Folks- there is a big difference between people carefully pulling out of a parking spot and the ones who seem to have lead in their pants or purposely sit in their car when they are in a needed spot.
I have no issues with people briefly checking their messages or pulling out slowly. It is those folks who just sit in the car for 10 minutes with the engine running that are my peeves. We always park further away, never engage on a “fight” for a spot, but on busy days when there is not a single empty spot, there are no other options.
What’s the old saying? Possession is 9/10s of the law. I’d argue that holds true for parking spaces, too. Maybe someone got a call on their cell, or is waiting for someone else to come out of the store. You never know. If you don’t want to wait, circle around. 
Nope. You obviously don’t live here. And boo on idling the engine for a looooong time.
Read the articles linked above about the territorial parking space hogs. @BunsenBurner’s post 81 is what I have been trying to describe. She just said it much better.
I live in the middle of nowhere. Forty minutes from my house is my local grocery/food co-op. Frequently I stop there for a bathroom, and pick up a coffee and croissant on my way to a town another half hour away. If no one needs my parking spot, I sit in the car (engine off) and have breakfast. But if someone obviously wants the parking place, I give it up. If possible, I just drive around the lot and park farther out. If not, I have breakfast when I get to my next stop. Not worth stressing over for me at this stage of life, where my time is pretty much my own. Maybe it makes someone else’s day easier.
Travel down the streets of South Boston after a snowstorm, and you will find that many residents agree with this statement. 
I don’t get the parking space thing. You don’t have some right to the space I’m parked in. If I were still in the store, you couldn’t just get a tow truck and haul my car away because it’s YOUR spot. Why should it be any different if I’m just sitting in the car, for whatever reason? I realize maybe you thought I was leaving because you saw me going to the car, but until I actually LEAVE, you don’t have any claim on the space.
^^I don’t happen to agree but it’s even worse when the car is put in reverse so you see the white lights and THEN the person does who knows what for the next few minutes.
And @alh, I’m also small and often have limited visibility with larger cars flanking my car. So, I too pull out slowly and cautiously. But, I’m moving! The person/people waiting can see that it makes sense to wait as I’m in the process. IMO, if someone needs to sit in his/her car for a few minutes, indicating to the person who looks like they’re going to wait for you that you’re not leaving is the polite and thoughtful thing to do.
@washugrad, I do wonder if we’re neighbors as we’ve had this very discussion on ND. Although maybe every ND group has had a discussion about disposing of dog poop!
I agree that nobody has the right to the parking space, even if you’re just sitting in your car. If I need to make a phone call, I want to do it while I’m sitting there. If I pull out of the space, it might not be easy to find another place to sit.
@alh: I’m with you. I avoid backing out in parking lots as much as humanly possible. I’ll always choose a pull-out spot instead, even if it means a five minute walk to get in the store.
“Children under 15 in restaurants. Any type of restaurant. If I see children in a restaurant, I leave. I have been known to cancel my order and leave when children are seated near us in a restaurant.”
Wow. I was trained to be really well behaved in restaurants. When I was 6 and my brother was 5 we were staying at a hotel with a fancy restaurant and when we went in they told my parents no kids. My parents promised that we’d be well behaved and all they had to do was ask if there was any problem and we’d immediately leave. My parents gave us a “you better behave as we,expect” death stare. But we knew how to behave. The waiter was perplexed at first by our orders. Asking if the children knew what escargot was. Um yes. And steak tare-tare? Yep! At the end of the meal the maitre’d cane to the table and complimented our parents and told us we were “the most delightful children”: and the chef wanted to do something special for “ les petit enfants” who knew how to eat escargot and brought us these chocolate swans filled with ice cream.
We raised our kids the same way. Which meant when they were young going to more “ family friendly”places but getting up and leaving if there was anything other than perfect behavior. We didn’t care that other kids there were allowed to make noise or play at the table. That wasnt t acceptable to us. By the time they were 7 and 9 we could reliably take them anywhere. The one time we went to a very posh restaurant for my father in laws b day a couple cane up to us after the meal to say “ We were so worried when you sat down but your children have the most impeccable manners we’ve ever seen.
Recently at a nice dinner our now grown girls said “We want to understand how you got us to behave in restaurants. So few kids do and we want our kids to. We told them
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Have high expectations that you impress on them and be willing to back it up by leaving
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Have the same luck my parents and we had to get children who were capable of fufilling those expectations. Not all kids can.
I can remember telling people who appeared to be waiting for my space that it would be a few minutes because I was going to nurse the baby before I pulled out. That was a long time ago in Boston. I’m happy that I live in a city where there’s plenty of parking now. Also, I used a fitbit for a short time before it broke several years ago and it certainly taught me to park in the far away space and walk to my destination.
I have no problem with people waving at me and letting me know that they were not leaving right away. I wave back and try to find another person who is loading their loot. It is the folks who have their car in reverse, idling for 5-10 minutes that I don’t appreciate.
Trust me, we are used to waiting for a parking spot 5 min walking distance from the store. The stores are that busy here. If there were parking spots 10 min walk away, we’d park there. But they would be full, too.
In that case, there is typically one single user restroom, or two single user restrooms. In the latter case, if they were gender-labeled, then people would complain about having to wait for someone of the same gender taking a long time in the restroom while no one is using the other gender restroom.
I really hate public restrooms and go out of my way to avoid the crummiest of them. On the road we will avoid rest stops or ( heaven forbid) gas station restrooms and find the nicest restaurant or hotel where we can stop. At the hotels will buy something from the little shop or if meal time eat at the restaurant in the hotel if there is one.
I don’t wait around to see if the kids are well-behaved or not. I just don’t want to dine among children. I didn’t want to dine in a restaurant with my own child when he was young either, and he was never a behavior problem.
I get what @ChoatieMom is saying. If we’re dining at a high end, fancy dancy restaurant, I would prefer to be among adults only. (Especially if the parents are keeping the kids behaved by sticking screens in front of them. ) It detracts from the ambience. I like elegance and sorry, little kids aren’t elegant! We didn’t bring our son along when he was young; I wanted to get away from children. I don’t mind as much earlier in the evening, but I do not understand why parents bring young children out to upscale restaurants at 9:00 pm. I admit that we live in a very touristy area and the parents may not be able to get sitters while on vacation. So eat early - we’re fine eating late.
Also I don’t want to dine among dogs. We didn’t bring our cat with us!
Children weren’t invited to our wedding, either. Kids just aren’t my thing. I guess children are a general peeve of mine. 