Parent and child parking spaces

[Curiouslygrumpycola]

I have just seen a smart car using a parent and child parking place. No child, no blue badge, a stream of people passing by tutting. Aibu to think they wanted to be featured on mumsnet?

When I joined some supermarket Baby Club when pregnant they told me I was allowed to use the parent and child spaces as I was pregnant.
Maybe the driver was pg?

Scenario: mum with 3 month old baby and 2 year old daughter goes to tesco to do weekly shop (usually goes alone or online but has to take kids on occasion). Wet day, all the parent and child spots are full but the disabled bays, over 20 in total are at least half empty Is mum wrong to park in a disabled bay?

How on earth was this even in dispute?!

Of course she was wrong. I don't care if there was a tornado and she had newborn quintuplets. Parking in a disabled bay without a permit is always wrong. End of. (I never say that, btw, but I enjoyed it this time )

Why would anyone need to ask of it is wrong to park in a disabled space without a BB?

A cynic would say to gain a reaction here Fairy

Anyone who did that would be a really sad person eh.

You're probably right Sisters.

Can we please have PACS (parent and child spaces) with their own section on MN? Maybe next to AIBU?

People with no young children and no disability factor shouldn't park in a P&C or a disabled space.

People with young children and no disability factor could park in a P&C but not in a disabled space.

People with a disability factor and no young children could park in a disabled but could also use a P&C.

People with young children and a disability factor could park in either.

I have never understood why this is complicated!

I really hate the empty-car-park-park-next-to-the-only-car-there-parkers...

Especially when I only park miles away because my driving is rubbish and I may hit the other car reversing...

i can not believe any one is that stupid.
just cos a baby might get wet does bot make you disabled,
ffs

Me too, I'm still waiting for a better explanation than my alien theory.

I didn't think being a goady fucker was a disability

thats for a minute there until I reread I thought you were suggesting the frankly genius idea of MN spaces.

Rather than a badge we could display a bag of Pom Bears or something.

Cor, dd has just seen this, she hasn't half learned some lingo from me!

I got shouted at the other week for parking in a parent and child space-there were no disabled bays and I do have a blue badge. She glared at me then as she pulled away she wound down the window and shouted 'where are your fucking kids''

She drove off before I had a chance to reply tell her to go fuck herself

I should've done a thread

That's so dense of her anyway, Dame - what if you were picking kids up?!

I almost dread to even go here, but...I'm still not entirely sure what P&C parking is supposed to be for. People on MN say it's a bigger space so you can get children in & out of car seats etc more easily. But here in Australia, most of the P&C spaces are the same size as the other car parks, they're just closer to the shop entrance! Which frankly reinforces my opinion that they're just a way for shops to pull in the parent dollar.

Ours aren't closer to the entrance - they're sort of round the side. But you don't have to cross the car park to get to and from your car. They are apparently never abused. Imho they're far more important for Houdini toddlers than immobile newborns.

GMIL got yelled at for using a BB space recently, and I do mean yelled at. She was so upset she then didn't go out for days. She can barely walk, as would have been absolutely obvious to the shouter. She also has a blue badge but the shouter couldn't see it.

One of my pet hates is when people take babies into supermarkets in their car seats. No. Fucking. Need.

no yanbu

parent and child parking should be lovely wide spaces at the back of the supermarket car park
then no one would 'nick' them
a covered walkway would be nice but obvs not essential

I park in them kids or not

I think things have gone way too far when people are yelling at old-age pensioners for parking in P&C spots.

Weeblueberry, there wasn't a child there. These spaces are often used by people without kids, especially when it's raining. I think the smart car was actually small enough to drive through the supermarket, we were probably lucky they chose to park up.

Curiously, how do you know they weren't picking up a child, though?

Don't ruin it for me Koala. (Ok, they may have arranged to collect a child outside the supermarket, after their shop. Though there was no car seat or booster visible). Speaking of children, I lost your thread from my favourites. Hope you are well. X

Surely the reason that 'child badges' or similar aren't issued the same way blue badges are, is that it's really not that big a deal. It's more of an honour system, designed by retailers to make shopping at their complex more attractive to parents of young children. It's not at all comparable to disabled parking, in that respect, so I'm nonplussed by the idea of people amateur-policing who's using P&C spaces.

Oops, sorry - cross-posted .

That was a musing on the topic in general, not aimed at you!

(Although definitely aimed at the shouty people who picked on a granny up-thread)