AITJ for telling my neighbor she can’t use our driveway for her Instacart side hustle anymore?
I’m 31F and live with my husband (33M) in a suburban neighborhood outside Phoenix. Houses are close together with short driveways.
Our next door neighbor, Kelly (late 30s), started doing Instacart full time about six months ago after getting laid off.
A few months ago, I started noticing random cars parked in our driveway. At first I assumed they were turning around, but it kept happening. I checked our Ring footage and realized her customers were parking in our driveway while picking up groceries from her. When her driveway is full, she tells them to use ours.
I work from home and we use our driveway often. Several times I’ve opened the garage and found someone blocking me in while loading groceries. One person even knocked on my door thinking I was her because of address confusion.
I went over and told her I’d noticed people using our driveway for pickups and asked her to tell them not to. She said it was easier for traffic flow and only for a few minutes at a time.
I told her it’s private property and we need access to it.
The parking continued.
Last weekend I was leaving for my niece’s birthday and someone was parked in our driveway again. I asked them to move and they said Kelly told them it was fine. She came outside and seemed irritated that I was making them move.
After that, I put up a small Private Driveway No Parking sign and sometimes park near the end of the driveway to block access when we’re home.
She texted me saying I’m making it harder for a working mom to survive and that I should show more grace. She also posted in the neighborhood Facebook group about people forgetting what community means.
My husband thinks I should have talked to her again before putting up the sign, but I already addressed it with her and nothing changed.
