Parent and child spaces - would you sign this petition?

[confuseddazed]

A woman has set up a petition for safeguarding parent and parking spaces for under 5s here

Probably depends on the age of the disabled child in question, and of course the disability Sirzy. There are many kinds of disabilities with many variations in physical aptitude.

Not all disabled people are eligible for a blue badge

What a strange amount of anger directed towards mothers and babies on this thread. I don't drive but supermarket car parks always look massive to me, isn't there room for both.

Of course people can manage without, I did without a car, but why not have them if it makes some peoples life easier.

Surely disabled spaces are a completely separate issue, why are they being brought up.

People have posted several times that they have experienced or witnessed negative experiences due to using P&C spaces.

Equating them to bb spaces (and setting up an online petition) just shows that they are creating a brand of parents who feel that P&C spaces have a right of usage on par to bb spaces. This isn't right, as per MrsDV's post, but a marketing ploy.
It serves to show new parents as entitled unfortunately.

And still my question about how parents cope with normal car parks has gone unanswered...

Sing, as has been said hundreds of times blue badges are hard to get. Not everyone who is disabled is entitled to one.

Nobody has said parents shouldn't use parent and child spaces if they are free. What people have said is that a) they are a luxury not a necessity b) other people need that space just as much a c) (most importantly) having a baby is in no way comparable to being disabled.

You can't really shop with a baby under one arm though can you? You need a trolley, pushchair etc etc...
But you can lift a baby into a pushchair or shopping trolley with one arm can't you? Unlike an adult.
No one can really be this stupid as to not understand this, surely?

Not all disabled people are in a wheelchair.

I need a space near the door because I can't walk far. I need the wide space because I need the door to be opened as wide as it will go so I can get out. Sometimes I need to bring my wheelchair to the car door to get in to it.

That's me. I won't be able to walk in 12 months like your average baby, I won't get better. My disabilty is different to everyone else's, there is no "one size fits all".

For the record, it's not me making the comparison here. I've repeatedly stated that I don't understand why anyone IS comparing. Totally different situations. My comment re physical ability was just that really. The physical ability of a young person who can't walk compared with the physical ability of an older person who can't walk. Physical ability see. Not size, ability to be carried etc etc.

Whereas my disability means I can walk for a short distance - such as round a supermarket - but am then exhausted and in a lot of pain by the time I reach the carpark.

Which, fairy is entirely fair enough. You need a wider space to open the door wide. I need a wider space so that I can open the door wide. Different reasons of course but the same problem. Supermarkets should meet both of our needs. You should have a disabled badge. If you haven't got one that doesn't mean that in my opinion, from what you've said, you should.

Disabilty is not always about physical ability.

I still don't get the on going "one or the other" sentiment here. Disabled people have a need for spaces and spaces are provided. What has that got to do with non-disabled p&c anyway??
Because people with disabilities are being vilified and abused for using them despite their legitimate need. A need much greater than an NT parent with an NT child.

The 'one or the other' comes from people trying to compare. Disabled spaces are a necessity. Mother and child spaces are a nice extra, if you can find them, but nothing more.

It hasn't gone unanswered psycho. I answered it. You choose car parks carefully, avoiding the ones where you have no chance of getting out. In a supermarket this isn't an option.

No, you don't need a wider space, you would like one. There is a massive difference. What do you do when you go to a car park where there are no P&C spaces? You cope and you manage.

But why compare? Why not argue that supermarkets should be providing more disabled spaces? Or that councils should lower the criteria for blue badges? Why vilify parents with young children?

I think the pushing a tiny baby around is pretty much the same as being disabled comment is a truly excellent example of the kind of mindset that MrsDV described so well.

It beggars belief quite how far up their own arses some parents of small children are. I can only imagine they'll look back in a few years and think 'oh dear' about the whole period.

Having children makes your life more difficult. When you decide to have a baby you know that you'll need to cart it around, you'll get less sleep, that children cost a bloody fortune and all the other petty inconveniences that come with being responsible for a tiny person. It's not a bloody surprise.

Use the bloody spaces if they're free but don't imagine that you need them or that you deserve a big space near the door simply because you want to cart a big plastic car seat around the supermarket rather than taking your baby out or that other people might not need to be near the door more than you (and honestly you can't know by looking).

No fairy, I don't. I don't park there. For example there's a car park near me that has diagonal spaces. I park there because I know I can open the door. It's twice the cost of the other car parks but that's where I park because I have to. Supermarkets tend to be out of town with only one car park on offer. If that one is inaccessible then the supermarket is.

DH will never meet the new criteria for a blue badge as his condition is intermittent in nature. Some days he can hardly put one foot in front of another. On those days I'd happily park in a P&C space but I wouldn't park in a BB one.

I don't understand - with 3 children, I have only ever used one of those trolleys that the car seat sits in once - I was too short to see over the bloody thing. I have never had an incidence, where it was too awkward to go shopping and we had to give up. The babies just went in a trolley, or in the buggy and i hung bags off the back - I really don't get why that is a big issue?!

As for p&c spaces, as others have said they are a perk, a lure to get more people shopping, not a right. The fact that people who have a genuine need to be nearer the store or have a wider space, but don't get a blue badge, get abuse for using them - is reason enough not to sign the petition.

Good post Calamitously.

Indeed purple- hence she parks in it. She is entitled to. My opinion on her need doesn't matter one jot. Your opinion on my need to park in p&c spaces similarly doesn't matter one jot.

Can you not see the irony in saying that all parents must be entitled without question to use p and c spaces whilst you are questioning whether your own mother should be using her legally sanctioned blue badge to park in a disabled space. Bizarre.

For your comment comparing shopping with a baby to having a physical disability you have earned my first ever

Spot on calamitously

Purple- I think you need to re read my posts.
Sauvignon- why would you park in a p&c space but not in a bb space with your husband who has a disability?

Singsong I'm late to reply to: "Did my shopping couldn't get back in. What do you suggest I do now?"

But I would suggest you take the number plate and go back to the shop and have an announcement put out for the owner to move the car. Exactly as you usually would if you've been blocked in.