By the way, the old Far Side strip had to do with lecturing to dogs, and is something I’ve taken to heart at home: “Blah, blah, blah, Bessie…”
With young kids, training/correction efforts aren’t all that different - the best ones being short, pointed, and repeated as necessary (sometimes accompanied by treats). 
I remember a story not too long ago about a woman who had a reserved/private space in a parking garage. She’d set up a webcam to monitor the space, and whenever she found someone had parked in it, she would bop on down and boot the car.
Haven’t been able to find a link to the story, though. Apparently she was making a good bit of money on it.
Technological schaedenfreude!
Technological schaedenfreude!
You realize, of course, that I’ll be forced to use that phrase as often as possible now, right?
As a former wage slave of Circle K(circa 1997) I had four vehicles towed at once because these four sterling individuals didn’t believe the rules applied to them.
Further, my “superiors” didn’t have the nads to deal with irate customers.
One day towards the end of the OSU school year, four students decided to leave their vehicles in our lots and run off to class.
I was charitable and gave them an hour. Then I called the towing company.
Trucks came out and were taking the vehicles away.
One of the annoying brats got there just before they could get the truck attached and got away. The other three weren’t as lucky.
The three remaining OSU students came to me and either whined about how they couldn’t afford it or threatened on how they were going to get me fired.
None of them took responsibility for their actions or took note of the signs in front of each parking space that warned of the actions that would be taken if they used it as a parking space for more than their Circle K shopping.
[QUOTE=CanvasShoes]
I knew that. Didn’t mean to sound like criticism.
Yes to both of those. I didn’t advocate long windy speeches to kids. I advocated setting a good example and good repeated communication over a period of years. That includes patiently and briefly repeating oneself when nessecary.
Not to continue what is definitely a sidetrack, but I was raised in Saskatchewan (like half of Calgary). thbbbbth yourself. 
A couple of these stories remind me of when I was in High School and our marching band practice area was a bit of parking lot.
There were big big signs posted that explained how you were not to park here between the hours of [whenever band was]. A coupla times a year someone would park where they shouldn’t have and all of the biggest guys in band (we had some really buff dudes in band) would either try to get into the car and put it in neutral to move it OR…if the car was small enough, they would pick it up and move it themselves. I’m not talking picking way up off the ground, but with enough dudes you can get a car high enough to move it a few feet to get it out of our way.
I think eventually something went wrong with this scheme and the director stopped letting the guys move cars. We would miss out on practice and/or march around the cars if they were parked incorrectly.
Incidentally, I live in the neighborhood adjacent to the high school and the only parking problems we’ve ever had in our neighborhood have QUICKLY been handled by the school and the local cops. They do an excellent job keeping the ijits out of our neighborhood and a fantastic job doing parking control during football games - recently our team has become seriously popular and the parking overflow is tremendous.
Now a story from the other side of the conflict…
I was told by my friend to park in their apartment block’s lot. He said it was OK. I park, we party, I sober up around 3am and leave. Blocking me into the space is another car with a nasty note on the dashboard telling me which apartment to go to to get the owners and how angry they are with me.
Now, I am a reasonable person, but at 3am, I actually questioned how safe that manuever might be- i.e. the tone of the note suggested that they were ready to pick a fight. So I gave it a good, long thought - about 2 seconds worth - and then I grabbed a Slim Jim. I worked at a Toyota dealership at the time as a lot lizard, so it took me all of about 1 second to gain entry.
I took the car out of gear, pushed it forward and managed to block 2 cars in. After I left I thought that it would have been nicer to push the car back, thus leaving them to think my car just disappeared. But, again, at 3am I wasn’t really thinking clearly on the matter.
-Tcat
Cute story. Apartment parking can be confuseing. Was your friend a new tenant? Sometimes they just don’t know the rules. Often there is specific parking for guests. I’ve also encounterd people who just assumed a parking spot was theirs because they parked there a lot, even though they had no real claim to it. I’ll bet they were annoyed to find they didn’t get to chew you out. I wonder if they got chewed out and had to explain how they didn’t actually park there.
Bah, apartment parking lots - I spit on them. ptooey.
You can’t trust what people who live there tell you. We went to visit my sister who lives in downtown Calgary, and parked where she told us (and we had parked there many times before). When we went to leave, my mom’s car had been towed already, and they were just hooking up my husband’s car. We talked him out of that, and were able to go get my mom’s car out of impound (after paying the fee, of course), but I don’t park in my sister’s lot anywhere any more. She even worked as a building administrator - ignorance was not an excuse here. If it isn’t clearly marked “Visitor Parking”, don’t park there. It’s just easier that way.
And then we have the losers who live in a complex and use the Visitor Parking for their second car/trailer/whatever. Obviously these people are specialer than the other people who live there who have to pay for a second spot.
This is why, when someone parks in one of my parking spots at the apartment complex where I live, I leave a note on their car asking them not to park there the first time I see them do it, and every time afterward. (I will also involve the management if it happens more than once) I don’t want anybody thinking that it’s OK for them to use my parking space.
Clarification to my last post: these are assigned parking spaces. Not having assigned parking spaces is a deal-breaker for me in looking for an apartment.
That rule doesn’t even work. My girlfriend was parked in a “Guest” spot at my mother’s place and she was almost towed. We got there and I fucking had a fit. There excuse, all vehicles need to have a permit. If she doesn’t live there, she needs a temporary permit. It’s not even a gated community. I am waiting to exact my sweet fucking revenge on that fat fuck who picked on use because we are younger.
A permit requirement is a permit requirement. Anyone who parks in our (non-gated) lot between 8PM and 8AM without a permit is likely to be towed. This is clearly marked at the entrances to both lots and any vistor on the lot can pick up a temporary permit from whomever they are visiting. If this is also true for your mother’s place, you’ll know better next time.
Yeah, I believe you, Flander. Complexes are completely screwed-up, parking-wise. Okay, don’t park there even if it says “Visitor Parking.” Don’t trust The Man, man.
Why do you assume that he isn’t an equal opportunity fat fuck?
PunditLisa, to answer your question, I think partially because of my negative attitude toward him, and partially because in the years that my mother and I have lived there (it’s mostly older people), we’ve never seen them attempt to tow anyone. OhFace parks there for two days and he acts like we stole his fucking twinkies. Funny thing is, my friend recognized him as his fat fuck paper boy when he owned a cigar shop. Said he was an asshole then, too. My only solace is that Karma will kick him in the ass. And Karma, if you’re listening, I’d love to help out any way I can.
I’m blushing like mad over the compliment. Use the phrase in good health.