I’m guessing the teens tell their parents they’ll be social distancing and/or wearing masks, and as soon as they’re out of parents’ sight, the masks come off and they all jump in a car together. On the very few occasions my DD has been in a car with a friend, I’ve reminded her they should wear masks, but I’m 95% sure they’re not doing it.

I know she’s not dopey enough to park in front of a driveway, though!

I would be so mad if a car parked in my driveway space too! I get a little miffed, but of course never say anything, when someone parks in front of my house-even though it is totally legal. It's weird, I just don't even want to look out my window and see a strange car parked in front of my house. Thankfully, it doesn't happen much at all.

nini, I'm with you on the teenage brain-out and about, I have a 17 year old boy. All he wants to do is "go"! He even works out at the gym at 10pm with some boys.

Olliesmom, I'm the same way about a strange car parked in front of my house. I'm on city streets too so it's totally legal. However I live in an area with bigger lots and everyone has a garage along with a decent sized driveway.

I want to yell, "Park in front of your own da*n house!"

But I don't. I'm trying to convince myself it doesn't bother me. LOL. I will also admit that I acknowledge it's a little weird, so I was thrilled to see someone admit to it too. :)

I feel the same way about someone parking in front of our house, even when they don't block us in! As tight as space is in our community, I feel that people should park in front of their own houses and have their guests/invitees do the same, so as to free up the space in front of the homes of others for THEIR guests ... or just so they won't have to look at some strange car right out in front. Naturally, the exception would be for a party or large gathering, but it's common courtesy to give neighbors a heads up about that sort of thing. Someone recently held a wedding at their home, and advised our HOA board president, who then sent an email to all residents advising them to expect heavier but temporary street parking.

I think I've shared that we had an issue with "cooking vent lady" parking her vehicle with a tow hook on the back extending into our driveway for a time. We had to ask her two times that I can recall (might have been three) NOT to do that. People are used to the idea that streets are for parking. Not necessarily so in some neighborhoods where the HOA stipulates street usage, however, and people either are clueless about the contracts they entered into with the HOA, or they simply don't care because "everyone does it." It's super annoying.

I'm happy to hear that others find having strange cars parked in front of their house annoying. We have one neighbor with a 3-car garage, yet all of their cars are parked on the street. Thankfully, they are moving soon. Because I live on a cul-de-sac, it is hard for me to back out of my driveway when there is a car parked behind me and to the left of the driveway. I sort of have to thread the needle to not hit anyone's vehicle. There was a time when I really considered painting my curb red.

Oh gosh...I have a ditsy teenage daughter, and I live in fear of her doing something stupid like that. Bc, while she and her friends are nice kids from good homes...they have teenage brain. Teenage brain, to me, is the ability to be so focused on self that the big picture (such as actually LOOKING at where you park 🙄 ) is definitely fuzzy.

This! Too funny. My kids are good kids and fairly smart, but OMG are they ... dumb!

We are territorial too when it comes to parking in front of our house. The town has an overnight no parking during winter months, but you can park in the street during the day. You just need to be mindful in case it should snow.

The house across the street has been a rental for many years. Sometimes they or friends of theirs park in front of their house but.....they park in the middle.

This means we can’t park in front of our house if we want to. We have four cars in our driveway. It’s only an issue if one if our daughters are home and using a car. Or, if I simply want to pull in front if I plan to go in and out.

We’ve never talked to the neighbors. Sometimes we just pull one car out all the way forward. This leaves room on their side if they choose to park in the street. We are just hoping they will get the idea that it’s not hard to shRe the street.

It drives DH insane when people park in front of our house. They aren't even residents, mostly, but visitors/workers to the neighbors. I know why they do it, it's shady in summer. But in winter? I don't get it. He used to put notes on the cars until he got the message that it's a public street.

Me, it doesn't bother me.

On my DD's street, you cannot leave a car parked on the street between 2am and 7 am. But during the day, parents often park their vehicles on the street in front of their own driveways, so their kids can play in the driveway with chalk or little Fisher Price vehicles. The parents sit in the driveway with them, to make sure their kids don't run around the cars, into the street. But DD has to pull out of her driveway very carefully, as sometimes the neighbours on both sides of her have cars blocking their driveways, as well as the neighbour across the street. You have to pull out very slowly past the parked cars, to see vehicles that might be coming up or down the street, and not ding the cars across the street from her driveway.

