NOT to wear a big red "disabled" badge on my forhead ...

[twilight3]

...in order to park where I'm entitled to.

I mean, I have my DVLA thingy on my car and everything, I might not look disabled when I walk (apart from the snail speed and the excruciating pain had it not been for elephant painkillers), but my mobility is restricted and it will keep getting worse. The less I walk, the less the pain I have to deal with in the night.

I just got yelled at today after pulling into a diabled spot by a mother with a child in a wheelchair, and I almost found myself in tears. I don't have to sit there and explain my medical history to a stranger who was having a bad day and decided to take it out on me. And I know it's frustrating when you can't park near the shop because all the spots have been taken by inconsiderate bds.

But to be yelled at??? Just because my disability is not very visible (yet)? At the end of the day, if you're really pissed off, go look at the car. See no badge, call the police, call the shop manager, don't make such a scene, you cow. It was so embarrassing, I don't go around advertising I'm sick. People gathered around as I walked off and someone actually looked at my car and said "what's the problem, she has a badge". And that woman said, "she WHAT? Oh, I see, she's one of those"

I've been crying all afternoon :-(

I'm like you in that I don't look disabled, but I am (very).

There have been so many times when I have asked for a seat, or some help, in an emergency, and people have been so, so kind and caring.

It is only a very few people who would yell at you like this horrible person, so please try to not let her get to you.

Mostly, people are absolutely lovely.

If it happens again, my advice would be just shake your head sadly and say you hope she never gets what you've got, and wander off looking saintly.

This is an awful thing for you to experience what a nasty woman she is, and you should not think you should explain your medical history to her, she obviously thinks she is the only disabled woman in the village/ town.I have decided she is actually mad and is mentel or has mentle issues,also i think she should be sectioned.Why dont you print all these comments off put them all in a large envelope and hand them to it,hopefully she will never come out of her house ever again.thus making the world a better place.I do feel sorry for her daughter and lets hope she grows up quickly and never sees her horrible mother again.

Twighlight, poor you, what a horrible experience.

I don't know where you live, but here in S London, unfortunately there is a terrible problem with people using stolen Blue Badges, and using a relative's one (without relative pesent) just to make life easier / cheaper - because parking is hard to find and meters are extremely expensive.

I am well aware that many disabilities are not visible, but I am suprised that so many members of the fooball teams that play in Brockwell and Dulwich Parks have BBs and yet leap out looking v muscular and sprint across to the pitches....while I have been left with nowhere to park and unload DS's wheelchair.

I wish that councils would do more official checking of BB use, so that bossy busybody people like the woman you came across don't have to take it upon their ignorant selves.

Twilight
I've had it too and on a regular basis. On one occasion a creep screetched his fancy jag right up behind my car as I was unloading the kids. In front of a queue waiting to use the cash machine he screamed "F**kin hell. Just cos the kid spaces are full dont mean you can park here you lazy cow!!" I was grabbed my blue badge from the car and slapped it on his (now tightly shut) window. "I'm entitled to park here mate, are you?" I said loudly. He couldnt reverse quick enough! People in the queue said "Well done love" but I was shaking. Better still, as we shopped my DD1 shouted and pointed,"There's that naughty man who shouted at you before."
I hope he will think twice before being so rude but I doubt it.
Have some good comebacks ready for when it happens again because it will. It seems that a growing minority of strangers feel they are qualified to comment on others.

I know this is a generalisation but it is usually the elderly that have a go. I have a disabled badge and a very visable disability. Sometimes I drive, sometimes its dh. Whenever, we pull into a disabled space (with badge showing) we always get filthy looks from the elderly people parking there, I suppose it's because they think we are too young to have a badge.
I always love the looks on their faces when they see a wheelchair!!

i remember one time when I was preg with dd, I went shopping and there were no disabled spaces, including many cars parked in the spaces woithout badges. I looked for a 'normal' space on the end of a row but couldn't find one. I need a wider space or I literally cannot get out of the car. In the end I had no choice but to park in parent and child. But I felt so guilty about it!! I really felt that it was wrong!! As I parked the car a mum walked past and I apologised to her for parking there!! She was really nice and wasn't bothered at all, but I felt really bad!!

What a cow! I would have told her to mind her own business. How rude!