Please Stay Off The Grass!

[small_steps]

I'm so ticked. One of my parents turned their car completely around in my driveway. Now my driveway is long enough for about 5-6 cars on each side so there is plenty of room. This parent was the only parent to back up into my yard...pull up into my neighbors yard and then turn around so that he could drive away and avoid backing up the length of the driveway. I'm so ticked because it's rained here all week so there's tire marks in my yard and on my neighbors side and then my driveway is all muddy because of it.
I hung a big red sign on my door that read "Please do not park or drive on the grass!" Hopefully that will get their attention but I'm just so angry. How can someone be so rude?!

[Crystal]

Oh, no. This is something I would address in person, not with a sign. I'd let him know it better not happen again and that he needs to fix, at the very least, the neighbor's lawn.

[small_steps]

Yes I'm going to say something in person as well. But I have another parent that will pull off on the grass sometimes to park. She doesn't turn around in it but I really don't even want her to do that. There's no reason when it's wide enough for two cars at a time and long enough for even more. So really I'm just hoping they all see it and remember to not do it. Most of my parents have enough sense not to though.
It happened at drop off today and I'm still aggravated about it.

[Zoe]

Who drives on grass?! OMG, that would cause me to run out onto the lawn like a crazy person. Who does that?!

Definitely tell him that it is NOT ok!

[Solandia]

I would be very firm and direct with the parent that did this. AND the other one that parks on the grass occasionally. This has to be a less than 30 second talk to be completely effective. No waffling, no apologizing your part about having to mention it.

Talk firmly, and with confidence about how it is unacceptable to be so disrespectful to the neighbor's property, and yours. Have a CLEAR expectation of how the parent(s) are to resolve this & a timeframe/deadline. No arguments or rationalization on their parts or on yours. And then end the conversation, and do not extend it with arguments/rationalizations.

Destruction of property, though unintentional, ALWAYS has consequences. No matter who you are, or what your business is on that property.

ETA: I deal with this on semi-regular basis as I live in a duplex, and non-duplex living people just do not 'get' how it is never okay to park on the attached neighbors driveway, even for a minute. Again, keep the (one sided) convo short & sweet, b/c there are no excuses for this behavior. And to allow a response to your monologue will turn their disrespectful behavior into only your petty complaint. Dont allow it to go there. They would have already offered to fix/pay for the damage if they were going to own up to it.

[MarinaVanessa]

Oh, no. This is something I would address in person, not with a sign. I'd let him know it better not happen again and that he needs to fix, at the very least, the neighbor's lawn.

I agree, this should be addressed in person. I would be very annoyed and very upset. I'd also worry about what my neighbor would think and how it would affect our neighborly relationship. Personally I would go over to talk to my neighbor about it and make sure that they knew that it would be taken care of and how they wanted me to handle it. If they wanted their yard fixed or some kind of compensation I would make sure to tell the parent about it.

I'd have a long talk with this parent about how this is completely unecessary and rude considering that the driveway is large enough to turn around in. Personally I would make it a policy not to allow clients to turn around in the driveway just because of this incident. "It takes one person to ruin it for everyone else" comes to mind .

I would also warn him that if it happens again he would not be allowed to use the driveway. Doesn't he think about how he might feel if someone decided to drive on his yard? Or how the mud on your driveway can now be tracked into your daycare home by EVERYBODY else that walks on it???

[lil angels]

I do not allow parking in the driveway anymore because of stupid people like this. We had put in new lawn and driveway and someone drove off the corner one to many times and we can't even get the lawn to grow there and I also had someone park a Leakey car in my driveway. And now there are oil spots on it. I now have it in my contract no oil leakers in my driveway. Everyone needs to park in the street thank you.