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

[Owllady]

I'm in my late 30s
My mum has photos of us in the carrycot in the back of the car, otherwise a babby was carried on your lap

I don't think people realise how much road/car safety has come on

[maddening]

No the fairy - I don't think anyone thinks they can't manage without p&c parking but it doesn't mean that it isn't twatish to take the space with no dc or blue badge

[Deverethemuzzler]

I don't know why I am allowing myself to be sucked into this...

What we need, we all need, is for car park companies to stop making spaces so bloody small.

It is a pain to try and get a baby and associated equipment out of car when you are only inches from two others.

But I detest P&C parking spaces because of the learned helplessness they seem to have produced in some people.

If they got rid of them they would be forced to make the other spaces wider because their would be an expectation that you should be able to get a child out of a normal sized space. As it stands people just whinge that they can't go shopping because all of the usable spaces have been taken.

Imagine a world in which P&C spaces were removed. If you couldn't get out of you car to shop you wouldn't bloody go would you?

Actually, it might be good to have a world like that for a little while. Just to give the whingers a taste of what its like not to be able to find a blue badge space and to have to go home.

I have used P&C spaces when they have been available. They are the most helpful when you have a newborn IMO. I cannot understand the people who block up the car park waiting for one to be vacated. They are not that bloody good.

Blue badge spaces are totally different. If you think its hard getting a baby and a buggy out of a normal space, you try getting a mobility scooter out of one or a non weight bearing child with a power chair.

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

Most people on this thread are considerate which leads me to think that the majority of people are reasonable about P&C places.
It's difficult to know other people's circumstances. You might have judged when DH nabbed the last P&C space at the supermarket yesterday and our 6 & 10 year olds got out. What you wouldn't know is that I had had surgery less than a week ago and so I needed the extra space to get out of the car. I'd decided to come along because I was going stir crazy stuck in the house.

[TheFairyCaravan]

Totally agree with Devere .

[PleaseJustShootMeNow]

Yes, disabled people should be able to use P and C spaces and thoughtfulness for all is the way to go.

However, in some cases, disabled adults can circle the car park and wait for a spot to become free but young children are prone to melt downs if they have to wait, especially if they have a special need and, as in recent days, it is hot and sticky. Little ones don't always understand why we have to wait in an uncomfortable car.

Maybe there could just be specially designated spots labelled 'for those with extra needs' rather than trying to create a hierarchy of what those need s are. It can be so divisive.

This is a joke right? Please tell me you're having a laugh and don't really think this. Because if you're serious I'm lost for words because it's fucked up beyond belief.

[Notso]

What we need, we all need, is for car park companies to stop making spaces so bloody small.

Exactly.

[ApocalypseNowt]

I don't see anyone wailing that the sky will fall in if they don't have p&c spaces. I see (most) people saying they are a nice perk, make life easier and you shouldn't use them if you don't need them. That seems perfectly reasonable to me.

I have noticed some people saying they should be at the back of the car park though so they wouldn't be so attractive to lazy bellends....I do disagree with this. I think they should be close to the shop. Even the best behaved toddler can have their moment and even the most vigilant parent can grab and miss one doing a bolt. Why not have them closer so little ones don't run the risk of getting knocked by a car? If it saves only a few from being injured or worse then it's worth it imho.

[BornOfFrustration]

I think they're great and I use them if I can get one, they're loads bigger so my fat arse has more room for sticking out of the car while I'm toddler wrestling.

[Sirzy]

So Apolcalypse - how do people cope with these runaway toddlers in the vast majority of spaces which don't have P and C spaces or just walking along a roadside with their parents?

Surely if anything giving the idea that children need to be parked near the shop for their own safety encorages the laziness and the lack of teaching road safety?

[ApocalypseNowt]

I disagree Sirzy, I don't think it does encourage laziness - you're talking about the difference between a 20 yard walk or a 60 yard walk. It's hardly going to solve the obesity crisis making toddlers walk a little bit further.

As to your first point of course people cope but if there's a quick fix that makes thing safer and easier why not do it?

Also walking along a roadside is slightly different. In car parks you have people manouvering and reversing. Children of toddler height are hard to see and might know to wait at a kerbside/not run into the road but wouldn't necessarily clock someone's reverse lights.

[Sirzy]

Then the parents should be watching them, use reins/backpacks if needed.

Still not an argument to say that parents need to park near the shop. They don't need to. It's convenient as it is for many others but it's not a need.

[ApocalypseNowt]

I never said it was a need. I said it's a convenience and it makes it safer. Which it does.

[Sirzy]

Sorry I still disagree with you, the spaces would be much better at the back if we really do need special spaces for people who have children.

People cope walking across car parks every day with and without children, the fact some parents struggle to keep their children next to them really isn't an argument to keep the spaces near the shop.

If we need anything by the shop it should be more "accessible" spaces for people who really do have a need for that space whatever it is. Or just nice wide spaces throughout the whole car park.

[TheFairyCaravan]

Parents cope day in and day out in many, many car parks where there are no P&C spaces. They just do it, this debate never ever arises. It is only in supermarkets and shopping centres where they all of a sudden become unable to get their child out of a car and across a car park!

[ApocalypseNowt]

Then we'll have to agree to disagree Sirzy.

I'm just for making life easier where you can!

[TSSDNCOP]

When we arrive on very rare occasions and I have DS in the car, if I see a P&C I think "bonus!". If there's not one we walk. When he was a newborn I started using Ocado because the thought of going shopping was beyond nonsense.

[WanderingTrolley1]

How's your back, Writer?

[Jayne35]

I cannot understand the people who block up the car park waiting for one to be vacated. They are not that bloody good. I really hate space waiters, especially in narrow car parks.

What we need, we all need, is for car park companies to stop making spaces so bloody small. So true.

OP I think YABU a 10 year old is still a child so if parents of older children want to use the space they are entitled to. Like others have said park further away on an end space (the sooner they move the spaces the better as no one without children will want to park in them if they have to walk to far).

I never try to park close in any car park, too much hassle driving round looking for a space.

[Andrewofgg]

Most people on this thread are considerate which leads me to think that the majority of people are reasonable about P&C places.

If you think the population at large are as decent and considerate as the population of MN - can I offer you some shares in my Atlantic Tunnel Company?

[TokenGirl1]

I don't get this whole 'park further away so no one parks next to you'. Every time I try that, someone always parks next to me despite there being dozens of other empty spaces around. Drives me mad!

[GoblinLittleOwl]

I don't remember suffering from a bad back or twisted spine because of lifting pushchairs out of cramped spaces when my children were small, but that was probably because we travelled by bus.
Now in my sixties, I parked in a parent/ child space in Sainsbury's carpark after driving round three times days before Christmas; there were no other spaces available. After checking this was allowed, I returned to my car and had to call the security guard because of the abusive and threatening behaviour of two parents, with child in pushchair.
Having young children with pushchairs does not constitute a disability.

[3littlefrogs]

In USA where I lived and worked over 30 years ago, all car parks were herringbone design. Easy to park, easy to leave, easy to see around you, no need for any designated spaces.

Why on earth we can't do this over here I have no idea.