People who park in child and parent spaces when they don't have kids.

I have to point out, like I do on every one of these threads, that those of us with blue badges often have to use parent & child when there’s no other disabled spaces available so before your ‘blood boils’ maybe check for a blue badge, first???

Imagine admitting to being so selfish you park in spacious parking advertised for shoppers with young children in car seats because it’s raining.

If only they made the spaces slightly bigger and had a herringbone arrangement rather than squares…P and C spaces wouldn't be necessary!

Hi I don’t have kids and park in them semi-regularly, just depends who is with me ie elderly parent or if it is raining. I don’t do it all the time, but I do view them as a luxury. On occasion I will think first come, first served. But I’m of an age where I remember supermarkets before they had mother and baby spaces.

YANBU, people that park in them without children have a totally distorted sense of entitlement. Those spaces are clearly designated for people with young children. Their size and placement is for the benefit of people travelling with young children; for their safety and convenience. IME it’s usually lone men!

Thank you! This!

buy a smaller car - you don’t need to go round in a tractor size car

It's about both, and also being next to the path. I can get one kid out, they wait on path while I get next kid out, etc. I can't leave kids/toddlers/prams etc in the middle of the road area while I get the next one out.

Incidentally if I don't have my youngest with me I don't use P&C any more, as my two elder can get in and out by themselves. I just hold the door to avoid bumps/scratches. They are both well under the usual 12 year limit, but it's considerate to leave the P&C spaces for those who need help being lifted in/out of the car.

Yes! And the fact that supermarkets have different trolleys where you can put the travel seat on top of it, but those trolleys are always parked near the entrance, so that's where you need to park unless you're going to leave your kid in an unattended car to traipse across the car park to bring back a suitable trolley to put it in. (same at the end). Obviously not a problem when the kid is older and can be lifted separately into the typical/common kind of trolley, but you can't do that with a very young child!

Again, wish this was the case where we are! There just simply isn’t enough spaces at any of our supermarkets/shops really. The only place I drive to where I could say with almost certainty that I could find plenty space to park would be the local shopping centre which has a multi-storey car park so the top floor is perfect because while it’s further to walk to get in there is always plenty of space up there, so that’s what we do.

All of our supermarkets are literally always almost 100% full whether it’s Christmas Eve or 11am on a random Tuesday, there just isn’t enough spaces for the amount of people who drive now which is a problem entirely of its own, but does mean that where we are there really isn’t the “just park at the back” option.

If parking spaces were wider, there'd be fewer spaces so the problem would be worse.

Perhaps people need to actually think about car size when they choose to buy which car to buy. Yes, most cars are bigger these days, but you can still buy smaller cars if you bother to do some research. Trouble is too many people buy over-sized cars they don't actually need without thinking of the practicalities.

I personally don't care about the distance from the shop but I need the uhroom to get my kids out of the car.

Oh pull the other one, people always say this but it absolutely IS about the distance from the shop because unless it’s Christmas Eve, there’s usually always plenty of space at the back of the car park therefore making it a non issue yet it annoys you enough to not only start a thread about it but to also check all the windscreens to see if they’re displaying a blue badge once you’ve clocked they don’t have a child.

Not sure where you live that there is “always” plenty of space anywhere to be honest but I’m very jealous- certainly isn’t the case here!!

If it's really about space rather than being close to the shop, park at the far end of the carpark where there's always plenty of space.

Because families spend the most money so it’s a marketing ploy to get the to shop there. They aren’t enforceable in any way.

Which is fine if you have a newborn potato or a compliant little cherub, but if you've ever had to play extreme origami with a flailing octopus of a toddler then you need that door open!

I think this has become an issue more once travel systems become common, the taking the whole car seat out the car rather than the child has resulted in people needing to open their doors further. I was never a fan and if in a tight space would open the window and lift my child out through it and back in again 😂

I get annoyed when the parents picking up their children from a school round the corner use all the disabled parking spaces in the 3 shops round the corner. Then there is that many of them it takes half an hour to get out of the car parks because of the back up of parents cars at the traffic lights. Most of the parents are local and don't need to drive to pick up their children.

Sorry - this is totally irrelevant to OP, but I am on one today 😂

I mean, if I really try, I suppose I could, at a push, get mildly irritated. Not sure I can be bothered to though.

I can’t find myself giving a
toss. I never had them when my ds was younger and we coped.
However I’m also glad people park on them rather than the BB spaces because my ds cannot get outbid the car into his wheelchair in a normal space. An abode bodied child can 🤷‍♀️

Where I shop, a modern Lidl ( opened in 2020 ) they have made all the bays large enough to to be useful for all users. All the bays have the two line gap around them. Even if Im shopping in Tesco or going to catch a train, I park in Lidl and its the only car park guaranteed that you aren't going to get a trolly scraped against your car or a car door slammed against it

Cars have gotten bigger, it being a modern carpark the bays have caught up with that fact

It didn’t bother me so much when I only had 1 child because most of the time I could choose a bay at an edge so I could still get her out, now I have 2 under 2 so need to be able to get a child out of both doors it is a pet peeve of mine though 😂 I don’t care about being close to the door, I need the extra space!

I'll be honest, there have definitely been a couple of occasions when I've accidentally parked in the ones at my local supermarket, forgetting I don't have DS with me that day (95% of the time when I go there, he's with me) - it's force of habit to park in the same place. It's not something I'd ever deliberately choose to do but I don't think it's crime of the century.

Someone parking 10 inches beside your car has absolutely nothing to do with a parent’s ability to drive.

They are c you next Tuesdays, there’s no other way around it.

It’s incredibly awkward to lift young children up and manoeuvre them into modern car seats without any room to open the door.

Look the real problem is the UKs total inability to plan public spaces in any kind of decent way (example B. Toilets)

If regular car park spaces werent so stupidly small / awkward for moderm cars people likely wouldnt do this.
If P&C spaces were next to the entrance... people wouldnt fo this.

Our little yaris have been dented dinged and bashed more times than I care to think of.
i dont think its malice..... it thoughltessness plus lack of space.

If you just got a 40k/60k/80k car you dont want it getting bashed up so you nab a P&C space. You are feeling a bit lazy so you nab a P&c spot

The real villain is city planners / car park planners and friends

I say this as someone regularly twisting into pretzels trying to get a 2 and 3 yo in and out