To park in parent and child spaces if there are no disabled ones free?

[immortalbeloved]

I know I know, I'm sorry for another P&C space thread

I'm really really not trying to start the whole debate up again, I know it's been done to death

Genuine question though, AIBU to park in one if there isn't a disabled space free? Normally I use a disbled space (I have a blue badge) or sometimes P&C space if I've got one or more of the children with me. But today I needed to go somewhere and didn't have any children with me, when I got there the only space free close enough for me was P&C so I used it.

But I was given several dirty looks by mums with toddlers and one was going to approach me to 'set me straight' but her friend stopped her

So was I really out of order? Or is it an ok thing to do?

YANBU to do it but did you need to post on MN to ask the question?

How many able bodied parents do you think are likely to storm up to you and demand you move?

If you reasonably need easy access then just use your common sense and park there.

If you are one of those twats who have purchased a badge off t'internet then fuck right off!

That is a bit harsh Trop. Lots of people get silly about parking spaces-it seems a good idea to ask.

It drives me MAD when people park in P&C spaces when they have no child (or when they have a child in the car who stays in the car and one parent pops in for something - just as bad IMO)

BUT for me, that never ever applies to anyone with a blue badge. Blue badges are given to people who need them - none of my business why. It enables the holder to, as far as i know, park anywhere. Even on double yellow lines. And therefore in P&C spaces. P&C spaces are not a legal right, they are a courtesy.

YANBU - please park in P&C anytime you need to. DD and I appreciate the P&C spaces and they make my life easier but they are not essential. I just wish supermarkets would throw out the idiots who do not have a blue badge and abuse P&C and sometimes even disabled spaces.

Herbietea, fair enough. Like I said, I was refering to the minority of cases.

But can you really not see at all how it might be harder for one Mum with two or three small children to walk across a busy car park than it would be for my healthy fil to be comfortably pushed by someone else across a busy car park?

come push my dd's bloody heavy wheelchair across the car park, I think you will soon eat your words

isn't the point that disabled spaces have to be provided by law; P+C parking is just what supermarkets do to make you think they are all mushy and that they love you, rather than being hard-headed capitalists working out the best way to part you from your cash (P+C parking, perhaps?)

I'm a P&C vigilante as well but my bugbear with them is that whatever the rights and wrongs of them they are intended for a certain type of customer and if you are not that type of customer then you are not entitled to park there and you should feck off out of them.

The crucial thing here is that blue badge holders are entitled. So no, YANBU to park there.

MrsArchChancellor

It drives me mad when people think they can marry wizards it's not allowed.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE your name!!!!

No piscesmoon, it is harsh to get silly over a parking space that a disabled person needs.

MN primadonnas get so territorial over 'their' spaces when actually these spaces are not a right just a courtesy and those in genuine need should not have to ask 'permission' on a web forum ffs!

''come push my dd's bloody heavy wheelchair across the car park, I think you will soon eat your words''

Erm, no. I won't. I have made it clear that I'm taking about an individual case that I have personal knowledge of, and that I'm not generalising.

but sorry it doesn't work does it

Eh?

Back when I was allowed out to deal with the public I used to take great delight in writing up tickets for abuse of disabled parking bays.

P&C spaces however are a marketing gimmick. Hell, I'll happily use them if they're free (and my kids are a lot older than 12).

Anyone who thinks P&C spaces are even close to being on a par with disabled bays is a moron who probably shouldn't be let out on their own.

I have 3 under 5 and really appreciate P&T spaces. The real benefit is the space around them not their proximity to the shop. I hated the idea of leaving a baby in the trolley at the back of the car whilst trying to strap in a 16mth old and keep hold of a 3yr old. If they were further away I'd still use them and they'd be less open to abuse.

However, as I said earlier, I would still manage to get out and do my shopping with all 3 in tow. Not possible if you either need space for wheelchair access or chest/heart problems mean you cannot walk from further back. There is a need for P&T spaces but the level of need is nowhere need that required by BB holders. Which is why their rights are backed by the law.

Truth is, it's the same tossers who abuse both, whinge about the government (whoever's in charge) and live in their own little bubble of self-absorbed crap.