I live on a city street and have one of the few driveways on my block. It is not marked as a driveway on the curb and can look like just a side yard. I have left polite messages taped to drivers' side doors reminding people that they are blocking the driveway. More often than not, I write off the parking to people - of all ages - being careless. I try not to get spun up about it. "Try" being the operative word.

And what is it about people who never park their car in their garage?

I confess, uhmm, I was solidly in my forties, and parked in the only opening drive to a restaurant in downtown Clemson once. It was all so confusing! Yes, it was the driveway but there were parallel spots on either side and it all kinda blended in...Thankfully I was there only a few minutes running into a shop and came back to an irritated restaurant owner but my car had not yet been towed!

Gray, some people’s garages are too full of other junk... ask me how I know.

This reminds me of a really stupid parking job i did when i was 18. There was a long , narrow lot behind the restaurant where i worked one summer. I wanted to run in for a minute, I can’t remember why. There were no spaces so i just parked in the driveway, blocking every car in the lot. Of course, having teenage brain, i got inside, saw friends and stayed to chat, never thinking of the car.. When i came out my car had been pushed out of the lot, across the street and onto the sidewalk, where it sat sideways. There was a ticket on the windshield for parking on the sidewalk. So Dumb!

I deleted my comment. Obviously, bpath, you chose to pick apart my verbiage (which I felt was contextual), and I am sorry for the offense to you.

I'm done with this thread. [ETA: No, I'm not done with this thread, but am not going to nitpick any further.]

Ida, ugh, the nerve. Bad neighbors are one of the biggest reasons I prefer remote country living - although we had to give up our country home 5 years ago when we had to move to the 'burbs for my husband's job.

Someone I don't know parking in front of my house is irritating, although I'm not exactly sure why. We live in the back corner of a cul-de-sac and there just isn't that much street parking to be had. Last week one of the neighbors across the cul-de-sac was having some work done on their house, and for three nights the workman left a looonnng enclosed trailer, loaded with their equipment and supplies, parked in front of one of the OTHER neighbor's homes. Seems like they should have parked in the driveway or in front of the house they were working at.

I, too, would hate it if other people parked their vehicle in front of my house ON MY SIDE. Just seems so rude, like they’re showing us their @ss cause they don’t want the vehicle on THEIR side.

Heck, I even hate it when they park on their side. In our small rural town, 99% of houses have a driveway and probably 75% have at least a one car garage.

Typically, the number of vehicles parked at a house in our small town is inversely proportional to the amount of money the family has. (Obviously this isn’t the case in more urban communities)

Gray, I know! We've always kept our vehicles in the garage. We are in the county (have never lived in the city) so no problems with people parking on the road, you just don't do it. Our house sits a good distance back from the road, so it wouldn't make sense for us anyway.

Now I finally have something positive to say about living on a busier road: “No one can park in front of our house EVER!!!”

I don’t think there is anything wrong with being territorial about who is parking in front of your house. If people are allowed to park anywhere on the street, it can block views or take up space you might need or want to use. If people aren’t minding rules or supposed to park there, well that’s obvious as to why it would be annoying.

When we were house hunting, my DH wanted to buy into a new subdivision we’d looked at and I refused. There is absolutely no way I will ever live in a neighborhood where houses are on top of each other and/or my property is controlled by an HOA; they may be a good option for someone else, but not me.

I don’t watch or scrutinize what others are doing in their own yards because for one, I don’t care, but also because I don’t want anyone doing that to me. We don’t have fences and the lady behind me, (who I’m actually friends with now) had a really bad habit of watching our every move out back. We couldn’t entertain or do anything out there without her coming over to see who we were talking to or what was going on. It was rude and it drove me nuts.

One day, she actually had the nerve to walk thru our two very large yards (well over an acre between them) to complain to some workers about the way they were installing our new shed. When the guys told me I lost it and let her know up close and personal how angry I was about it.

While it took both of us loosing our husbands to reach this point, I’m glad we’ve been able to put that aside and build a friendly relationship. I also learned a life lesson in the process as to why she was doing that.

I’m glad it turned out well for you. But, I can’t understand why it would ever be okay to barge into a social gathering you were not invited to.

Smaller lots and closer neighbors = more chances for annoying interactions for sure.

My primary home is farther out from the city center. Smallest lot is an acre, most are 2. We very rarely have neighbor issues in that community, between anyone.

My current vacation house is our retirement destination/permanent home someday and it's a beach town so land is outrageously expensive close to the ocean. I've learned to deal with HOAs and smaller lots because my finances dictate I have no other realistic options.

It's an adjustment.

