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!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius Teeste - early in the thread you mentioned cars in P&C spaces with no car seat in them - these could be people whose baby is tiny, and who have taken the baby into the store in the car seat, couldn't it?

Yup, entirely possible and it's what we do too. Although in my (admittedly limited) experience, you'd leave a base behind and have other visible child-related paraphernalia in your car, such as sun shades on the windows. Plus I've seen people just park in them and get out with no DC (also when BB spaces were available and closer). But I've also seen plenty of people, parents and non-parents, park like inconsiderate tools in all kinds of other situations, like the eejit who parked all across our driveway yesterday. It's a general thing IME and one of life's minor embuggerances, therefore it's reasonable to have a minor whinge about it!

What a bloody fuss some parents make if parenthood! Ffs get on.

I had 4 kids and never needed to park in one. I am a cm now with lots of littlies and still can cope without using them.

I would gladly see them abolished and more spaces given to elderly and disabled shoppers.

Yhe world doesn't revolve around you pushing a baby out. Women have done it for years and managed to shop/park without huge spaces.

Get a smaller bloody car and think about the real issues here that will affect your kids like the environment pollution emissions from your huge bloody cars.

Walking and rain are good for kids.

Walking is good for parents.

If you really can't discipline and manage 2 or more children in and out if a car without it's being a spits throw from the shop or having a huge gap either side them you need to take a good look at your parenting skills.

And if somewhere challenged our parking in a P&C space, or indeed fined me for it, I wouldn't be returning there. Morally and ethically wrong to penalise someone with a disability for parking in P&C.

And walking away from a car doesn't make the person not disabled. I can walk away from the car, I'm in a fuckload of pain, but you won't see that. You won't see the incontinence, or the fact that my bladder has fallen into my vag and hurts like a bitch on standing. You won't see the fatigue from kidney and joint problems that mean I have to be careful of how much I do so that I can cope to do basic things like cook my dinner or take my clothes off for bed. All you'll see is me, with a slight limp, walking away.

ghostyslovesheep Can I just add - while wearing my flame proof suit - I hate seeing babies in car seats out of the car - they are hard plastic seats - take them out and lie them flat in a nice comfy pram or in a baby seat on a trolly - stop squishing them up for hours in car seats well would've thought you'd be seriously in support of P&C spaces in that case, as to get most buggies with bulky bassinet out of the car requires doors fully open and serious manoeuvring space i.e.. not the majority of non P&C spaces in most car parks. If baby is blissfully asleep - taking car seat out of car and popping onto buggy frame means they can continue sleeping, seems a bit cruel to force them out of it. Car seats are hardly "plastic"?! They are extremely well padded, comfy things hence why most babies love to sleep in them- which is fine of parents is around and watching baby in it.

But starkers your opening insult was 'lazy slobs' which surely implied that you were talking about people parking in p&c spaces beside the door. I don't understand why it's lazy to park in a p&c space at the further end of the car park.

They are a bit scrunched up though, in a car seat. Popping them into a pram shouldn't wake them up much, and I know with mine a few minutes of grumbling would subside with me pushing the pram. Worked like a sleeping tablet would, pram or car and movement equals asleep. Aren't there recommendations for how long an infant can be in a car seat? Been so long since mine were wee, I've forgotten.

'If you really can't discipline and manage 2 or more children in and out if a car without it's being a spits throw from the shop or having a huge gap either side them you need to take a good look at your parenting skills'

Total and utter bollocks.

daisywellies "in the main" implies that obviously not all are.

Nitpicking trying to start a bunfight won't work.

