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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to get angry with people in family parking...

123 replies

SmileAndPeopleSmileWithYou · 21/03/2013 16:20

...who don't have young children with them!?

I spent ages driving around a car park today looking for a suitable spot to get my 4mo DS out of car seat and into the pram. I don't always park in family parking and don't really mind the inconvenience if they are full with families.

But one of the spaces was taken up with a 2 seater Ferrari that was obv far too small/low to have a child in a car seat.
Sure enough, I saw the lady who owns the car on my way back. She was alone. WHY did she feel the need to park in one of those spaces when she clearly didn't need the room!?

It's not even like I can assume she had dropped her DC off somewhere as there is no way a small child in a car seat or one that needed a pram would have fit in there!!!

How inconsiderate!

OP posts:

Caitycat · 22/03/2013 12:03

My local town doesn't as yet provide trolleys so when shopping in town I have to get the pram out, ok yes I could get a sling but I found then uncomfortable when she was tiny and at six months it would be backbreaking. I actually don't think it should be about mothers justifying why they need p&c though. The people who provide them have already decided it's a good idea so why do people persist in abusing them? I never used or wanted to use them before I had dd, once she's bigger I will stop using them as, although they will no doubt still be more convenient for me, they will be even more so to someone with a baby.

To those who think we should get shopping delivered, it is actually psychologically quite important to leave the house regularly with a baby. When dd was v little I would go to the local shopping centre perhaps twice a week to buy a few bits but more to meet with a friend for a coffee.

KatOD · 22/03/2013 12:08

I'm with CaityCat on this, I don't think the OP is saying anything unreasonable but I do think she's getting a disproportionate amount of abuse.

So the subject's been discussed before by people who've been on here for longer. So what. If you don't want to join in then don't! It's obviously new for OP so if she an others would like to discuss it then good for them.

IdaClair · 22/03/2013 12:09

The people who provide them have decided they increase revenue, they don't care about you If you use a pram why do you need to get the car seat out? And a six month old in a sling isn't going to break your back. Babies are carried every day all over the world without broken backs, and plenty of people manage without prams and without cars (actually that's me at the moment as the car is in the garage and I don't have a pram)

OKnotOK · 22/03/2013 12:16

I hate fecking people who pull shit like that, but whos going to check!?

Caitycat · 22/03/2013 12:23

Well done for not using a pram, I do, well done for not finding using a sling painful, I do. I also sometimes put the carseat on adapters rather than taking the pram seat. I know people all over the world have different lives to me - if I lived in one of those countries I would probably be housebound due to my shoulder problems but I'm very lucky, I live in the UK where some cynical shopping centres, local councils and supermarkets have decided that if they make my life easier I'm more likely to shop there. They are right! Thinking that the providers of a service are cynical doesn't give you the moral high ground when you abuse it!

Velve · 22/03/2013 12:24

I love p&c parking threads!!
I must say it is much easier to get a baby out of a car when you have a p&c space, as the extra space accommodates for people parking like idiots.
It's like everyone is so loath to go food shopping that they try to get it over with as soon as possible, including the parking bit, so don't care whether they're over lines or not.

melliebobs · 22/03/2013 12:25

Oh for crying out loud get over it. Park at the very bottom f the car park where no ones going to park next to u or park over 2 bays If it's that much of an issue.

lottieandmia · 22/03/2013 12:26

Not again, we had an identical thread about 2 weeks ago...!

lottieandmia · 22/03/2013 12:26

And by the way YABU

The only people who need parking concessions are disabled people.

bangwhizz · 22/03/2013 12:29

At a supermarket I went to recently (can't remember which) they just had a section of 'wider spaces' at the far end of the car park for anyone to use.O think that is the way forward!

Kewcumber · 22/03/2013 12:31

Do Ferrari drivers go to places that have p&c spaces. I thought they sent their staff out to such places. My sister has an Aston Martin - she wouldn't be seen dead parking in anything as common or garden as a P&C space. What would people think?

MorrisZapp · 22/03/2013 12:32

Yanbu.

wanderingcloud · 22/03/2013 12:33

People saying take the baby out the car seat have clearly completely forgotten what having a tiny baby can be like. You can't lob an 8week old into a trolley like you can a toddler. Plus taking them out and getting them into a sling without the extra space a p&c space provides will almost certainly wake up a sleeping baby which, when mine was tiny, would lead to a monumental meltdown thus stopping me from doing the shopping in the first place. It's much easier to run in and out of the supermarket with a little one asleep in their car seat.
Why is it so unreasonable to ask that people who don't have a child, don't use p&c spaces? I never did before having children, I could see having to wrestle babies and toddlers in/out of cars looked like hard work if you can't fully open the doors. Surely it's not unreasonable to expect others to show some courtesy?

GrimbleGrog · 22/03/2013 12:34

I always park in these spaces, whether or not I have DCs in the car.

The way I see it, I'm tired and I have a headache, my DCs are the cause therefore it's justified. Sometimes I do it to watch the infant-encumbered huff and tut as I disembark and flick my (temporarily) child-free hair. I accept that under those circumstances IABU, but I'll keep doing it anyway.

TomArchersSausage · 22/03/2013 12:44

Love Grimbles post though Lol

IdaClair · 22/03/2013 12:48

I actually have a small baby at the moment, to be fair, and an older child too, so I haven't forgotten quite yet. But I use seats that stay put in the car, you know the big convertible ones, so taking the seat out is only really something to do if swapping cars.

Yes, there are always people who do different things and no it's not a competition, but when people come along saying they can't possibly do something and others point out that they really can, if they want to, it shouldn't be taken as criticism, as such. I'm all for making lives easier, but I'm not too sure why that has to be the life of the parent with the baby as opposed to the the woman with the Ferrari. Is one life more worthy than the other?

I like the wider spaces at the back idea, that would work for everyone of course. It means I can park in normal spaces close to the shop too Let's have that!

timidviper · 22/03/2013 12:51

These spaces are more trouble than they are worth. They clearly cause parents such angst that they should be abolished.

As Worra said, there was a time that we managed without them perfectly well and never worried about it. It seems to me that they are an unnecessary worry.

TomArchersSausage · 22/03/2013 12:56

I agree. They just cause more parking rage than they solve.

It's really easier to park further away from the shop in the far corner of the carpark where it tends to be quieter and there is often more space.

timidviper · 22/03/2013 13:57

Thank heavens for common sense Tom, it seems all these spaces have done is bring a sense that, if you have small children, you HAVE to park near the door and that parking anywhere else is far too inconvenient, dangerous or just unfair!

MansView · 22/03/2013 14:01

I seldom park in disabled / parent parking bays in supermarkets etc - I tend to go to the far end...

that said - if the car parks's full I will happily park there, as they can wait like everyone else.

ChaoticisasChaoticdoes · 22/03/2013 15:05

I'm not sure why, the ladies of MN think that they are above parent parking and will wank on about how we don't need it etc until they are blue in the face. But I also bet they have all parked in them at some stage.

I have never parked in a P&C space.

ChaoticisasChaoticdoes · 22/03/2013 15:11

These spaces are more trouble than they are worth. They clearly cause parents such angst that they should be abolished.

^^This

P&C spaces are a priviledge not a right. Shops only provide them to entice parents to shop there not because they give a shit about how difficult, or not, parents find it to lift a child out of a car.

exoticfruits · 22/03/2013 15:24

People will always take them if near the doors - put them further away and no one wants to take them- simple.

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