I'm trying to get past being annoyed by people who park smack in the front of my house when they have openings at their house. I get that it's actually not doing me any real harm. Yes it's harder to get out of my driveway at times, but that's just the way it goes in a more urban environment.

What I've found is that how annoyed I am directly correlates with how I feel about the parking interlopers. :) I adore our neighbors on one side, so I don't mind them or their kids parking in front at all. However we have loud and cluelessly annoying neighbors on the other side and so I find my blood pressure spiking when they park in front of my house. And don't even get me going on the weekly renters who cycle through in the summer at a VRBO house a few doors down!

So yeah, I have some issues to work on.

It was nice to see other people have similar issues too though. :)

(Edited to add, it would never occur to me to park in front of someone else's house if street space is open in front of my own home. Who does that?... LOL....)

I too would have a very difficult time living close to others, I've been in a country subdivision for 20 years and love the quietness and my few neighbors who are all great. When one of the neighbors put a street light in, up the road and not visible from my house, I was upset. Having to walk a dog recently in the middle of the night now, I'm ok with it!

We moved closer to town a couple of years ago, a more urban area, and there is a lot of street parking here. I don’t like it at all — it hides the homes, you just see vehicles like it’s a parking lot, I’m terrified of a child running out in between vehicles as I drive by. Our old street was more rural, long driveways — no one parked in the street ever. I will say, though, that everyone here is very conscious of not parking in front of neighbor’s homes — I appreciate that a lot. In fact, if our next door neighbors (they have a big family) are having a gathering, and will need extra parking, they always tell us ahead of time and apologize! Very thoughtful to do that. :)

You're lucky Jinx, cherish those thoughtful neighbors.

The kids issue is a real one. I've actually seen 1 very close call with a little girl on a bike who came flying out from between parked cars, that the driver never even saw until it was almost too late. We were walking our dogs and I thought for sure she was going to get hit. It was awful. I know I could never live with myself if I hit/hurt a child, and I don't think that kid's parents have a clue how close she came that day. They have 4 kids and it's a circus in front of their house.

I'm glad I live on the other end of the block..... :)

I have a funny story that I forgot about until reading this thread. We live on a corner. The street that runs on the side is a short dead end street, but our garage/driveway are on the side of our house. There are two other driveways just beyond ours, on either side of the dead end. The house on the other corner has its garage/driveway on the street in front of our houses. They have a two car garage that they both park in and a driveway that can easily fit six cars. Our streets are narrow, absolutely no street parking is permitted b/c there must be room for emergency vehicles to safely pass. Now, we are good friends with our neighbors, but anytime they have any contractors over, they do not allow them to park in their driveway. Every single time they have contractors over, they have them park on the side of their house on my dead end street - and they park directly across from my driveway (did I mention the narrow street?). It is impossible for me to back out of my driveway as a result. Then I need to go over and find the contractor to ask them to move. One day I got in a huge argument when the garbage truck could not come down my street when a painter “was too busy” to come move his truck. He was screaming profanities at me (my neighbors were not home but I left an angry voicemail on their answering machine). Anyway, this wasnt even the story I meant to share, was just giving some background on my neighbors, who despite all this, we love dearly.

Years ago, we were down at our beach house for a week. I dont recall why, but dh went home for a day for some reason. Something was stored in our garage and he needed to back in to the driveway to load it in our SUV. I get a phone call from dh that some random car is parked in our driveway directly in front of the garage (we have a two car wide driveway but only a one car garage). I have no idea what he is talking about, who’s car it is, etc. After he describes the car, I realize it sounds like the car our neighbor’s friend drives (I know the woman as she was in a book club with me and my neighbor, but she was their friend, not mine). I have NO idea why she is parked in our driveway. Of course, I call my neighbors and left a message. Turns out they and the friend were out on my neighbor’s boat together and told her to park in our driveway since we were out of town. OMG, dh was furious b/c they were gone for hours and he couldnt access our driveway. Of course our neighbors were apologetic but we were like “WTH, you have a six car driveway and you tell her to park at our house and don’t even at least ask us or leave a note or something?” I have never figured out what their obsession is for not allowing anyone to park in their driveway, especially knowing our community does not allow street parking (we have no curbs so you can park with two tires on the lawn and two in the street, temporarily, for things like parties but you must be able to immediately move any cars if necessary).

