... to expect people who use parent & baby car parking spaces to have children with them?

Thank you LS

And Flutterbee, I agree totally.

flutterbee- I'm rather lardy arsed as well and can manage it (and have an oversized car).

Not sure that the parking spaces are the problems at the glades- if you can get around the very tight corners you should be able to manage the spaces really.

The disabled vs non-disabled thing kicked off because once again lots of people seem to think that having children is equivalent in difficulty to having a child. When its not. Anyway my severely disabled blue badge holder son can sprint (more than sprint he can run like the wind) into the store. I'm sure the guy was having a larf, but it's not worth assuming anything.

Agree with Aloha as well- the P andd T spots are the worst places for accidents as they're full of people cramming in near the door.

Well I could add my own thoughts but this post (Bobalina) said it all too well -

'I am amazed at this thread. Only recently discovered p&t bays but never use them. I've only recently started driving to the shops. For many years I carried 5 bags of shopping and a baby on the buses to get home. To think that it pisses some of you off that you cannot get into your designated bay because (god forbid) a disabled person has parked there beggars belief.

I do not use p&t bays (with my 3 children) because I feel they are of better use to the elderly and disabled. Wouldn't dream of pulling them up for parking in them.'

People who park in these spaces without children are complete t**sers. That's all there is to it.

That my in the last line shouldn't be there.

I got half way through this thread and thought bloody hell get a life.

Can someone please tell me how I a hugely overweight person can manage to get DS in and out of the car with no trouble and no need for a P&T space yet every other woman on here finds this some what impossible.

DH and I have never ever had trouble with this kind of thing and neither has my Mum (who I have just spoken to about this) and she has had 7 children.

What is you problem?

Take them all away and replace them all with my Disabled parking spaces so the people who actually need the space can get it.

This is my biggest problem and the one thing in the world that stresses me out!!!! Worse than the arrogant t**ts in their flash cars who use the p&t spacese are the parents without children, who should know how it feels to get a child into a child seat while squeezed between 2 cars with a toddler trying to kick you in the face and your arse sticking out for the world to see.!!!!
Phew, you can tell who had a bad trip to waitrose today!!

this turned into disabled v non disabled after the 3rd post. it was never going ti lighthearted.

i would like to point out as well that the taxi bays in such supermarkets have no shelter and usually you get soaked whilst you wait to be picked up why do they make these things like this when they know that their customers will be waiting there?

also internet shopping is stupid as they have nothing in stock most ofthe time the delivery comes late or too early and they substitute stupid stuff when the stuff if out of stock, and, and and they give you all the stuff that is goung out of date!!!!

sorry am sooo articulate

I would never park in a disabled space. When it comes to P&T spaces, I think it is good to remember how dangerous car parks are for young children. I think they are one of the most likely places for children to be hit and injured by a car. They really scare me tbh.

Oh Squonk, a relief to hear it be said!! I get so p*d off with people doing that!! I would never usually do this but once - just once - in the pouring rain with 2 small kids, parked in a fairly empty disabled bay because all the M&B ones were full and ended up getting a mouthful from some guy in a wheelchair (who did have one of the many disabled spaces). Also is it just me or are the M&B ones always as far away from the bloody entrance as possible!??

my morrsons store is ridiculous the car park is on a really steep slope, the trolleys have no brakes and there are NO m and t places at all

do you get your baby out of the trolley first and allow your shopping to diappear off down the carpark or the other way round??

i don;t go any more

i didn;t think that the point of the spaces is so mouch that they are closer to the door just the space issue so you have room to get your buggy out and up and your child into it without being knocked down. luckily i can't drive so get dropped off in a taxi at the front door or walk there

although i could start up a completely different thread about people who park in front of your house when they have a perfectly good drive and then watch you struggle with two kids and loads of shopping cos you can;t pull up anywhere near your house

