To think that mother & baby spaces are for people with babies & small children?!

[cranberryx]

Parked up at asda before work and low and behold what do I see?

3 vans, an elderly gentleman and a young couple all park up and get out of their vehicles and stroll into asda. Not one car seat, not one small child in sight!

I know it wasn't a busy time (8am) but still, I would be so peed off if I parked up with my little one and couldn't find a space with space to get a car seat out of etc!

Next time I might have a word! Or am I just being a grump!

Serious question - which is worse - someone who doesn't have the right/need for a disabled space using it unchallenged, so that it is unavailable for someone who does have the need and right to use it, or someone who does have the need and right to use it being wrongly challenged?

I think it is wrong for someone like your mum, rale, to be confronted about using the disabled spaces, but I think it is equally wrong for someone able-bodied to abuse the spaces - I don't know how you square this particular circle.

I think with disabled spaces sdt it's a case of benefit of the doubt, someone with no displayed bb might have forgot it and not look physically disabled but still could be. personally the only time I've challenged someone in a bb space is if I know them anyway and know beyond all doubt they definitely have no disability. Or if it's blatantly obvious eg they say something that confirms they know they shouldn't be there, like the time I saw a work van pull up in one, 3 workmen got out and reassured me and a friend (without us initiating any exchange) they couldn't find another space but would only be 5 minutes

I think it is wrong for someone like your mum, rale, to be confronted about using the disabled spaces, but I think it is equally wrong for someone able-bodied to abuse the spaces - I don't know how you square this particular circle.

If you really want to challenge people who look like they may be abusing a blue badge space, you check their car for a blue badge first.

I don't mind at all except that I get fed up with entitled people thinking they must have one and it is like the BB places. It is nice if there is one, but if not just park elsewhere.
Indeed, and if you need room to open the door, make room. Push harder. Shops will soon redesign their carparks if they are inundated with complaints, and people will stop parking in tight spaces if they fear someone next to them may need to open their door to access a child seat. People are too precious about their motors. A few dents and scrapes never did any car any harm, but a little consideration for others goes a long way, so make room for those who need the room, or don't park in those spaces designated for those who need extra room, lest you find them squeezed in next to you next time, and the evidence of their door on your precious little Beamer.

If we leave the P&C spaces to those who need them, dispense with the, "I am entitled becuase I don't believe parents need more room," maybe all our nice shiny new motors won't pick up so much car park damage. It's called karma.

I always park in parent and child when I take my mother shopping. She is 80 and I am 51. It takes her ages to get in and out of the car so the extra space is welcome. We are parent and child. No worries.

My children are older but I sometimes use the parent spaces when I am taking my mother who is very frail and has dementia to Waitrose - she can't be dropped off in case she forgets I am coming in a minute, she can't walk from a long way away and she has no blue badge (doesn't drive herself), and I got a polite request not to use the disabled space last time I was there..........what to do!
Its not always as clear cut as it might appear

She doesn't need to drive to get a blue badge. You need to apply for one. My mother doesn't drive but she needs a disabled space when out - we couldn't cope without.

I didn't realise that people thought the disabled person had to be the driver. Perhaps a lot of people are missing out.

Drive an old car. Park it where you like. It's amazing how much space you get when your car is already scratched and dented like you don't give a hoot about how many times it has come into contact with things. People are so precious about their cars these days, that fear of what might happen to their pretty little car is a great deterrent.

What are these spaces for? Is it to provide extra wide spaces so doors can be opened fully to lift out toddlers and car seats, or is it to avoid parents having to steer small children across a car park? Some people have even suggested part of their purpose is to keep kids dry in rainy weather.

I'm confused

To open doors. You can easily put them in a far corner on the same side as the doors. You do not lose the use of your legs when you give birth! Neither does a spot of rain hurt and you can use an umbrella.

There are parent and children parking bays? I'm always learning on here!

Isit

Do apply for one, your mum doesn't have to drive herself.

My Nanna has a blue badge, she has never driven in her entire life. She is however deaf and blind which makes navigating car parks somewhat difficult and on occasion a white knuckle experience. Without the blue badge it would be manageable but also a complete nightmare.

Recently I was the crazy lady who had beef with someone without a child using a p and c space. I am not ashamed for thinking they were wrong, but am v ashamed and guilty to have lost my temper in public in front of my child. There were no P and C spaces, I parked in a normal space and I managed just about to shimmy out of my side (8.5 months pregs) and get toddler out of his side. Had to carry him across the car park as he likes to run off. Walked past adults casually entering their car without a child and lost it - went hormonal crazy for two minutes. Regreting it now.