Bubgal I always did - babies tended to go back to sleep once lying in a pram or in a sling - they look all twisty and scrunchy in their seats

What's a M&P space that some posters are using instead of P&C?

s. Plus I've seen people just park in them and get out with no DC (also when BB spaces were available and closer

Unfortunatly disability doesn't mean blue badge. They are hard to qualify for. DS is disabled, he doesn't have a blue badge. If a p and c space is the best space at that time I will use it and will continue to do so as he gets older

Although in my (admittedly limited) experience, you'd leave a base behind and have other visible child-related paraphernalia in your car, such as sun shades on the windows. Not necessarily. If I look after my relatives' foster baby for the day I would use a parent and child space (if I thought about it) and there would be no baby paraphernalia in the car because it would all be attached to the baby seat the baby is in, or in the changing bag. I don't have a base in my car, I just have the baby seat.
I have my DGC children's car seats in my car now because I looked after them for the weekend. Must nip to Waitrose so I can use a Parent and Child space. Hope no one notices the children aren't with me.

I have no problem with someone who is elderly parking closest to the building. they need a close space far more than I do and I am a mum of 2 including a newborn. I am fully capable of getting a stroller out of the car and walking the extra way. I am not even sure why having kids would warrant a special parking space. Most kids I know are so full of energy, more so than adults.

Today I found out that 6 year olds aren't 'child' enough to warrent a P&C space.

I hate that people make up random rules for these complementary spaces.

Well yanbu in my opinion. It's lack of consideration for other people that I don't like. I can't fath
Why anyone would park in a parent and baby space unless of course there were no others, disability aside. Maybe if it was Christmas Eve busy I can understand but I hate it when there are loads of spaces and people just park up and saunter in.

As a parent of two under 2 with a massive pram, often my only option is to put the pram behind the car and on the road, which is annoying.

Extra annoying when I have a trolley with two seats in and no brake and the trolley goes floating away as I put baby 1 into the car. If I have space at the side of the car I can jam it in between my front and back door

Argh, what a rant. But I wish people were more considerate of others

But Hezaire, do we have a right not to feel annoyed? Especially when the root cause of that annoyance is that we've chosen to have children?

You can feel annoyed, or not!

It just makes me annoyed

starkers they were around in my day. As were big cars and car seats. And I regularly found them a source of amusement because by the time I'd parked, unloaded dd, walked the length of the car park, got a trolley, gone to the cash machine etc the same car that turned into the car park would still be circling the p&c spaces like a vulture waiting desperately for a space.
It should also be noted no car park provides p&c spaces because they give a shit about some poor mummy struggling to negotiate the function of a car door, their pfb and a short walk. If they were arsed about struggling parents they'd be running transport round deprived areas, where you know, some parents manage to negotiate a car park as well as a pram, toddler, a bus, loads of heavy shopping etc. The absolutely only reason they provide p&c for the first group is because they spend more than the second group.

Soup really? You seriously can't manage to get 2 children or even 4 like me safely from a car to a shop?

Wow!

I like the space available in P&C spaces, certainly makes it easier to get the car seat out. I can use a normal space obviously and would do if necessary. But it wouldn't bother me if they were furthest away from the door, I do find the larger space easier to use. If there is one free, I'm going to use it. BUT if one isn't available I don't circle around waiting for one - I just park elsewhere.

Conversely I know of some ignorant sod who scraped a pram down the side of the car in a normal sized space and then just drove off! In this instance surely you'd leave the pram at the back of the car?!

itsmine I would sign. Really pisses me off to see a couple (mark you 2 healthy adults)feeling the need to priority park because they have, wait for it, 2 healthy toddlers with them.

Utter bollocks when my parents are 80 and frail and dad has to help mom as she has oserophorosis and is petrified of falling over and they have to park further away.

Selfish cunts in my opinion.

And it's always the same parents who can't control their brats around the shop either.

Surprised they don't demand free childcare while they shop as it's all sooooo hard.

Fanjo 'In the main' implies the majority, and I certainly dispute that the 'majority' of people who park in p&c spaces without children are 'lazy bastards'. Making sweeping and rude statements and then telling anyone who challenges you on them that they are 'nitpicking and starting a bunfight' is a little bit cheap.

And I would definitely sign a petition to have them renamed OAP spaces. I suspect they would be treated with a lot more respect than p&c spaces, and with good reason.