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

Our local multi storey has spaces 'for bigger cars'. They are always full of small hatchbacks.

All cars seem so much bigger these days! Is that actually a thing or is it just my memory? I remember my grandmas little micra like it could fit in a space sideways. Compare the old fiesta to a new one, a new one seems the size of an old focus?

Or is it just me

Spaces are definitely smaller. The local multi storey has the combo of teeny narrow space and a big pillar in it. Then to get out there is the spiral of doom that has car paint all over the sides.

All cars seem so much bigger these days!

Maybe it's because we're all so much bigger these days as well, we don't fit into the little cars of old.

Joking aside, bigger people + children all in big chunky car seats may we really don't fit in little cars anymore.

I certainly won't sign it. I can see a need for wider spaces but I would put them in a far corner- they do not need to be anywhere near the entrance.
We managed fine without them when mine were little.

I wouldn't sign this. Its not the walking i care about. what I do wish is that parking spaces in general were bigger. I have 3 DC's and sometimes I struggle to get them out of the car if I park between 2 other cars. My local shopping centres car parking spaces are awful.

Just had a thought, before car seats were widely used for babies/children, you've got a new baby and need to go out in the car, what did people do, just lie the baby down on the passenger seat next to you and try not to brake sharply? I know far fewer women drove and people shopped locally on foot but some women must have faced this problem.

They had a carrycot on the back seat.

Oh, of course!

Not sure what happened as they grew out of the carrycot.

What a pointless piece of self publicity. The supermarkets own their own land and arrange their carparks as they see fit. Why would they or should they listen to the results of this petition? Parent and child spaces are useful for parents or carers getting their children out of a car and safely into the shop. Why would anyone waste energy on getting private land owners to rearrange their parking?

But the supermarkets have provided this facility on there own land, by putting the P&C sign up they are asking people who are using the private land to not use that bit unless they have a child with them.

Ignoring their request appears to be amusing for many

Sorry, I meant why would the supermarkets listen to a petition. They can use parking spaces for whatever the like. Mostly i have only seen people use them when they have small kids in the car (apart from at a leisure centre recently when the 'child' was approx 15yo!).

I wouldn't sign it because I think it isn't important enough for something that official.

You only really get these spaces in supermarket car parks anyway. These car parks are not huge. Nor are they very often full. The vast majority of people, including many of those with blue badges, are perfectly capable of walking across a car park.

But I do see the benefit of wider spaces for many people and think that those who use P and C spaces for no reason at all are very selfish and inconsiderate.

If I was organising a supermarket car park I'd have a section of spaces for blue badge holders which would be enforceable. And a section of wider and nearer to the entrance spaces for those who need them for any other reason (young kids, pregnant, ill, injured, mildly disabled, loads of heavy stuff to get etc) which would be a courtesy and non enforceable. There'd be nothing to stop others using them but a general culture of thinking you were a bit of a twat if you did.

midnightscribbler yes, I get that that must have been really annoying for you. But I don't know what I am supposed to do. If someone parks too close, when you have already chosen the far end of the car park, and you can't get your children in, what do you actually do?

I can't leave a 5 year old, a 3 yr old and a small baby loose in a car park while I pull out and make more space. I can't even leave the younger 2 safely in a trolley as they have no brakes.

I would never be careless with someone else's paintwork, and I always try to be considerate in the way I park. But I genuinely can't get the children in and reach across to get the belts done up if someone has parked 20cm from my side.

I wouldn't sign it.

They're a courtesy not a right. Blows my mind how they're actually closer to the shops than disabled spaces are sometimes.

A free none council owned car park is a courtesy just the same as these bays are.

The person who actually owns the car park has provided this courtesy and quite understandably expects it to be used as they intended it to be.

People would get pretty pissed off about other people parking where you don't want them to on land they owned, earlier today I was on a thread full of people winging about legally parked vehicals on the public highway just because they were parked near their house. But it's ok when someone else owns the land.

yes, I get that that must have been really annoying for you. But I don't know what I am supposed to do.

Your lack of ability to open a door without damaging someone else's property should not be my problem. I have a very large oversized 4WD ad managed to get DS in and out of the car in all sorts of carparks without using a parents and child space, and without damaging another vehicle. How can I manage it and yet others seem so completely incapable? Or is it that they just don't give a shit about other people's property?

Midnite Surely though the same could be said for the inconsiderate driver who parked inches away? Can they really care for their property if they park like a wanker?

Of course I left details when my son scraped the car next to us- I am considerate which I more than can be said for some of the people posting here! But as other posters have mentioned when you have a trolley with no brakes and two young children and you can hardly fit between the cars carrying your children things can get tricky. I'm interested though that there are not enough disabled places. I live in London and in the local big supermarket and the local big shopping area the disabled spaces are always empty- far too many of them and not enough child and baby spaces ( I live in what is referred to as nappy valley so lots of babies!)

I would sign a petition to have them in a far corner of the car park. That would solve all problems - they could have a wider space and no one would want them if they didn't have small children. Can't think of why supermarkets don't do that. They could put them in the furthest corner without having to cross the car park.

I see no reason for them to be near the doors of the shop.

I would rather they were accessible spaces for anyone that would find them helpful. Such as people who are disabled, sometimes severely disabled, but don't have a blue badge.

Oh, here we go! Here comes the fictious world where disabled spaces are always empty!

I can tell you, as a disabled person, that is not the case and it is often very hard to get one so I park in P&C spaces.

I live in a fairly normal suburb of a large city and they're not normally empty where I am.

Any P&C spaces should be at the back of the car park. I frequently use a Sainsbury s in the evening which isn't local to me. It has twice as many P&C as disabled spaces and all very near the door. Before much longer, seeing them all empty at 9pm I swear I'm going to start using them.