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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that parent and child car parking spaced should have an age limit of 5 years.

245 replies

buntingbingo · 27/03/2016 09:26

Or be put at the back of the car park?

I have 3 dcs eldest is 9. Youngest is 2 months. Going to the supermarket is now a massive pain in the arse as there are never and p&c spaces.
I see people with giant kids who are perfectly able to walk, why do they need them? It's not the closeness to the shop that's useful, it's the extra width I need.
I end up struggling to get the baby seat out.
I think if they were at the back of the car park then people wouldn't bother with them unless they need the extra space. Or enforcing a lower age limit might stop the lazy people with big kids taking up all the spaces.
Rant over.
(Disclaimer. Obviously I'm not talking about anyone with special needs or disability, just kids capable of walking and perhaps shock helping to carry a bag or two)

OP posts:
FeralBeryl · 27/03/2016 20:45

Cross posted sorry

Hairyfecker · 27/03/2016 20:47

I'm from NI Dawndonna. No Sainsburys till the last twenty years! We had vans bringing pop round, bread too Smile. First local supermarket opened in the 1970s but it took a while to catch on.

Hairyfecker · 27/03/2016 20:48

Mind you there were no car seats either and not many wore seatbelts.

UmbongoUnchained · 27/03/2016 20:51

feral what?

unlucky83 · 27/03/2016 20:52

So is it only me that finds if I park well away from the shop entrance surrounded by empty spaces about 50% of the time some twat comes and parks right next to me? A raft of empty spaces ...but no right next to you ...and once I can only assume there was only the driver in that car and they were insane as they were so close that I had to climb in through the passenger door...
Now that's the people we should get angry about ...
(Or there was the woman who blocked the road in a car park with about 6 cars stuck behind her - waiting for me to finish struggling getting a tantruming 2 yr in a car seat in a standard space so I could close the door. And she was insisting on parking in the space right next to me...and there was a car next to that space then 2 empty spaces ...but no she waited for that exact space Confused....)

FeralBeryl · 27/03/2016 20:59

Umbongo your earlier post, that's why I said I'd cross posted.

grannytomine · 27/03/2016 20:59

I usually park at the back of the car park and pick a space at the end of a row so even if someone parks close to me on one side it is easy to get into on the otherside. I don't use P & C spaces when I am out with my grandchildren, I didn't need them for my own children and don't need them now. Maybe people should choose smaller cars if enormous cars are causing them such problems?

MissRabbitHasTooManyJobs · 27/03/2016 20:59

So do you suggest letting your 9 yo out in the car park as they're above the age of 5? Your op doesn't make much sense to me! Contradictory- put parent and child spaces far away?!
That's going to help if it's torrential rain etc.. Unfortunately the parent and child spaces are not legally bound as I was informed by a tesco employee when I mentioned that hardly anyone using them had kids as we were queuing for a space.
I have an autistic 13 year old who is head and shoulders above me and if I used one of these spaces im sure I would receive the cats bum face from many...

WhatTheFrikkinFrack · 27/03/2016 21:08

At our morrisons they have renamed them 'parent and toddler spaces'

UmbongoUnchained · 27/03/2016 21:09

feral sorry I didn't see that. I don't have my lenses in and I keep missing posts!

FeralBeryl · 27/03/2016 21:13

Grin imagining you sitting with a monocle in now!

UmbongoUnchained · 27/03/2016 21:17

Oh I wish! I have to keep getting up to change the channel on the to as I can read the guide from the sofa Grin

UmbongoUnchained · 27/03/2016 21:17

Tv
Can't
Sigh....

ginplease83 · 27/03/2016 21:22

Sooty- why do you always put 'are you always so......' When replying to posts? It's really goady.

unlucky83 · 27/03/2016 23:03

granny I have a standard sized car....and also try to park on row ends. But in at least 3 local supermarkets I can think of the row ends are only marked by lines on road - there is no paved bit to stand on .... so your DCs (and you) are standing in the road whilst they get in...and I guess you risk having a your wing mirror/bumpers dinted by people trying to cut corners ...

