to think parent and child spaces

[ScarlettAlexandra]

should be just that. not for any one else.

i don't even care that they are not by the door but having the extra space at the side is a safety issue especially when your like me and have two little ones and have to strap one in while the other is in a buggy or trolley. i have list count if the amount of times i have seen people (usually the elderly with no blue badge) using them.

gets my goat.

lol at littlemrs!!!!

2shoes, don't forget, I live in Sweden. I could leave my badge in a bus shelter and someone would ring me up to ensure it got back to me.

I dont like the whole I managed in my day arguement either. Yes you did, good for you, aren't you great. That doesnt mean that I have to park in a small space if there's a large space available, that would be silly. However, I dont mind if there are no P and C spaces.

Cor blimey Kladdkaka, where's the drool emoticon for your gardeners?!? I'm orf to bed before me eyes pop clean out me 'ead...

The 'I managed in my day argument' is both patronizing and flawed - unless you have all handed back your washing machines and flush toilets. This facility is now available - why do you so resent other women having access to something that can make their day a little easier? Why does it annoy you so much that every time this topic comes up you rush in here to let other women know how entitled and spoilt and undeserving they are?

Ds is now 16months old and I don't need to use the P and C parking but when he was tiny and in his capsule the only way I could get him out of the car was to fully open the back door, something I could not do in a normal width carpspace. You may argue capsules/cars are too big these days but I am not responsible for the design of these products. I do not set the market I merely purchase from it.

When I had just had DS, and was naive as to the practical benefits of P and C parking I once parked in a standard carspot in my standard sized (non 4 wheel drive) car, with an empty space beside it on the passengers side, right down the back of the carpark, but sod's law dictated by the time I got back that empty space had been taken. In order to get my child back into the car I had to leave him in the trolley pushed up tight against the boot of the other car (not enough room between cars to pull the trolley up between them) whilst I reversed out. Leaving my tiny newborn in a trolley, unattended is not something I will ever do again no matter how much it annoys some of you.

Our second is due in a couple of months and whilst that baby is in a capsule I will be using P and C parking. Further I will only shop at places who provide them - purely in the hope that increasing customer patronage sees stores create more and more PC parking - resulting in some of you being driven to the ultimate in distraction :) I am envisioning swathes and swathes of these carparks, absolute acres of them, a veritable sea of P and C parking. :o

And that's fair enough. You would manage without them if you had to. It's not like you'd be physically incapable of caring for your child and taking them out if there were no P&C spaces but, like you say, they're there and they do make things easier. There's nothing wrong with something that makes things less tricky, but there's also nothing wrong with pointing out that they aren't actually a need.

However, they'd be better further away from the entrance. They don't need to be next to the doors. They can be at the furthest point away from the store. Then only people who truly only needed to use them because it is the extra space they need would use them.

Of course, the best thing would be for all car park spaces to be wide enough. They are just so tiny. But most places will never do that because they'd never reduce the number of spaces they can fit in.

The P&C spaces are FOR parents and children that's the point they aren't for elderly people and there are seperate spaces for disabled badge holders. Who cares if you can cope in a normal space a parent with children is entitled to that space and has priority.

Surely they are for anyone who needs a bit more space to get out. So sorry my 94 year old dad who uses 2 walking sticks but can't get a blue badge as his condition comes and goes, gets in your way on the odd occasion he goes to Tesco.

Maryz, I think that might be accompanied by another prize for 'Most Shamelessly Appropriate User Name'.

disabled people actually have priority over parents in PT spaces.

I thought that supermarket car parks were the property of the supermarket and it is up to them who parks where. I vaguely remember years ago that Sainsburys would fine people who parked in P & C spaces without a child in tow. Of course most supermarkets don't enforce their own parking 'rules'.

I thought the only legal obligation was that a certain number of spaces had to be provided for disabled people.

If this country adopted the American style of carparking (Fishbone) there would no longer be an issue. Everyone would be able to drive straight in and open the rear doors fully. There would be fewer accidents and fewer rants.

Oh FGS! Having kids in your car doesn't not give you any more rights than anyone else. Supermarkets provide special spaces for your car because it makes them look good and might in theory encourage parents to use their store. You have no legal right to exclusive use of these spaces. And I very much doubt supermarket managers are going to make any effort to defend your rights to use them to the exclusion of anyone else. If they are free use one, if they aren't, go to another space. If there are 30 spaces and you are the 31st parent with small kids to arrive you won't get a space. Would that really inconvenience you less than if the last space was taken by an elderly couple who struggle to get about? If it's a matter of principle I suggest you learn the meaning of the word 'compassion'.

Does it make that much difference to the amount of space between the cars though?

What did all those parents do before parent and child spaces began popping up in a grand marketting scheme to get parents into the store and spending more money?

That's very pretty Maryz... Is there a square on the Bingo card for that

"You have a lot of extra room to manouvre, unless you are a fuckwit of course."

Ahhh.....

I do have a new car that seems a lot bigger than the old one so I might have temporary fuckwit status when it comes to parking....

Personally I think children should be banned from supermarkets anyway, definitely at peak times anyway they just hoon around the place screaming anyway; the kids don't look happy, the parents don't look happy, the other shoppers don't look happy...

Then no-one needs to "rest" their car door against mine like the fool who I caught doing it last week wedging it against my car with her fat arse.

I've always managed to get SK's out of our car from when the youngest was a baby without damaging anyone elses property or having a hissy fit cos I can't park inside the shop.