In thinking Mother and Baby car parking spots....

[Writerwannabe83]

....are actually for parents with babies/toddlers?

It was always my understanding that the wide spaces are for parents who have car seats and pushchairs to contend with, not for parents of 10 year olds who just want to park nearer to the shop, like a family that I saw today?!

I'm only moaning because I've just twisted and scraped my back trying to remove my car seat from my half closed back door door, in a very tight parking space whilst trying not to scratch the car I'm parked next to.

I was secretly fuming at those in the Mother and Baby spaces who surely shouldn't have been there, like the one I mentioned above.

And breathe

I feel that as I didnt actually drive till last year, I have years of entitlement accumulation

sirzy I do when necessary but I have a small baby to get out of the car and I have SPD so need space to manoeuvre. The spaces are for people who have small children, such as myself, hence they are much easier so worth driving around and waiting for if I've time.

Thanks for the gratuitous advice though.

Can I retrospectively park in them as they weren't around when mine were babies? I feel entitled to.

fraidy my Fiat 500 is 1627mm so only a little smaller than that Volvo which kind of puts it into context doesn't it. Out of interest I have just looked at the car I travelled in mostly as a kid, a Cortina MK III and I was amazed to see it was only 1702mm wide.

Personally when I go to the supermarket etc I always head for the far end of the carpark. My kids are grown now but I did the same when they were babies.

Me too. That's my strategy!

If you need space your much better off parking at the back and avoiding all the scrabble at the front.

The other thing I do (which probably won't go down so well) is I actively avoid parking next to cars which obviously have kids in (baby on board signs, car seats etc).

It is times like this I am happy that I am several hours behind the UK on the clock. It seems I have been fortunate to have missed the uproar. This is a very good thing.

OP... I think someone warned you about how mad a P&C spot thread can become - they weren't kidding.

The problem I have is that my car seat is ridiculously heavy and the thought of having to carry it from the furthest away car parking space all the way to the front entrance of the store where the trolleys are kept doesn't fill me with joy....

callme - at least now I know to never start threads about car parks in the future

I feel that as I didnt actually drive till last year, I have years of entitlement accumulation - please tell me this is a joke?!

leave the car seat in the car then.

I have never understood why people take the seat in and out of the car, talk about making work for yourself!

I use them. We have a blue badge but when they redesigned the local Tesco they put the Parent and Child spaces nearer than the disabled spaces and until they rectify it, I shall continue to use the Parent and Child spaces.

I use them at the new Sainsburys for the same reason Dawn. The P&C are right next to the door, the disabled spaces are across the road and in the corner of the car park!

Or get the trolley and bring it to car.

sirzy - the ASDA near me doesn't have the trolleys with the little green seat in for babies, all it has is the trollies where you can put the car seat into it.

But to be honest, even if they did have those types of trollies I wouldn't feel safe carrying my DS in my arms across the car park. I'm not meant to freely carry DS anyway because of a health condition I've got, but like I said, I don't think I would anyway.

Sirzy our car seat is part of the pushchair. DD is too young to go in the flat bit of her pushchair, and cries if she goes in the baby seat in the trollies, so leaving the car seat in the car wouldn't work for us.

hazey - do people really leave their babies unattended in the car whilst the walk a fair distance and back to go and get a trolley?

What is shocking about leaving the baby in the car for 30 seconds to get a trolley?

Do I live in some kind of supermarket blackspot? We never have free blocks, even at the far end of the car park, and I'm yet to see a trolley where you can stick the car seat

If I parked at the very back of the car park, as has been advised by some posters, it would take a lot more than 30 seconds to walk to get a trolley and then walk back to the car.

Plus, I wouldn't do it anyway, I take DS into the petrol station with me

I have always had it drilled into me that I should never leave a baby unattended in a car because if something were to happen to me whilst I was away from the car (either related to my medical condition or if I was mowed down in the car park in this instance) how would anyone know I had an unattended baby in the car?

moomin - my local ASDA only has about 8 of the car seat trolleys but they are a godsend. It also means you don't have to disturb a sleeping baby if they had fallen asleep in the car on the way to the store

I always leave DS in the car to get a trolley (he is 2), it takes seconds. But at my local supermarkets there are trolley parks everywhere, not just at the front.

I always go shopping with OH so we just take the pushchair and a trolley

Carry the baby to the trolley.

Parking at the back is loads nicer.