But, looktowindward, why would you use them when you don't need them? Regardless of their origin, for a parent like me who had 3 under 3.5, they were a Godsend. It made shopping safer and easier.

Quite clearly, the need is not on a par with that of the disabled, as I said, and anyone who thinks that is ridiculous. But why would you use something you don't need when clearly so many people need them more?

But all this distracts from the OP who clearly is not BU.

YANBU- and yes, I am another parking space vigilante- both P&C and disabled spaces. If there are no disabled spaces it's perfectly reasonable for a blue-badge holder to park in P&C (although it does annoy me slightly when there are plenty of disabled parking spaces and they use P&C!)

However! I reserve my thinnest lipped look for people who have no badge and are clearly not disabled who park in the disabled spaces. I often challenge them- even although on one occasion it almost ended in the offender getting in a brawl with DH- although all I did was ask him very politely if he was aware that he had parked in a space reserved for disabled people, whereupon he threatened to punch DH . DH was mad at me, because "it was none of our business", but if noone ever challenges these people they will just carry on . My mum was disabled and I know that sometimes if we were unable to get a disabled space we had to just go home, so I get truly angry when I see them being abused, much more so than P&C!

I seem to be of the misunderstanding that p&t spaces were designed so that there was a straight-forward path to the door of the shop with safety being paramount rather than space. yes it does bug me when people who don't have young (and I mean children under about 7) use them in the local shopping centre as I have to guide my inquisitive DS1 age 3 through a mine-field of people who use their mirrors for makeup/optional extras rather than looking behind them. the p&t spaces have a path directly to the door (and are further away the the disabled bays)

It is illegal to park in disabled bays without a blue badge. enough said.

I went to my local NEXT sale a few weeks ago. This is in an out of town retail park. I counted ten empty disabled bays. There were no other spaces available and there were several cars queueing for spaces on a one in one out basis. I went home. Jooly this happens to able bodied folks too- if there isn't a space I either have to go home or wait.

Where do I stand in people's eyes then? I do not have a blue badge, however I rely on elbow crutches to walk and if I have someone with me (to lift it out of the car) use a wheelchair.

The only place I ever park in a disabled space is at DD's school, and that only because the teacher and head have told me too. And I only park there if there is at least one other disabled space free.

If I am on my own - say DD is at school - I don't park in P&C spaces anywhere because of the wrath of the zealots. Should I just say, stuff you and use them or keep parking in normal bays where I struggle to get in and out of the car?

I thought if you had a disabled badge you can park anywhere including double yellows.

If that's true then YANBU.

Anybody who has a problem with a blue badge holder using a p&c space should be taken out back and kicked repeatedly until they temporarily need a blue badge, then they'll shut the fuck up.

Oh and this nonsense above..
"I went to my local NEXT sale a few weeks ago. This is in an out of town retail park. I counted ten empty disabled bays. There were no other spaces available and there were several cars queueing for spaces on a one in one out basis. I went home. Jooly this happens to able bodied folks too- if there isn't a space I either have to go home or wait."

Or you could park somewhere else and walk, or get a bus, or you know, go somewhere else? Boo fucking hoo for the able-bodied person.

Man o man driving a car gives some people a personality transplant and a bizarre sense of entitlement

disabled parking bays are for those who need it, and furthermore they can park wherever they like

Some 'prize' eh? Some 'perk' indeed

I don't think Curlymamma is being unreasonable to say that there can be individual cases (and she knows two) where the disabled person's need might for the space near the store might not be as great as the need for a parent to use that space.

She's made it clear that she is not generalising, and believes that, in general, the disabled driver or passenger's needs should take priority over the needs of the parent and their children. It is also clear to me that, in at least one of the cases she is talking about, the disabled person is happy to use an ordinary parking space and be wheeled across the carpark - and surely this is what will happen most of the time - if there aren't any free disabled spaces, the disabled driver will decide for themselves whether they need to use the P&C space - and if they do decide they need it, that is fine and no-one should object - but equally if they decide they don't need to use it, that should be fine too!

I would never have a problem with a disabled person using a parent and child parking space