Anyway, that is my personal street parking rant. 😬

What is it about the simple act of parking a vehicle that makes some people lose all sense? The street parking residents in our community park with their cars going every which way, so we'll often have cars on the same side of the street facing each other, which to me just looks chaotic. I drive by adjacent neighborhoods that are also zero lot line, and note how nice and neat their streets look, with residents either parking in garages or on their driveways, and I do feel envious. I hope that whatever plans our HOA is developing are workable. Overnight street parking can be an invitation for criminals as well. In our previous neighborhood, residents often parked on the streets -- until their cars were broken into. There's no guarantee that won't happen if a car's in the drive (it did happen to us at the old house; someone slit the soft top of the driveway-parked convertible I had then in order to gain access to something like 67 cents in change I had in the console), but it's more likely if cars are on the street, providing quick and easy access.

My brother lives in a city neighborhood and had a small SUV where the spare was mounted under the chassis. After the second theft, he started keeping it IN the car.

In our neighborhood, especially with so many kids home from college and lost jobs, there are more cars than ever parked in driveways, sometimes moved onto the street during the day. The big problem is when people (not just the young adults, but everyone) don't lock the car doors, leave the fob and garage door opener and valuables in the car. You know the rest of the story. No tragedies YET. Over a dozen in one night, in one neighborhood. That makes our community a magnet for crime. Ugh.

In thinking back, I can say I don't mind street parking because it isn't that crowded on our street. But around the corner, a guy runs a business out of his home, and his employees park there. The guy has maybe 3 vehicles, plus boat, sea-doo, ski-doo, kayaks (those are in the side yard), truck, then there might be 3 more cars in the driveway and 3-4 vehicles on the street. They get fined by the city, pay it, and keep on. It has actually affected home sales on that little street: not even I would want to buy a home there, seeing that, and it's otherwise a charming street.

Ida, I'm sorry. You are a kind person and I went the wrong way with it.

Oh, thank you, bpath. You're a sweetheart.

Eld, it really wasn’t ok however, when this happened, she’d just lost her husband, was living alone and she didn’t have a support system available to her. We’ve never discussed the situation but now while dealing with my own heartbreak, I am seeing things through a different lense and can’t help but think it was her way of trying to be included.

In retrospect, I could have been, maybe even should have been kinder by reaching out to her at some point but I didn’t and now, I feel terrible about it. I was mean spirited about it and should have been more sensitive.

Lukki, don’t be too hard on yourself. When we are busy with our own lives, we sometimes don’t react as we should, or see things as we should.

It seems at every age, we are still learning.

FWIW, our city has a law that when parking on the street (where allowed), you have to park in the direction of traffic on each side or you get a ticket. My son learned that the hard way years ago.

It makes sense, when you think about the safety aspect.

That said, hubby thinks the contractors have been taking advantage of the fact that cops haven't been doing much ticketing work because of the pandemic, because they're parking every which way, adding to the daily chaos.

Oh yeah, there are complaints all the time on our Nextdoor about parking. Our homes were built in the 1960's for the most part, few have garages, and for homes with multiple vehicles, some people park on the street all the time. The house two doors down has 5 vehicles and same for the one across the street. Both are multi-generational households. It is a major PITA if I want to bring the Mustang out because it's parked in the back of the driveway, and doing the musical cars is something we do all the time. At least I'll take the Mustang out in a bit when I only have to move other my car to the street and DH is gone for the day. I have to park it at least three houses down because they all have their cars on the street. And people are not patient while we are moving our cars. I totally understand that people will not pay thousands of dollars to widen their driveways and tens of thousands to add a garage.

I do wonder why the multigenerational households choose what is obviously a community with a smaller footprint. In ours, it isn't like the families grew over time. No, they all moved in together from day 1. While there is much to be commended when families support one another throughout their lifetimes, opting to live together where you cannot feasibly have 5 or more vehicles without violating community restrictions just does not compute to me. There are other options in our community's price range that would allow for ample space. It comes across to me as entitled and not giving a damn about the community as a whole. It's hard not to resent that.

The house across the street has a two-car garage as part of a large storage building, and they do not use it! They are fairly new, but the other family has lived here longer than DH. There is a grandma, two adult single father sons, their kids, and now one of the "kids" has a toddler. She doesn't live here anymore, but she is here a lot.

There are very few options for multi-generational households in a standard price range. The builder Lennar has new construction that involves "in-law" apartments they call "next gen" but these are not super common.

Last time we were in Toronto (seems like an eon ago!) we visited a new community under construction, detached as well as attached/townhouse/duplexes. Every one of them was designed for multi-generational living, with a separate living quarter under the roof, and maybe connected via a door and maybe not. But the garages were not bigger, still just two-car. Good public transportation is available, but still, I am imagining cars in driveways and on the street.

