Imagine having a driveway and usually parking your car in your driveway. Would you pull the car all the way in the driveway close to your house or garage, or would you park towards the end of the driveway blocking the sidewalk with your car?

Hopefully you chose the first option because it’s not a good idea to block the sidewalk.

In this story, one woman lives next to neighbors who always park their car in their driveway in such a way that the car is blocking the sidewalk. She finds this extra frustrating because her daughter is in a wheelchair and needs to be able to use the sidewalk.

One day, she had enough and decided to call parking enforcement on the neighbor. Then, a few weeks later, the neighbor knocked on her door.

Now, she’s wondering if she’s actually the one in the wrong and if she needs to change where she parks her own car.

Keep reading for the whole story.

AITA for using the street parking in front of my next door neighbor’s house, despite them telling me not to?

I strongly dislike my neighbors and that is making it hard for me to determine whether ITA here.

From the time they moved in, they have parked in their driveway but over the sidewalk that crosses it, blocking use of the sidewalk (illegal here).

My daughter uses a wheel chair for all of her outdoor mobility, so their car over the sidewalk causes her to have to travel in the street.

I asked them several times to stop blocking the sidewalk and they wouldn’t, so I called and got them a warning from parking enforcement. This was several weeks ago.

The neighbor stopped by, but it was far from a friendly visit.

Yesterday the wife knocked on my door and when I answered she told me to stop parking in front of her house because “it’s a safety hazard”.

I was confused and I told her my husband’s car was parked legally, and that there’s no where else to park his car. In front of my house is a fire hydrant and my accessible van needs my entire driveway to load/unload my daughter.

She began to yell at me that I was being inconsiderate. She kept raising her voice and yelling “Look around the neighborhood! No one else parks in front of their neighbors!”

I was trying to be polite at first and tell her I will park there less often when I can, but she couldn’t explain to me how it was a “safety hazard” and kept yelling that I was “inconsiderate”.

Now we find out what she’s really upset about.

Then she threw in that I was inconsiderate because I called parking enforcement the day she brought her baby home from the hospital.

I knew she’d been pregnant but not that they’d come home from the hospital that day.

TBH I would have called anyway, since the car was there for several hours and not just to unload the baby.

So it seems to me that her animosity toward me stems from me calling parking enforcement, and not my husband’s car parked legally on the street.

She doesn’t want to change where she parks her car.

I have no plans to park any differently and I’m honestly shocked that she felt it was appropriate to tell me to do so.

Just FYI, his car is not an eyesore, it’s a newer, dark-colored sedan with no damage or anything.

That said, I know some people feel quite territorial about the road in front of their house, even when parking is legal. So AITA if I keep parking there?

This is completely about calling parking enforcement. It has nothing to do with OP’s husband’s car. The neighbor was just trying to find something to complain about because she’s upset about the other issue. Besides, the neighbor doesn’t own the street parking in front of her house. They don’t need to change where they park their cars at all.

Let’s see if Reddit agrees.

Exactly!

This person points out that it’s obvious who is parking legally and who isn’t.

It is weird. Why do people think they own the sidewalk and the street parking?

This person is dealing with their own parking issues.

Her neighbor was parking illegally, so she called parking enforcement. She is not parking illegally, so her neighbor can be annoyed all she wants. She doesn’t need to move her car.

The timing of calling the day the neighbor came home from the hospital with a new baby is unfortunate, but if she hadn’t blocked the driveway with her car, there would’ve been no reason to call.

As long as she’s parking legally, there’s no problem.