parent and child bays

[fairy1303]

Our local supermarket is always rammed. I have often had trouble finding a space. There are some parent and child bays and these are great when I have to take the baby - you need the extra space for the buggy and to be close to the supermarket etc etc.

Today when parking in them, the woman next to me sprung out completely childless.

I know I shouldn't get so annoyed sleep deprived and am anticipating biscuits galore - but she was still parked there when I left and I really wanted to let the supermarket know!

There were other spaces btw, just a bit further away.

My DD legitimately has a blue badge. And springs out and leaps into supermarket.

But yes..there are badge abusers out there.

This is not the issue though. If you leave a note you dont know if the person is a legitimate badge holder. And mrsB is suggesting parents should be allowed to park in disabled spaces (WTAF)

I was in Asda last week. Parked in the car park and was walking to the store. A big event was on at the place next to Asda so staff were policing their car park to ensure people didn't park there and not using the store.

A member of staff started saying to 3 adults. "You don't look under 12!" the guy was "eh?" He actually made them move the car from the space!

Mandy I apologise. .it was someone else who left notes and I thought it was you.

I would never park in a disabled bay EVER.

So the respect should be the same the other way. Its not that hard.

But I do believe you and MrsB are on same page here.

Fanjo - not she's not - she says specifically that she wouldn't dream of parking in a disabled space.

It is that hard..because it isnt a level playing field.

She said she should be allowed if badge holders use P and C spaces

How when you have your spaces and we have ours, many disabled spaces lie empty in my local supermarket, while the nearer p and c spaces are full of blue badge holders, how is that fair.

I mainly park at the back with no one else there, but its not ideal with two small children.

Well you should complain to supermarket not have words with the badge holders IMO

I think perhaps Mrs B & I are similar in that it sounds like we both had/have 2 young children very close in age - she says a yr apart, mine are twins. My issue is that the P&C spaces are next to the trolley park. Doesn't matter whether they're near the entrance or not, just that I have space around the car (to get in both sides at the back) and they're near the trolleys. Unless you've ever tried to find a trolley with 2 baby seats (the moulded ones) or the even more scarce 2 toddler seat trollies, both of which are like gold dust, you might not appreciate that its tricky wandering round a supermarket carpark looking for one. So of course a P&C space is easier than a normal space which might be miles from the trolley park.

As I've said, there is NO difference to the location of the P&C spaces / disabled spaces at my supermarket so if a blue badge holder were to use a P&C space, when disabled spaces are available, yes it cheeses me off.

I dont think p&c spaces need to be close to the door although its helpful if they are in a safe spot.

In our local supermarket the disabled parking bays are closer. Which is how it should be imo.

I do think there is a need for p&c spaces, especially if you have to young children (and one is a large toddler) we dont have a large car but it can be difficult getting them in and out in normal spaces without hitting the car next to you, especially the way some people park.

Another annoying thing is people with little sporty numbers who park in the middle of two spaces.

And as mandy says, its easier if they are near the trolleys, which they are around here

as I said there is a year between my children a double buggy or trolley left at the back if a car in a normal space is not safe. in normal spaces thats the reality

Same here with the kids 1 year apart, and using a doubler...I managed. I certainly never considered we ought be allowed into the blue badge spaces.

Come on - don't be so useless!

Parent and child spaces should be done away with, if you or your children can't get out of the car without hitting the next one then either you as a parent are useless or your children don't know how to behave.

Utreas, perhaps you don't shop at the same supermarkets that I do. I hope I'm not useless as a parent, and my children know how how to behave, but unfortunately I can't account for the way in which other people park and how they drive once they're in their cars which could make it a dangerous place even if I am a perfect parent with perfect children (which I'm not!).

Useless is the wrong word - I think I really meant helpless.

Supermarket carparks are dangerous places? Heard it all now, fair bit of learned helplessness in this thread.

I said can be - and if you read the whole thread, you'll see a previous poster was in a supermarket car park when she saw a toddler killed. So please don't dismiss that anywhere with toddlers and cars can be dangerous. Just because someone wants to use a P&C space, doesn't make them helpless.

I must live in a weird place as I very rarely see p&c spaces empty do mums who cannot get a space go home and come back again as it is far too dangerous or unpractical to park somewhere else. Yes there are tosses who use them and disabled parking but the law protects disabled people for a reason p&c are nothing more than an act of courtesy.

I have had someone pull into the space next to me while my dd was still strapped into the buggy and I was getting my ds into his seat.

I dont know who was more shocked me or the driver, YES they can be dangerous.

I saw a right rough cow woman almost reduce an old man to tears over a P&C space once. It left me fucking fuming and I wish I had reported her to the police for the way she screamed and shouted at him.

He was parked in a P&C space because there were no disabled spaces left. He had his wife in the car who had a wheelchair. This couple were both in their eighties and the man was smaller than me, I'm 5'4, and used a stick.

He was opening the boot to get the wheelchair out when this cow bag pulls up behind him, gets out and starts shrieking that he shouldn't be parked there, it's P&C and to "move out of the fucking way"! As I am disabled I said to her that he could park there, his blue badge trumped her child (who was about 11) and to leave him alone.

She carried on effing and blinding and the poor old man was shaking and said he would move because he didn't need the hassle. The silly bitch turned and said something about maybe he had forgotten how hard it was to be a parent!. The difficulties he was having totally escaped her.

Then to top it all off, she parked in the space when he had moved and skipped off into the shop leaving her child in the bloody car!

It still boils my piss when I think about it!

I'm not sure the issue is whether you can go shopping without using p and c spaces I think the issue is that if they are provided then you may as well use them and are more entitled to do so than some 25yr old flash guy in a Ferrari.
Iyswim?

And I can't imagine any sane and balanced individual thinking for one moment that a blue badge holder shouldn't use them, surely not!

I parked in a P&C the other week with DD who's almost 16. The reason? She has a nerve paralysis of her left arm and she's hypermobile. We have no blue badge nor to we intend to apply but I digress.

Her hypermobility means she frequently dislocates, and a few weeks ago she dislocated her knee and ended up braced. No biggie to most but when you only have one working arm using crutches is impossible so it was a wheelchair.

We had gone to Tesco. I pondered for a while whether to park in a P&C or not but in the end I did. It enabled me to get the chair out, her in it and do the bit of shopping we needed. it also got her out of the house for an hour which she was grateful for.

I wouldn't normally do that, but under those circumstances I had little choice.