To think about standing in the Tesco car park...

[ElphabaTheGreen]

...wearing a sandwich board saying:

PARENT AND CHILD SPACES ARE NOT FOR LARDY-ARSES WITH TEENAGERS.

I literally cannot get my baby out of the car if I don't have the extra space. Unlike Miss Thang going to the ATM who looks vacuous when I give her a filthy look for taking a space which is rightfully mine. Or the family with FULLY AMBULANT under-10s-but-over-3s.

Can you tell it was pissing it down when I went to do a top-up shop today?

Yanbu but for some reason mumsnet majority seems to think that everyone can park in p&c except p with c

Sharon Stone was once asked how she kept fit and looking fantastic at 50... Her reply was "I park in the furthest parking space away from the shops and walk" ok I doubt Sharon Stone drives a Suzuki and goes Tesco for her weekly shop but since then I always park furthest away...... If I look half as good as Sharon Stone when I'm 50 it will have been worth it!!!

I think P&C spaces are a good idea for space however I don't see why they need to be right outside the store and I wouldn't have an issue if the P&C spaces were at the back of the car park

Are the P&C spaces only for those who use buggies and the like?
We use them with our 'fully ambulent' 4 yr old and 3 yr old, as we have to fiddle about at the back with the doors open getting them in and out of their seats. I thought that's the sort of thing the extra room was for, as well as getting babies out.
Am I wrong about that?

I'm learning to drive though, so when I pass I will be parking in the area with no cars

YANBU OP, once a child is old enough to get out of the car by themselves their parent shouldn't need a p+c space anymore imo. It's tricky getting a toddler out of a car without the extra space, but damn near impossible to get an infant in a carseat out.

Yes you could just park further away where there are more free spaces, yes you could just get wet in the rain, but why should you have to when there are spaces provided so that, in theory, you don't have to?

Oh - and didn't think we were being cunts doing that either!!

I entirely concur, NewNames but there is a distinct lardyarseness about the individuals robbing the P&C spaces. Or it's just fury blurring my vision and making them look bigger.

I do my big shop online. This was a dash-in, the-housekeeper-miscalculated-the-milk-supplies shop.

I don't drive so walked everywhere when my DC were little.

My arse was pert.

they are for under 12's in most car parks

no one NEEDS them - and if you seriously can't get your baby out without one I'd not bother going out at all.

Try using a sling or a nice soft pram rather than a car seat

I'm quite wide just now Elphaba, what with being 28wks pg, so there's plenty of hiding space!

The main reason I use them is to sit my trolley (containing baby in bucket seat plus toddler) between the cars while I unpack, as not once but actually fucking TWICE, some wanker who shouldn't have been allowed to drive reversed straight into said trolley (containing aforementioned small people). To say I was livid is an understatement, so I now err on the side of caution.

YABU - parent and child spaces are not a legal right. People like you would occasionally take down the registration numbers of cars of people without children who'd parked in the P&C spaces and try to make me call them on the tannoy in my old job. Never ever did it. Just no.

Unlike when people told me about tossers parking in the disabled spaces. They got called every 3 minutes sharp.

Here in Australia, it's slightly different - the spaces are designated as 'parking with prams' which does make the distinction a bit easier. However, in most places they aren't hardly, if at all, wider so kind of defeat the purpose.

I see now, the problem isn't the lack of P & C spaces, it's the housekeeper, sack 'em!

So alvis, please enlighten me. If parent and child spaces aren't actually for parents with children, what are they for? Again, why the vitriol towards people who only wish to utilize something which has been put there for their benefit?

I've thought about sacking her, actually. I bet she always parks in a P&C space, lazy cow.

in my day we didnt have P&C places.....

Actually, I do think you are all missing the point tbh for once, as I usually agree with the majority! My little boy is older now but it was annoying when sometimes I'd go shopping and not need a trolley so would use his pram and hang a basket off of it and getting in and out is easier with more room, it's just pure laziness! I prefer the signs that say "Parent and toddler" though like the ones in my local Morrisons as I think once they get past fourish, you really don't need the extra room tbh. People who use the spaces who have no kids or fully grown teens do take the p*ss tbh and if this was about people parking in disabled bays who didn't need them this thread would be sooo different!

Just had a wee look, and it seems that the big supermarkets think you may use their P&C spaces for any child under 12.

So OP - we and our fully ambulent pre schoolers are flicking you the double vees.

"Local supermarket now displays the sign that there is a £60 fine for incorrectly parking in blue badge OR P&C spaces."

• not enforcable!

they can send you a ticket, they can do nowt to you if you don't pay!

OP you obviously have a rediculously wide car, get a grip!

yes because disabled people need disabled parking - people with kids don't need 'speshul entitled your womb/sperm works' spaces ...they just like them because it enforces their sense of importance and gives them something to moan about

I have BMW M3, my youngest is 7 and I still use the p&c spaces sometimes, usually though I park well away from the other numpties who allow their kids to open their car doors right into mine

For some reason gock parents appear to be utterly hated on mumsnet if they dare to want to do anything to make their busy, often stressful lives just that bit easier. A baffling attitude tbh.