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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this behaviour in the supermarket carpark was wrong

192 replies

Jusfloatingby · 11/04/2012 11:03

I was up at the supermarket earlier and a huge row was going on outside the supermarket. Apparently a mother with two small kids was furious that someone without children had taken the last P&C space and had just blocked him in and gone off to do her shopping. As a result she was causing a huge obstruction for other customers trying to drive up to the exit and was also impeding the view of other cars trying to reverse out of their spaces.
AIBU to feel that she was taking the situation waaay too seriously and should have just gone off and parked somewhere else.

OP posts:
toobreathless · 11/04/2012 15:57

Oh & I admit I wanted to show her off in Sainsburys. She was my PFB & it was lovely, everyone wanted to have a look.

Sparklingbrook · 11/04/2012 16:00

Grin It was straight home for me, I looked and felt a wreck. Sad

Katiepoes · 11/04/2012 16:14

You wanted to walk around a supermarket one day after giving birth? I didn't want to walk to the kitchen for a week!

Does not excuse being an arse to that woman. So she was a pain - how does being horrible to her make him the bigger man? Same as OP's woman - doesn't matter what the P&C space stealer did, she did not make it better. We learned this at school people - two wrongs do not make a right. When did righteous arseholery become okay?

snapsnap · 11/04/2012 16:17

I cant see the reason for Parent and Child spaces. I have never once parked in one and I have 2 small DC.
If this was a disabled spot then fine but really having small children does not entitle you to behave in this way

Pendeen · 11/04/2012 16:29

"... As a result she was causing a huge obstruction for other customers trying to drive up to the exit and was also impeding the view of other cars trying to reverse out of their spaces ..."

She sounds like a complete fool.

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 11/04/2012 16:44

You would think so , snapsnap. But it is amazing the number of parents who will defend to the death their right to a space by the door and will brook no argument regardless of anyone else's circumstances. Not so much talking about this thread but I have seen some really horrible and disgraceful views on another forum, including a load of posters jeering at someone who said she had recently had major surgery and felt it wouldn't be out of order for her to use one of those spaces until she was a bit stronger. She was basically told that if she was well enough to drive to the supermarket she was well enough to carry her shopping across the car park. Sad

OP posts:
gettingeasier · 11/04/2012 16:56

Extrordinary behaviour , I would have been livid with someone parking dangerously because shes having a little tantrum about not getting a P&C space.

I bet most of those stamping their little feet about this would still seek to park nearest to the supermarket entrance rather than P&C spaces if they were put further away.

bejeezus · 11/04/2012 17:16

How do you know the size of the feet of the peoples on this thread?

RubyFakeNails · 11/04/2012 17:19

I hate this p&c space business.

The shop I go to has a small carpark but an entire wall of them but they are no wider than a normal space, if ones free I park there and stroll in carefree. Its only since I joined mumsnet did I realise people had ishoooos over them.

What a load of utter bollocks its an effing car park space. Only a few weeks ago another woman and I got the last 2 spaces, in the entire car park which both happened to be p&c. As I'm getting out I see a woman yelling out her window about how she has, heaven forbid, children with her. the other lady and I gave each other knowing looks and cackled as we walked in.

I mean really blocking that man in was just an act of insanity, and she probably only did it because she was in a mood about something else. She's lucky he didn't key her or car or something. I certainly would have considered giving it a good kick if I was him.

exoticfruits · 11/04/2012 18:00

I would take them all away when people have such a sense of entitlement and think that they are as important as disabled spaces-we could get back to the way it was.
I would most definitely put them on the far side from the shops (but the same side so they don't have to cross roads. They need space to open the doors-nothing more.

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 11/04/2012 23:32

I agree. If parents can't play nicely and learn to share then it should all go back in the box and no one will get to have it.

OP posts:
EldritchCleavage · 12/04/2012 12:51

Ah, but if P&C spaces are removed then the super-entitled pfb brigade will probably resort to parking in disabled spaces (whcih is probably why P&C spaces were introduced in the first place).

