To be annoyed at everyone who uses the parent and toddler parking who shouldn't?

[sunshinemeg]

I am prepared to be told I am being a twat, but it's really bugging me.

So many people get angry (quite rightly so) at people who are not disabled using disabled parking spaces. However it seems so many more people use the parent and toddler spaces who really shouldn't.

The signs variously state
-for parents with children under 5
-for parents with children in pushchairs etc

Why do I see people park with their children who then jump out and walk off without a pushchair, it drives me mad, especially when I am struggling with a 6 month old and limited space to open her car door or get a pushchair remotely close enough!

Calm down, dear.

Abolish them and replace with BB bays would make the most sense. Save all these people raging and rowing.

Rainbow [shock

Wash your mouth out.

Actually I think they should have a special drive thru section for parents. That way we wouldn't have to open our car doors at all and our little darlings wouldn't be exposed to any nasty fresh air.
I have suggested this to my local Tesco and they are 'thinking about it'

vintage Leave or park else where obviously, although I can't say its come up that often and obviously its only for a finite amount of time you really need these spaces.
But what's that got to do with perfectly able-bodied adults using P&C spaces with no children? It's ignorant and entitled.

Its got nothing to do with being precious!

Most people just don't give a flying fuck. See someone parked in a P&C space with no kids, I think, so what? But yes, I think there shouldn't be such spaces anyhow. So what if you sprogged?

You don't care because it doesn't effect you fair enough, pretty normal reaction for most people.

Unfortunately, by and large, "ignorant and entitled" isn't illegal. More's the pity.

My point theend is that it's really only supermarkets that provide these spaces so I presume in the ordinary course of life you have no choice but to use normal spaces, steer your children safely across roads and car parks etc so I have no idea why you would have to go home without your shopping if a P&C space wasn't available. Unless you drive a very large car.

It does affect me, actually, I just find it a rather puerile thing to get upset about. So I park somewhere father back. BFD.

'So what if you've sprogged' ?? What's that got to do with anything?
Whether or not you've had children is beside the point, the point is being able to get any children out the car so you can go about your business like anyone else.

It's entirely possible to get them out of the car when in a place with no P&C space. As pointed out, they only exist at supermarkets and some shopping centres. In other places, people cope. Imagine that?

Because there were no other spaces where I could have got in and been able to open a door wide enough on each side to be able to get the babies out. So yes I went home. Is that really so difficult for you to understand. And yes I couldn't always park in every car park as not all had these spaces (although only one springs to mind) but then I usually walked everywhere, except the supermarket as I needed the car to get the shopping home. Again what's that got to do with entitled selfish idiots parking in P&C spaces with no need?
I don't know what BFD stands for, although I doubt I want to.

'Coping' in other areas doesn't give others the moral high ground to use parking spaces designated for P&C or make them any less selfish for doing so.

I have come back before to find cars packed either side of me with only a few inches spare.(different cars than when I parked there ) I had dd in an infant car seat ad a 2 year old. My options were to wait for car owners to return or leave my 2 young children in the road, squeeze into my car ad reverse possibly over my 2 year old if he moved or have a car go over my baby?! That's the scenario parent spaces exist for. I had to wait 20 minutes before I could get my children in the car. I don't think it's a parents devine right to have a bigger space but parents have more right to use such spaces than an able bodied person with no children in tow.

Whatever. If this is what you want to waste time getting hot under the collar about, go right ahead. I'd laugh my head at you, though, if I saw you doing this to someone. 'Crazy lady alert!'

If people can't manage to park in a normal space and get things in and out of the car (ignoring the very occasional occasion that you get a car parked so close on both sides you can't get in) then perhaps they shouldn't be driving at all anyway.

It isn't hard to park in a normal space and get yourself/child in and out of the car. Yes sometimes it can take a bit of wriggling but it's not imposible. Very few car parks have p and c spaces yet someone people still manage!

I've previously used them with no child in tow. I had every reason then to scream abuse at anyone who questioned it. Sometimes a 'temporary' illness disables you severely and leads you to take any help you can offer yourself .
Under normal circumstances I wouldn't use them .

BFD? ...just askin

I think that P&C spaces are great, and it's twatty for those without DC to use them (BB badge holders excepted, though I've never been in a car park where all the BB places were taken), and also that they are not the same as BB spaces.

But it would save a whole load of angst if they were positioned somewhere other than right at the front of the store, as there are plenty of people who are neither BB holders, nor who have a small child with them, who would find it handy not to have to walk across the carpark. But you'd still get lazy arses nabbing them, unfortunately, as heaven forfend anyone have to walk a few more paces.

YANBU, OP.

I wouldn't necessarily yell at someone for taking a P&C space though when they didn't have kids with them (according to whatever the conditions are in the particular car park- some are under 12s) but I might question them - politely- if they took the last space in front of me, say and their need didn't appear to be as great as mine.

When I've felt I've needed them most was - when I used to use the infant car seat clicked into the pram base, in a big multistorey with tight spaces as it was, where not every area had step free access, and in badly designed car parks when DDs were toddlers and couldn't be seen easily by other vehicles. Sometimes I've had to actually drive off and go to another location/shop because there wasn't a big enough space anywhere and not enough P&C spaces, so the shop would have lost my business on that day. It's usually the older car parks where you need them most - ironically probably those with fewer P&C spaces.

I don't use them now DDs are older, apart from occasionally at Sainsbury's where it's up to age 12 there- but usually there is a closer, more convenient space and it's a well designed modern car park anyway.

I appreciate why some people might reasonably use them outside their extended conditions but there are some where it is definitely laziness/entitlement/sheer bloody-mindedness/nastiness as well.

Not everyone who has a disability has a blue badge. Not every disability is obvious so please don't assume that because someone looks "normal" they don't have a need for that space

Quite often P&C spaces aren't placed nearest to the store, but perhaps adjacent to a safer walking route so that toddlers can be seen or so that it's an easier route for prams.

Intended not "extended" conditions. D'oh.