AIBU to hope to use dd's blue badge without getting snidey remarks?

[cupofteaplease]

Dd3 has a blue badge because she is on continuous oxygen which is quite bulky and cumbersome to manoeuvre in and out of the caring tight parking spaces.

I have only used a disabled space on a few occasions (we have only had the badge for a week) but on a couple of occasions I've had people tutting and eye rolling at me.

One lady even called out from her car, 'You don't look very disabled to me!'

I wasn't expecting this- was I naive or AIBU to hope to use dd's blue badge in peace?

I would always park in a proper place rather than a yellow line,
can't see the problem.

Because if there is limited parking (3 spaces, town centre) and the BB gives someone the right to park on yellow lines,( so freeing up the Pay&Display meters.) why park on meters?

It wasn't as though they would be further away

because you can and have equal right to,
I really don't get your problem, people should only park on yellow lines as a last resort, and you can get a ticket if the trafic warden deems you to be causing an obstruction.

you seriously think blue badge holders who park in metered spaces are doing it for some sort of twisted revenge? You have a weird way of thinking, is all i can say

patti sorry the example I gave was meant to relate just to my mum and why she won't even apply. If course not the only reason for a bb, but just why she does need one but too intimidated to apply.

Apparently some LA more supportive than others, do becoming a post code lottery whether you can get one or not. And while applying is cheap, they request letters from medical people who acn charge for those letters.

I do think that people I'm the UK are a bit obsessive about parking

"Hiya, just thought I'd let you know you haven't put your badge on, someone got charged here last week because they had accidently left it in the glove box, so thought I'd let you know so you could pop yours on" :)

No one's said anything to me yet, I'm quite disappointed.
I might sprint into Asda tomorrow after parking in a BB space, just to see what happens.

Actually my husband said the other day while we were looking to park in Brighton, there was a side road that had a few disabled bays and the rest of the street had double yellow lines which we can park on anyway with a BB, makes you wonder why they don't just put disabled bays along the whole road or yellow lines considering it makes no difference!

My husband was dying and was to come home. He couldn't walk far but had a BB. His brother was travelling 45 miles to come to take him home (because his car was the right sort). We arranged that I would take the BB with me to the hospital, my BiL would park in a disabled space in thecar park, race to DH's room, collect the BB fro me and race back to his car to put it where it could be seen. It worked and my DH came home safely after being wheelchaired to the car. It also meant that my BiL didn't have to pay £2.50.

Comment "You don't look disabled"
Response "You don't look stupid, funny how deceptive appearances can be, isn't it"

Because if there is limited parking (3 spaces, town centre) and the BB gives someone the right to park on yellow lines,( so freeing up the Pay&Display meters.) why park on meters?

Because they can park on the yellow lines (possibly, depending on loading rules) for up to 3 hours, providing they aren't causing an obstruction. They can park in a space with a meter for as long as they like.

I'm still not buying the 'doing our bit to protect the rights of disabled people' argument though. In my experience people only stand up to police disabled access when it's about a parking space that someone else might be getting that they're not. When it's about being denied access for something they're getting, they don't give a hoot.

Where was all the righteous indignation from the numerous able bodied witnesses when I got thrown out of an extremely well known tourist attaction on account of being disabled?

Where was all the righteous indignation from the numerous able bodied witnesses when I'm being mocked and belittled in the queue in Sainsbury's on account of being disabled?

And where was all the righteous indignation from the bus full of able bodied witnesses when I was being abused and spat at on account of being disabled?

Right there, looking the other way because they think it's none of their business. That's where. It only becomes their business when they think I'm getting something that they're not.

I sometimes get huffing and puffing when I take ds1 to the beach then climb up to get my surfboard. Especially in the summer (which is when we really need the disabled bay). I ignore it tbh. In the 7 years we've had the badge I've always followed the rules so if someone doesn't like it they can fuck off tbh. I used to feel it was my duty to educate people we met. I no longer do.

No, the correct response is, "Don't I? What does a disabled person look like then?"

Well quite, Kladkakka :(

Many people can be obnoxious moron's with nothing better to do with their lives than to poke their nose into other peoples business. Tell them that they what obnoxious morons they are and ask how they can be so stupid to make assumptions.

Or just be jusifibly rude yourself, yell things like 'fuck off you worthless cunt', 'go fucking kill yourself before another word comes out of that ignorant mouth of yours or I'll do it for you', 'fuck off', 'you looking for a fight bitch?'. It works.

I like the response 'well you don't look ignorant, appearances can be deceptive' too but have not had cause to use it yet. I look fine very often but when I use a bb space I am usually in a pretty poor state, if I'm on a good day I will use a normal space mainly, depends how far it is - even on good days I can't walk very far.

It doesn't come up too often. I've given up shopping. Too much.

Cupoftea - YANBU. It's horrible what happened. I'm so glad Bea is doing OK.

We were using the tailgate on the minibus to get our pupils in wheelchairs back onto the bus the other day when a car pulled up alongside us. The driver got out and demanded to know if we were disabled or not because she had "a blue badge, don't you know? Do you have one?".

Um...yes and err, yes.

I think there are a minority of people out there who think children can't possibly need a blue badge and then there are just those who have a huge feeling of self importance.

I don't have a BB and don't know anyone that has need for one. I judge people when I walk into Tesco and they are parked in the disabled bays but only if they don't have a badge. I would never presume to know everyone's circumstances. I'm not sure I would comment on it either, but it really annoys me that someone might need that space that a bone-idle person has taken.

I used to work in Costco and as part of my job I stood by the cars that were in bays allocated disabled and challenged the drivers when they came out. I actually can't remember a time when they did have a BB and just hadn't displayed it! (BTW - didn't do anything, just hoped being asked about it would shame them into not doing it again.)

I used to go to a local gym for my pulmonary rehab classes.

There were 3 disabled parking spaces. They were always - always - full. But never with BB users. Not a badge in sight.

I brought it up with the staff, making the point that people coming for pulmonary rehab were often likely to be BB users.

They said there was nothing they could do - it was privately owned and they could not intervene, apparently. They said the car park was always full and what did we expect people to do?

There was a huge retail park right next to it - literally down a flight of steps - where there was always hundreds of spaces in the day.

But no, people couldn't possibly park so far from the gym where they were going to get fit, could they?

The physios arranged an alternative venue. The parking issue was only one way that particular gym showed no help whatsoever to people with disabilities.

Yanbu. Judicious use of f's is a wholly reasonable response.

Or as I've heard said on mumsnet, 'Fuck off!' is a complete sentence. :o