We just returned from picking up a Craigslist item in a very wealthy neighborhood, with huge homes on acreage. We saw a whole herd of kids going wild on ATVs and mini bikes. That would make me crazy too. I think every neighborhood has its own set of "issues".

Ida Claire:

I do wonder why the multigenerational households choose what is obviously a community with a smaller footprint. In ours, it isn't like the families grew over time. No, they all moved in together from day 1. While there is much to be commended when families support one another throughout their lifetimes, opting to live together where you cannot feasibly have 5 or more vehicles without violating community restrictions just does not compute to me. There are other options in our community's price range that would allow for ample space. It comes across to me as entitled and not giving a damn about the community as a whole. It's hard not to resent that.

If you have an HOA, isn't there a covenent that restricts the number of families living in one dwelling, also the number of pets one may possess on the property, vehicles allowed, commercial and RV vehicles not allowed to be parked over a short period of time, etc?

One can surmise these families might not have the financial means to live separately or in larger dwellings, or are just saving money? Perhaps they're trying to find a decent play to live and not thinking about being entitled, especially if the family culture is from another country.

Stan, you have obviously not participated in threads in which I have spoken at length about our neighborhood and HOA and I'm not inclined to explain it all over again. No need to second guess the financial state of the multigenerational families near me either. They are affluent, and obviously so.

I do understand that these multigenerational households of which I speak may choose to live where they do based upon proximity to a mosque. There are not many in this area, but there is a beautiful mosque within a few miles of us with the most lovely imam, whom we know personally and think the world of.

At this point, I'd move. It would be easy selling your home because of how beautifully decorated it is.

LOL, no ... we love our home. Moving is not on the table. Anyway, there are problems with any community.

I agree with Ida. Basically we're all just chit-chatting about our various annoyances du hour here. We all have them, and it seems Ida knows that on a grand scale this isn't the end of the world. Plus then you're just trading a known set of problems for another unknown set.

Thanks, Patrice. I said in my OP that I was just venting. Twice. I do know that throwing the baby out with the bathwater is not a rational move, so we are not -- repeat, NOT -- moving because a couple of doofuses live nearby.

We're not in an HOA, but the city ordinance for number of people in a living unit is very high. Literally like 10 people per 1,000 square feet.

LOL, last week on Nextdoor someone who's new posted that we should form an HOA so we can hire security, and everyone is NOOOOOO. We want to live here because there is no HOA. Every new construction community here has an HOA; go there.

No, apparently there is some history with your current abode.

It appears to be a source of great aggravation and stress.

This comment, "There are other options in our community's price range that would allow for ample space. It comes across to me as entitled and not giving a damn about the community as a whole. It's hard not to resent that" seemed presumptive to me, but perhaps you know the circumstances of your neighbors.

No matter, I don't have to live there!

No lecturing intended, complaining of repeated problems with one's locale seem to require a solution or understanding, at the least.

Obviously neither are the objective.

Sometimes venting can release stress, I get it!

We live in an urban neighbourhood with lots of on street parking. Only once has someone blocked our driveway and it drove my husband WILD.

There’s a duplex across the street from us that has a succession of renters, one year one of the renters was dating a guy in a local band and their ratty band van was parked in front of our house for about a year straight. I was VERY happy when they broke up!

This has made me think about how many families have been combining to shelter in place right now. We have friends whose adult kids moved home while the pandemic rages. Lots of college kids had to return home, as well as school age kids stuck at home all day. Around here there are a number of what look to be high school age kids roaring around the bay on waverunners every afternoon - probably as noisy as ATVs, if not moreso.

Yes...at my husband’s firm, many of the junior consultants returned to their parent’s home to quarantine. And our college son came home mid-March, and won’t be going back until the end of August (God willing...I pray the case counts go down in his college state! He needs aNd wants to get back to campus!) I am sooooo glad that our house has a rear entry garage from a private alley....it’s a 3 car garage so our parking pad/driveway is nice and wide. Dh & I park in the garage, and thankfully there is room for the kids’ 2 cars to park in the driveway without anyone having to move cars. Our neighborhood only allows side or rear entry garages...if ours was a side entry, at least one would have to park in the street! Although I do feel like a car lot when both kids are home. 😂 Lots of college and young adult kids are back in our hood that usually aren’t here...many more cars.

Well, now I’m thinking about the homes near our high school who could rent space in their driveways to students. If they did so, and I’m not saying they do which would be a violation of city ordinance, they would almost make a nice dent in their property tax for the year.