This is the reply to the e-mail I sent to my local shopping centre complaining about the size of their spaces

thankyou for your email dated 10/11/06 , i do appreciate the problems you would of encountered and empaphise with the problems that our car park can sometimes cause.Just to give you some history , being a Town Centre car park ,we unfortunately doent have the luxury of our counterparts like Bluewater that have the appropriate space allocated, due to not having council or land restrictions. We would like to dedicate more space per car but as mentioned this is not realistic when trying to encapulate the needs of the local car usuage as we do not have enough spaces as it stands.
However i am looking at areas located near entrances in the view of enlarging and creating more including disabled parking , this may take though a couple of months to action so should be available after christmas.
Hopefully you will be aware of the new baby changing facilities that are now open on the car park level 2 , this should show you that we do care and are trying to make improvements to our centre , geared towards our customer. Hopefully this will not stop you shopping at the Glades, however if you need further assistance please ring me on 0208 313 9292
Laurie Taylor
Operations Manager
Bromley Glades Shopping Centre (CSC)

Margo - my point exactly I dont CARE if the space is by the front door or in the far corner I just dont want to damage someone elses car getting my children out. Its not so bad now they are older & more mobile so they both come out one side.

I guess it just comes down to greed on the part of the shops, they want to get in as many spaces and therefore customers as possible irrelevant of whether or not you can actually get out of the car once parked.

Interesting that this started out as a lighthearted "this annoys me thread" and again got turned into a disabled v non disabled bun fight.

For the record I have never...nor would I ever toot my horn at a disabled bus and the guy I blocked in RAN into the store...a disabled space right by the door should be for someone who would struggle to get in, he was young and rather fit a slightly longer RUN wouldnt have hurt him.

ohhh, a bugbear of mine too!!

I got annoyed when driving around our local car park which has about 5 floors and only 8 babyspaces (which are the most awkward to park in) and when I do find one some woman parks in at (after I drove around to get in it) and walks out of her car and goes shoppine (no children!)), I told the car park attendent as I was sooooo annoyed and its trivial really but when it comes to getting dd out the car in to her buggy bags out and back in again it is a pain and people just dont think.

I also get annoyed that at Tesco's there are several M & B spaces scattered around but you have to walk a fair distance to get the trolley. Why cant they put spaces together with a trolley park at reach! Would make sense!

I felt guilty the other day as I went shopping with dd and my mum we did our shop then had a coffee so whilst mum ordered coffee I went back to car and put shopping away. I was so paranoid that someone would have a go at me as I did not have my dd with me and wanted to stick a sign up explaining I was with my child (she was in cafe with my mum) and I was just dropping shopping back.

lol

Thanks...I think!

Mellow that is o.k. then...you are not selfish then I happily take that back

I can't believe RL people have been so nasty to those of you who are bb holders/parents of bb holders.

I do think they should make general spaces bigger and I would think that 100% of us with non SN children would not be posting on here complaining about how hard done by we are. I, for one, don't care where I park, just about if I can get a toddler and a car seat out of the car without damaging my car or anothers.

Sorry I didn't come back to this thread....

I just cannot find it within myself to debate/argue/dis-agree with anyone about a parking space......

For the record though, yes its generally after 6ish I use the PT spaces....and my local supermarket is very quiet...hence me using it in the first place.

Jimjams, may have misread mellos posts then, but I was under the impression it wasn't solely a matter of after 6.30...evenings are different...Kids shouldn't be out shopping then anyway, lol!

Bobalinga, what a horrible nasty thing to have had said to you about your child (spastic comment) Some people truly do not know how lucky they are

in our sainsbury's there's usually blokes in suits on their own in cars eating sandwiches dotted around the special parking areas, or blokes in vans running in. I've asked the Sainsbury's info people about it but they clearly don't want to antagonise money spending customers.

I thought mellow said earlier that she only parked in them after 6.30 pm- and I must admit I do use them if I'm shopping after kids bed times. I seriously just can;t get worked up about it. I don' park in them myself if I don't have kids with me, but I can't muster up the energy to get irate about it. I do get irate about people parking in disabled bays because (depends on the situation- we're not usually that needy for a disabled bay in a supermarket-we are in other situations) it can mean an absolute meltdown.

I am pretty sure here in Aus they are a legal requirement - so many per area iyswim.