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 12/04/2012 16:07

Too true, Eldritch. And if a disabled person objects they will be told airily that if they're able to drive to the supermarket, they should be able to get themselves across the carpark. Sad

OP posts:
CheeseandPickledOnion · 12/04/2012 16:37

What a ridiculous over reaction. The P&C marked spaces are a request for only P&C to park there. There's no legality behind it. It's possible they could fine someone, but again that can be ignored as they can't legally enforce it.

I don't generally use those spaces, but I have and I would again. If I spend 5 minutes driving around the car park and the only available space is P&C I'm going to take it. Sorry.

CremeEggThief · 12/04/2012 17:37

The woman was wrong to inconvenience everyone else. But, if there had been a way of blocking the man in without it affecting lots of others, she would have been right to do what she did, IMO.

Sabriel · 12/04/2012 17:40

The only people who actually need P&T spaces are those with a baby in a rear-facing seat, or who are so very pregnant that they can't get back into the car when blocked in. So perhaps shops should cut down the number of spaces supplied, restrict them to just those 2 categories of people, and police it. Then they could make all the rest of the spaces big enough to get into and open a door.

I'm afraid I really don't get this argument about elderly people and those having had surgery needing to be by the door (non BB holders). Once you've got inside you have no choice but to undertake a long walk. If you aren't capable of walking across the car park then you aren't capable of walking round the shop.

I had major surgery a year ago and couldn't walk far, but didn't go to the supermarket because I couldn't walk around once inside. Bread and milk is always furthest away from the door.

Now I can walk again I'm more than happy to park far away from the door. But I can guarantee that wherever I park someone will squeeze in next to me. Invariably they reverse in too, so that they are at an even more awkward angle all the better for denting my door I once drove into a total empty car park and parked in the first aisle but towards the end furthest away from the shop. As we were walking away from the car, some old fart one else drove in, and parked next to me. DH had to physically stop me from going over to ask him WTF he thought he was doing.

LesAnimaux · 12/04/2012 17:49

Is it a human right to park in a P&C space if you have DC then?

LesAnimaux · 12/04/2012 17:50

"The only people who actually need P&T spaces are those with a baby in a rear-facing seat"

I was going to agree, then thought actually, it's only people with either no internet access or no bank account (or both).

Shop on-line, people.

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 12/04/2012 18:20

sabriel I agree that a space by the door isnt essential for elderly or those recovering from surgery, just as it isn't essential for parents with small children. But it does make it a little bit easier if you don't have to walk too far from your car to and from the shop, especially if you're carrying a bag of shoppingk so I see no need why those people shouldn't have equal access to a space near the door without having to apologise for it. Just a bit of give and take really.

OP posts:
EldritchCleavage · 12/04/2012 23:32

Sabriel that happens to me in cinemas: the place is empty apart from me, I'm sitting by myself at the side, and people come and sit around me. Why? Is it some weird herd instinct people have?

The solution to all this is for everyone to make bigger car parking spaces, so we don't have to park hefty modern cars in spaces designed for Hillman Imps.

Morloth · 13/04/2012 00:41

Imagine how mind numbingly dull you/your life has to be to give even the slightest fuck either way about P&C places.

JustHecate · 13/04/2012 07:00

I think you were highly unreasonable to not abandon your shopping when you heard the announcement, go back to the scene of the crime and take copious notes for mumsnet.

You gave us half a story.

This is unacceptable Grin

bejeezus · 13/04/2012 09:50

What morloth said! Grin

duckdodgers · 13/04/2012 10:46

The majority of people without children that I have saw in P&C spaces arent elderly, disabled etc - they are young guys driving fancy cars who clearly dont want their precious sports car at risk of damage from someone elses door in a normal space. Thats selfish - regardless of whether some people disagree with the purpose of these spaces in the first place.

Pendeen · 13/04/2012 12:00

"... But, if there had been a way of blocking the man in without it affecting lots of others, she would have been right to do what she did, IMO .."

That's an awful thing to suggest.

Even the owner of the land has no right to detain someone's property so she certainly does not.