MrsMook · 27/03/2016 23:40

I'm finding that if I only have my 5 year old with me, then its recently become easier with a standard space. The high back booster is less bulky so easier to buckle him in, and he's fairly sensible about keeping close and walking sensibly.

With my 2 year old, having a safe walkway is useful, and that tends to be a feature of parent and child spaces. Wrestling him into a harness does mean the extra width is still handy. I'll often end up with every door open as boot capacity being reduced by a pram means I'll frequently use the front passenger door for shopping too.

When I was pregnant and on crutches with SPD and relying on the good will of a 2 year old to walk by himself, the location of parent spaces near the doors was invaluable. Similarly for months after when the SPD failed to shift in a hurry and I was negotiating a newborn and toddler. (Online shopping was not viable due to having to spread my shopping across 4 supermarkets around several free-from products as I could neither buy enough in each supermarket, nor obtain all the products I needed from the ranges avaliable)

My verdict is that it is useful to have wide spaces. It is useful to have them near the entrance. Most people will benefit from them less when a child is in the early years of school- plenty of exceptions avaliable!

Hallelujahheisrisen · 27/03/2016 23:45

I would use them with my seven and nine year old.

one has autism and is likely to take the paint of the car door next to us.
one has hypermobility syndrome and can not walk all the way round the supermarket without pain but is not disabled enough for a blue badge.

Brummiegirl15 · 27/03/2016 23:50

Dawn what I meant was parents who have a car seat in their car with no one in car who needs the space and dash in the store because they don't want to park further away

Your son does need it, which is why I referred to parents who don't need it at all!

grannytomine · 28/03/2016 11:44

A number of people have mentioned their children opening doors and damaging their car or neighbouring car, don't people use the child locks anymore? I always had childlocks on my cars until children were old enough not to do this? With young children who are prone to flinging doors open isn't it safer to use childlocks.

unlucky83 · 28/03/2016 15:58

Someone else up thread mention child locks too - my eldest (with ADHD) from the age of 11 or so sat in the front with me - so I can keep an eye on them and there is no bickering with their younger sibling in the back. I don't think there are child locks on front doors? And also they have to learn to think for themselves, to be careful, it has to become a habit to think and she won't always be - and even now isn't always - in a car with me, she does gets lifts off friend's parents etc . And for someone naturally impulsive it takes longer to learn. I wouldn't say she 100% reliable now at 15 not to forget - like I said my DP (also with ADHD) did similar a couple of weeks ago -cos we were in a hurry and he was a passenger, etc so a bit different.
Also 90% of the time I am not parking on car parks...I am parking on the drive or on the road side (DCs always on the pavement side). Having to open doors for them to get out when being dropped off at their friends or school or whatever would be a bit of a pain for me but -especially for the older one - embarrassing. In fact I used to take the child lock off (was on for 6 yr younger DD2) when I was doing lift shares for DD1s friends for 8-12 yo ...if I forgot there would be much moaning and groaning - can you imagine if they realised I still had it on for a 12yo DD1?

LifeofI · 28/03/2016 16:39

i see women use them for teenagers in brent cross

Dawndonnaagain · 28/03/2016 16:51

i see women use them for teenagers in brent cross
But you have no idea why they're using them, do you?

honkinghaddock · 28/03/2016 17:02

I think some people need to be grateful that they won't have to consider using them for their teenagers.

Marilynsbigsister · 28/03/2016 17:48

Can I let you in to a secret. ? In the 60's my mum, with a blind and disabled husband, plus 3 children under 6. Lived 11 miles from nearest supermarket. No public transport.

We all went with her on the weekly shop. No such thing as P&c spaces. You parked. You went shopping, you drove home. We have all made it to 50+ without discernible psychological upset at having to 'struggle' in normal spaces or walking from less packed end of car park. This is such a ridiculously middle class, first world problem in your own minds. I suggest finding a grip and 'getting hold of it' rapidly.

CockacidalManiac · 28/03/2016 17:51

This is such a ridiculously middle class, first world problem in your own minds. I suggest finding a grip and 'getting hold of it' rapidly.

Yes, yes and yes again.

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