Disabled parking badges are for the designated places NOT where the hell you like

[lilmissminx]

Really need a vent! Am sick to death of seeing cars parked in the parent and baby/toddler spaces just because they have a blue badge, and not a child in sight The other way around and you wouldn't hear the end of it about inconsiderate parents etc. I fully agree with the need for the disabled spaces etc, but I don't like having to choose between leaving my baby locked in the car to return the trolley (especially if out of sight) and him getting totally soaked etc if I take him with me.
Disclaimer This is made more annoying for the particular store I am referring to as there are only 2 parent spaces, and more than a dozen disabled badge holder ones. Yet because the parent ones are in between the two sets, they use those and leave all the other badge spaces empty.

That article that someone posted on here a while ago about new parents having such a sense of entitlement is maybe not as cynical as I thought at the time!

Mass illiteracy strikes mumsnet. It seems that there is a militant blue badge brigade out there suffering an inability to read/comprehend. There have been reasonable comments, such as blue badge holders not realising that there are differently marked spaces in between the disabled parking spaces. It is also more reasonable to be annoyed at the poor car park planning than at those who unnecessarily occupy the P&C spaces.
To all those criticising the OP, you would have been right to criticise if the OP had been saying that P&C spaces are more important than, or even equally as important as disabled spaces. If she'd complained about blue badgers using P&C spaces in addition to the full disabled spaces. However, this was not the case. You've responded to the rant with mean-spirited and misdirected bile. More fool you.
Given the exact nature of your rant, OP, YANBU.
(I speak as a non car owner who regularly shops at big supermarkets with small children in tow, by foot.)

I would be happy to sign up for an illiterate blue badge brigade. They sound quite entertaining.

Better than the snidey smart arse wanker brigade.

herecomes thank you for that. Its one of those MN phrases that I saw often but couldnt quite understand

Oh yes corvax the buggy of doom. One hand removed, one bag badly balanced and whooooooosh your precious child flies backwards at the speed of light.

Mine got quite used to it and used to wait patiently, staring at the sky, until I picked them up.

You can buy 'tip me nots' which are like those wrist weights. You put them on the wheels to stop the buggy falling backwards.

I thought well yes good for that but wont they make the buggy even heavier to push?

I only have to drive past Holloway Prison to be flung back( like my children in their buggy) to those far off days of hunched pushing up the hill.

Maybe, just maybe it is because we remember how much harder it was without P&C spaces, buses that take unfolded buggies, special trollies, changing rooms etc that we appreciate them just that bit more?

I think they are good things and I am glad that parents of our generation (dare i say) made a big enough fuss for them to be introduced. But to be honest I am a bit emabarressed by the whole thing now.

If you think the threads on MNs are bad you want to have a quick google and see what you come up with on other parenting forums.

Would make your hair curl.

"Mass illiteracy strikes mumsnet."

I assume you are including yourself in that comment? The OP was complaining about disabled badge holders parking in P&C spaces. Something they are perfectly entitled to do, whether they have children or not. She was wrong.

The OP was saying "Am sick to death of seeing cars parked in the parent and baby/toddler spaces just because they have a blue badge, and not a child in sight" Blue badge holders can park there, they can park where ever is easiest for them, its not a sense of entitlement, its the whole point of having a blue badge.

OP was saying "The other way around and you wouldn't hear the end of it about inconsiderate parents etc" because people without a blue badge cannot park in disabled bays.

OP was saying "I don't like having to choose between leaving my baby locked in the car to return the trolley (especially if out of sight) and him getting totally soaked etc if I take him with me" You can hardly compare this 'need' to having a life long disability. People with a blue badge have to met the following criteria to get a blue badge.

1. You are unable to walk.
2. You are virtually unable to walk.
3. The exertion required to walk would constitute a danger to your life or would be likely to lead to a serious deterioration in your health.
4. You have no legs or feet (from birth or through amputation).
5. You are both deaf and blind.
6. You are severely mentally impaired with extremely disruptive and dangerous behavioural problems.

I cant see anything reasonable about the OP. I can understand why people have got a bit irate.

I think the law says that anyone is entitled to park in P&C spaces doesnt it?

Or rather there are no laws that say they cannot. Because P&C spaces are a marketing gimmick and not a human right.

Is that literate enough for you?

Can I just answer one question mentioned about two pages ago. You can use the Blue Badge when you don't have the Blue Badge holder in the car and I do it very often myself. Sometimes getting tutts and dirty looks because the tutters and lookers haven't realised that my severely disabled mother, has gone out as in her head she is still 22 and she can, then runs completely out of breathe, literally can't walk any further, often gets disorientated and is stuck where she stops.

All of the local shops know to call me, if she stops before the shops I've been called by the CPO, that one ended up in hospital, and I drive to the nearest place, use the Blue Badge, run out of the car, in a very non disabled way, hence the tuts, then assess whether Mum just needs a lift home and a rest, to get checked at the GPs or admittance to hospital depending on how bad she is.

So if you see a fit and healthy person with a Blue Badge parking on double yellows or disabled bays, it may not ALWAYS be someone abusing the badge but someone who is in desperate need of it.

'One hand removed, one bag badly balanced and whooooooosh your precious child flies backwards at the speed of light.

Mine got quite used to it and used to wait patiently, staring at the sky, until I picked them up.'

Oh what a flashback moment MDV!
It was the lack of surprise, and the air of resignation on the face of my toddler that stays with me.

Meant to say then get mum into the car and take her to where she needs to be, hence the need for the BB.

Mitmoo, just to clarify you are saying you use the BB for journeys which involve your mum?

sorry you can't use a BB unless the person is in the car, you can't use a DB unless the person is in the car either, the BB belongs to the person not the car.

Can you develop illiteracy?

[ponders going to stand in the rain to see if ability to read evaporates on exposure to water]

You can go and pick someone up though cant you?

Like if you were picking them up as Mitmoo describes or from a hosptial appt?

I am pretty sure you can use it then. If you cant, you should be able to.

so we are now illiterate bullies
what ever next

[Boollies 2shoos ilituratly]

YANBU I think. It would be VERY different indeed if this was the other way around. I also think that the idea is to allow everyone to co-exist in peace, so you have spaces..less for baby/family and more disabled spaces..which is fair at one level. But I have had the same problem at my local store and its frustrating..because if there is no space in the disabled lot..I will quite happily allow blue badge holders to park in mommy spaces for their convenience, which i see is more important than mine and I am quite okay with that

..but when there are empty spaces for for blue badge holders and they come and park in the 2 mommy spaces..it makes me mad. this sense of entitlement and 'watch what you say because I am disabled' makes me mad. It would be nice if we could all be helpful to each other but its not nice when its a one way street due to political correctness which is expected out of us.

mommy spaces wtf is that, do we have daddy space too\

sorry but pmsl at mn today

"I will quite happily allow blue badge holders to park in mommy spaces for their convenience"

You will "allow" them? How generous of you.

what happens if the person is a mommy or a doddy, do you allow them