On returning to the car I couldn't physically fit into my side so the van driver parked next to me kindly moved his van while I got in.

Yes, I could have sat in my car and waited for a P and C space. I could have driven to another supermarket or come back later. Yes, what they did wasn't illegal.

But it was immoral and I hope karma bites their arse.

P&C spaces make life a bit easier for parents of young children - so someone who parks in them without good reason (ie. a parent or someone else with a small child, a disabled person when all the disabled spaces are full or someone like dementedma with her mother), then they could well be making someone else's life a bit harder - either deliberately or carelessly.

That just seems petty and mean to me.

Sometimes people park in them because there's no other space available SDT. Or because they have an elderly passenger in the car and it's lashing rain outside. Or because it's late in the evening and there's a row of empty spaces at the door marked P&C.
It's not always down to being petty and mean.

Also, I think self entitled parents who go around rudely confronting other shoppers who park in these spaces, really don't do other parents any favours as it can spark antipathy towards the whole concept of P&C spaces.

Really parents should just see them as a nice concession but not become self entitled about them, and supermarkets should have the sense to place them away from the main door so that their status doesn't become confused with that of BB spaces.

Nursery - a lot of your examples just highlight lazy people though. You can see them as a "nice concession" but fact is- they are there for parents with kids and we should be able to be use them if they are there- unless someone frail or disabled really needs them.

People who use them otherwise are just being selfish.

Supermarket queue for baskets/5 items or less..someone with 15 items queues up because queue is shorter. Its just laziness, they clearly don't qualify to use it and are causing people its intended for extra time.. just as are people parking in these spaces when they are not the people the space is intended for. They show a buggy/pram on the picture- I'd be completely embarrassed to park there if I didn't have a kid, and so should you (unless elderly/disabled).

Why is that so hard to grasp?!

How is it highlighting 'lazy' people. I don't really get that. If I have my elderly mother in the car who's not great on her feet how is it 'lazy' to park at the door. If it's a busy Saturday afternoon and I've been driving around for ten minutes looking for a space to no avail and then see someone pulling out of a P&C space how is it 'lazy' to park there?

You might not agree with doing either of the above, but I don't understand how you would describe it as 'lazy'.

Yes some people use them when they shouldn't, but no amount of "shouting" at people like that will change them in most cases. However, shouting at someone who does need it but that need may not be visible could make a shit day even shitter for them.

That's why a "if it's free park there if not go elsewhere" approach is much better

Haven't read every post on this thread (but have read many similar threads over the years). Agree with everything TheTravellingLemon said about consideration for others and not being an arse. Also agree that blue badge holders should certainly park in P&C places if they need to.

I have a DD who is young enough for me to get away with P&C parking. She also has a blue badge, as she can't walk. Our local supermarket has more blue badge spaces than P&C ones - so I always use a disabled space if one is available, to save the P&C spaces for parents of young kids. That seems entirely fair enough to me.

Nursery You're just being facetious. Both the OP and the person you are responding to pointed out that their issue is with people who choose to use them who have no children and do so because they can't be bothered finding a parking space elsewhere.

Yes, everyone them started jumping on the bandwagon with the elderly and disabled excuses, but that is not the issue. The issue is with the selfish and the bone idle idiots who couldn't give a F about parents or their children, so long as they don't have to walk an extra ten meters to their car.

Bold writing with a Sharpie is a good way to explain to a driver that they should park more considerately.

I haven't read a single post objecting to disabled people needing to use those spaces, but if that 'disability' comes with no BB, and happens to be that your children have grown up and you feel lonely, then it's not a disability, it's a distended rectum.

People using them with no reason to (ie able bodied, no children, not elderly) are VERY annoying however it can't be enforced and no amount of getting angry will stop them being ignorant and entitled.
My mum was shouted at the other day when she went back to the car (parked in a parent and child space) to get something. She's in her 50s, able bodied, no reason to park there and there was no visable child seat in the car. What the stupid man shouting at her didn't see was me and my 12 week old (in her car seat) in the shop waiting for DM to get back with her dummy that had been dropped on the seat of the car. I definitely saw red when she came back very upset and flustered and told me about the shouting man in the car park. .

Nursery - I guess you missed the bit of my post that said, "...someone who parks in them without good reason". No other space available in the car park - pretty rare in my experience, but a good reason. Having an elderly passenger and it pouring with rain - also a good reason.

Late night, lots of empty spaces - I would still not park in P&C spaces.