opposite my house outside Mrs Busy Body’s.

One morning getting into my car and going to work she came out of her house and told me that I wasn’t to park there anymore.

She thinks the neighbor’s logic is illogical.

I asked her why and her response was “oh, you know how it is you just want to be able to park your own car outside your own house”.

I said yes, I did understand that feeling and raised an eyebrow at the irony of me doing exactly that, albeit on the opposite side.

I was just trying to be courteous by parking on the same side of the road as everyone else, but she didn’t see it that way.

She decided to comply.

I have 1 tiny car and she has 2 large 4x4s and a driveway.

I spoke to another neighbour and she’d been bad mouthing “whoever had the little white car parked outside her house” as she wanted the space outside just in case someone popped round to visit and needed somewhere to park.

So I parked my car right outside my front door – directly opposite her driveway. Now there was no way that her or her husband could get in and out their driveway in one manoeuvre due to the narrowness of the road, the narrow drive, their big range rovers and my car opposite.

This is funny!

I watched her for months having to shuffle shuffle her car in and out of her driveway.

She couldn’t say anything to me and ask me to move “because you know how it is, you just want to be able to park your own car outside your own house”.

The neighbor got what she asked for, so she couldn’t complain. I love it!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an apartment tenant who is being called petty for blocking her parking space with trash cans.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person can’t help but think of a popular English comedy.

Another person has a strong opinion.

This person shares their perspective.

And another person read it as the queen.

When her majesty requests the street parking in front of her house to be reserved for her and her alone, what’s a mere neighbor to do but comply and let her realize the error of her ways? It worked out gloriously, but I feel bad for everyone who has to drive down this narrow street and weave around OP’s car.

If the annoying neighbor happens to have a guest parked in front of her house while OP is parked across the street in front of her own house, would cars even be able to drive down the road? I’m wondering how narrow this road actually is.

This sounds very satisfying for OP, but at the same time, the neighbor doesn’t own the street parking, so she wouldn’t have to comply at all.

Sometimes, giving someone what they want can be more satisfying that arguing your point.