About 'mother & baby' parking spaces...

[toohardtothinkofaname]

And that those without kids who park in them should get bollocked?

I can never get parked in one & today a woman trying to park in the space next to me BEEPED at me struggling to attach the car seat to the pram because she couldn't get in beside me. The baby spaces were opposite, no spaces for me, and of the 4 people In them I saw get in or out of their cars, absolutely none had children

The bloody spaces aren't even closer to the doors so no idea why they insist of taking up space.

I'm sure there's been threads on this before but need to rage & OH sick of my driving stories haha

[NickiFury]

And zeek, if I came across someone who did that in RL, I would think they were a right twat.

[SingaSong12]

Can't drive and I'm not a parent. My impression from reading through is that there a range of people who need extra space, some who need to be close to the shop and some both. A number of these are parents with young children and some are disabled and eligible for a blue badge. Others are pregnant, elderly, frail or disabled (but not disabled enough for a badge) or have temporary problems such as a broken leg. There are also people with larger cars and yes people in vans who want to park. At the moment two of these groups have larger spaces. (The shops I've been in have now changed to parent and young child to stop the adult parent with adult child).

Unfortunately the only set of people with proof of need are blue badge holders (with the disabled person there, but distinguishing is hard as people have hidden disabilities so someone that looks fit may still be a holder).
For everyone else it is chance what a shop may/may not provide. I would be angry if my parents parked in the P&C spaces because they have been designated. I'd like to see blue badge spaces and other wider spaces for those "less able to move far" close by and another set of wide spaces "needing extra space" at the other end of the car park. There will always be thoughtless people who will use these spaces when they don't need them, but it covers that wider range of people to make the choice. After that it will be up to people's conscience. We can stop getting angry because we won't know whether the person in the close large space needs it or not so can't be judgmental.

[bimandbam]

The thing about p amd c spaces is that it is up to the business to decide who can and can't use them. Not anyone else. They are there for a purely business reason not to be altruistic to parents. Presumably parents cars spend more money per car than general cars and encouraging parents is in the business' s interest.

So if a 'perk' is laid on for a specific group of people it is wrong for anyone who is not entitled to that perk to use it. It would be unreasonable for me to get some fake id that showed I was a pensioner to get a 10% discount on Wednesdays at our local diy store. Or for me to go to a local pub which offers free kids meals with every paying adult and pretend dp is a rough looking 14 year old to get free nuggets and chips for him. Or get to pretend to be someones carer to get free access to a theme park etc.

All these things are there to make life a bit easier.for a selected group of people and others are not entitled to them.

[honkinghaddock]

Supermarkets don't care who uses them. They may provide them to attract the custom of parents with young children but they are not interested beyond that.

[CountryRoadTakeMeHome]

I once parked in p & c space got out and headed towards the supermarket. A lady in a car with a toddler then drove up and very close to me winds down her window and gives me an abusive earfull. I just ignored. I came back to my car with my husband, 16 month old and 4 week old plus huge tandem buggy and bags of shopping ( I had dropped them all off and popped to the bank). Lady is sat there parked across my boot, obviously deciding she will block me in. When she realises that indeed I did have children with me she sidles off in pursuit of an alternative space.

On a different note, the width of these spaces is important. I parked in a regular space (and I had parked centrally) when I returned a while later cars had parked on the lines on each side meaning I could only just squeeze myself into car (I'm very slim if that's at all relevant). Issue was I had DS with me asleep in his car seat and no way could I get him in the car or even the boot. I had to set him down on the pavement and pull forward before I could get him in!

[Lamu]

waitrose Please do report to erm Waitrose about my quite obviously unreasonable, twatish, selfish parking. I'm not sure what you expect them to do. Given that a) I'm a paying customer and b) I've parked within a marked parking bay. As long as there's no law regarding P&C spaces, I will continue parking in them with or without my children.

I can't understand why people get so entitled about it. The space does not belong to you...I couldn't care less where people park. The aim is to get in and get out asap. If theres no P&C space, just use the next available one and park closer to the markings on one side! I've done it with a 4x4, lots of people do it. Or go to the supermarket first thing in the morning when it's empty then you can park where the hell you like.

[CrazyMary]

Yanbu.
and its not even Friday night yet, a potential midweek bunfight

[WaitrosePigeon]

I will. Like I said, when I complained that person got a £70 fine. Hopefully they didn't do it again after that.

[Donnadoon]

YABU I have DC6 on board and a big car, I never seem to beable to get one of these spaces If your not fast you're last!

