To want to monitor supermarket car parks voluntarily to catch people without children parking in the parent/child parking spaces?

[Hotmad]

Ok it's me again but a lot of things have occurred to me today that are unreasonable.
Today as I came out of the supermarket a woman in a big nice Mercedes pulled in next to my car into the parent and child bays, she did not have a child with her! I was so angry but as I'm not the confrontational type I threw her my best evil look and made a mental note to vent on MN later about it.
I never cared before but now I Have a new baby I realise there aren't actually that many of these bays going and if people use fraudulently then this is not fair and something needs to be done!

[lljkk]

I have a policy of parking in the first place I see! Kids or not.

[He11y]

frumpet - don't you find someone always parks next to you though, no matter how far away you are from the door?

My husband and I park in the most isolated corners of car parks and yet 9 out of 10 times, someone else will have parked right next to us when we return!

Not just near us but next to us!

I'm sure some people seek out lonely cars! LOL

[frumpet]

No , but then it might have something to do with how dinged my car is and my careless trolley swinging as i saunter away , puts a lot of folk off !

[SpecialAgentFreyPie]

With the ever growing amount of 4x4 drivers, I think the only real solution is wider spaces.

Unfortunately, it's cheaper to squash us in like sardines. [grumpy]

[Cravey]

Maybe just concentrate on your child. And stop obsessing about something so ridiculous.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Ohhh I would love to have seen that exchange, Arkina - I'd have been applauding your dad!

[SauvignonBlanche]

Your Dad sounds great Arkina.

[HomeIsWhereTheGinIs]

How does shouting at someone teach your children any manners? Disabled parking bays are enforceable. Parent and child ones are a courtesy. Don't be ludicrous. Your baby won't melt in the rain.

[VulvaBeaker]

On the one hand, I think people who park in the P&C parking spaces when the car park is full would probably admit they are a fundamentally bad person. :)

On the other hand I have had a person remonstrate with me about this very rudely in a car park because they thought I didn't have a baby, at which point I got the baby seat out of the car. I have to confess that in the first aisle of the supermarket we loudly talked about busybodies and enjoyed the woman's cringing inability to apologise or look us in the eye.

Be careful if you take it upon yourself to busybody.

[ginbin54]

FFS - you're not disabled, you've got children. It won't hurt you or them to have to park in an ordinary space. I know it's awkward getting them out of the car in small space but hey, worse things happen!

[dementedma]

Someone mentioned those electronic bollards which rise up, earlier in the thread.
Two weeks ago, I followed a bus into a local supermarket car park. I shouldn't have done, but missed the sign which was obscured by the bus. The bus stopped, I stopped. The bus moved off, I moved off and met the rising, previously invisible, electronic bollard with an almightly crunch. Reader, it WROTE MY CAR OFF!!!

[candycoatedwaterdrops]

On the one hand, I think people who park in the P&C parking spaces when the car park is full would probably admit they are a fundamentally bad person.

A fundamentally bad person? I bet you're fun at parties!

[CheeseandPickledOnion]

On the one hand, I think people who park in the P&C parking spaces when the car park is full would probably admit they are a fundamentally bad person.

No, I completely wouldn't. What am I supposed to do, go home without my shopping just because it's the only space left.

Idiot.

[pianodoodle]

Of course people can manage without them and of course they're a courtesy, but they're a courtesy for parents with children aren't they?

[morethanpotatoprints]

I don't think we have ever used one tbh. I don't drive but whenever dh and I took 3 dc to supermarket, we haven't used one.
I don't understand the problem, can people really not just walk a few extra feet, are they really that lazy and entitled?

[IceBeing]

Absolutely loving the fact that noone got the OP was exaggerating for comedic purposes.

OP unfortunately there are too many people who genuinely feel the way you only pretended to feel for MN to get the funny...

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

It's not about walking a few extra feet, morethanpotatoprints!! It's about having wider parking spaces, to make it easier to get small children in and out of car seats, without having to worry about bashing cars next to you. It is much easier to strap your child in safely, if you aren't having to contort yourself through a 6" gap to do so.

And no, it's not essential or vital - it just makes life a bit easier. We are more than happy for other things to be made easier (either for all of us or for some of us), but the very thought that somewhere a parent's life is being made a bit easier, is total anathema to some folk.

If the only space left in the car park is a P&C space, of course no-one should expect anyone to turn round and go home without doing their shopping - but other than in that, pretty rare situation, I cannot understand what harm P&C spaces are doing to other people.

I don't use them any more - the dses are 16, 18 and 20 - and so I have to walk a bit further to the store. That doesn't harm me, or blight my life, so why should I get all hot under the collar at the parents who are getting the big spaces near the store?

Frankly, some of the arguments on here, and in other places, against P&C spaces, just sound like petty jealousy. "I can't use that special space near the shop doorway, so I don't think ANYONE should be allowed to use it!!" Green eyed monster.

[Hotmad]

Ooh this has come back to the surface!
Thank you icebeing for being the only one! My humour was lost in internet translation (cue someone saying it wasn't funny anyway you look at it)

[IceBeing]

I hope you didn't feel too roasted....MN really goes off on one sometimes...it isn't always like this