[leelu66]

countryroad you reminded me of this parking video

m.youtube.com/watch?v=QTcFb-0USP8

Best bit right at the end!

[WaitrosePigeon]

Arghh I know Crazy, don't even know why I'm engaging!

[CountryRoadTakeMeHome]

Leelu66

Haha! It was more or less like that however they had been kind enough to leave about 8 inches to slide and wiggle between cars!

[IloveAntbuthateDec]

Mu mum is 90 years old and has very limited mobility. She is hunched over and cannot go outside without being escorted. Her blue badge is under review at the moment. Why does a parent with a healthy baby/toddler need a wider space than an OAP with mobility issues who cannot park in a disabled space as she doesn't have a blue badge at this moment despite having a blue badge for the past 6 years?? Should she stay at home for the time it takes for her new blue badge to be delivered? How will she get her shopping done? Will the baby/toddler melt if they cannot park right next to the shop??

[butterflylove16]

Wow, some people are so mean on here. I can't imagine being so rude to someone, in rl or online.

I agree that the spaces should be used as intended.

[toohardtothinkofaname]

IloveAnt whole other thread on thoughts about people like that still even driving...

[RebeccaCloud9]

Surely the point of these spaces is for people who need extra space because of a car seat/buggy and/or physical issues. If you have neither of these then why would you use a space that could be used by someone who does? Fair enough, it's not the law, or an enforceable right, but why, morally, would you choose to take that space from someone who needs it more just because you want to? And no, they haven't always existed. But now they do, why not let people who need them use them?

[IloveAntbuthateDec]

Too Hard are you for real? Obviously she is not still driving but there is nothing stopping her shopping at Tesco is there - As long as someone drives her there? Is there something not quite right with your brain??

[toohardtothinkofaname]

Calm yourself down, can you not see that was tongue in cheek? Jeez quite a lot of you on here get so bloody serious. Here, have my last.

[anklebitersmum]

If it weren't for the sliding doors on our 7-seater people carrier we wouldn't be able to get the biters in and out of the car in most normal parking spaces.
DH and I are now experts at the suck in and squeeeeze method of getting in and out

Parent & child spaces are splendid but if they just made all spaces big enough for a big people carrier to park in and open the doors properly as opposed to 6" each side we'd all be a lot happier and OP wouldn't have had 'the rage' and started another parking space thread which in turn appears to have given other people 'the rage'

[possum18]

I'm a few weeks away from giving my birth to twins and in our local super market car park if DH doesn't park in the p&c spaces I really can't get in and out his car. Last week a parent with a 8/9 year old was really nasty at me for using the space with no child in tow.
Today I had bad feeling about parking there after being so embarrassed so DH had stop before pulling in to a regular space, blocking the row to come and get me out, before getting back in the car to pull the car into the space and someone shouted at us to hurry up and not to block the road.

Can't win, going to start shopping online

[midnightmoomoo]

If they just made parking spaces wider a lot of this would be resolved. Years ago our Sains swapped the blue badge spaces and mother and baby spaces over and there were lots of complaints because it meant the few parent spaces were closer to the shop than the disabled spaces. So Sains took the approach that if you were 'entitled' to use either type of space you could do just that, if you had a blue badge you could use the parent parking spaces and if you had kids in tow and the parent spaces were taken you could use a disabled space. Seemed quite a sensible approach to me.
Now my kids are older (youngest is 7) I haven't used a parent space in years, even with kids in the car. It's just courtesy really. But I do wish parking spaces were wider, which must explain why I like Costco so much, huge spaces there!!!

[toohardtothinkofaname]

And the pizzas are bigger too! registers for Costco card

[PurpleDaisies]

So Sains took the approach that if you were 'entitled' to use either type of space you could do just that, if you had a blue badge you could use the parent parking spaces and if you had kids in tow and the parent spaces were taken you could use a disabled space. Seemed quite a sensible approach to me.

The supermarket seriously said that people without a blue badge could park in disabled spaces? That's absolutely dreadful. It's totally appropriate that blue badges can park in p and c spaces but no way should able bodied parents be taking up a disabled space.

[SilkObsidian]

ILove, why can't you pull up by the main entrance to store, help your mum out, and help her to the seats by entrance so she can rest while you go and park?
Obviously a parent can't leave a young child unattended in this way!

[LoisWilkersonsLastNerve]

galloping arsehole

I've learnt a cool new insult. Praise be mumsnet.