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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To use a parent and child parking space

113 replies

Marymaymay · 30/05/2016 20:54

I'm 35 weeks pregnant and huge (size 10 everywhere else but a larger than average bump) with hips which are gradually displacing, almost constant braxton hicks and generally exhausted and a bit pathetic.

What would you think if you saw me use a parent and child's space at the supermarket?

OP posts:
FastWindow · 30/05/2016 21:58

One of our local shopping centres has four or five bays marked with a stork carrying a parcel. They are charming and came in handy past 30 weeks or so!!

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 30/05/2016 22:00

I wouldn't care, I save my ire for all the twats who make it impossible to get a disabled spaces by parking in them with no badges and going to gym (disabled spaces are in short supply here, as are all spaces)

Waltermittythesequel · 30/05/2016 22:01

But this thread is about P&C spaces. Not disabled bays.

Bombaybunty · 30/05/2016 22:01

I would if I was you.

I park in them when I take my mother shopping. She's 84, has limited mobility and struggles to get out of the car unless the door can be fully opened. We've been shouted at but am I bovvered???

OMGBabyNo3 · 30/05/2016 22:04

Hell yes. I once heavily pregnant had to wait half an hour for someone to come out of shop and move their van. He had parked so close to my car that there was no way I could manoeuvre in!! Technically I was and you are a parent and child Wink

HunterHearstHelmsley · 30/05/2016 22:09

Go for it.

I've used them when my blood sugar dipped and I needed to park quickly and easily without crashing!

That time though, some woman got her child to ask if I'd forgotten my child. I said "I didn't want him anymore so left him inside.. I think that's what your mum is going to do with you".

Unicow · 30/05/2016 22:16

Tesco used to send you a badge when you joined the baby club that said you could use them as you were pregnant or had a child under 5.

I don't use them now as all 3 kids can do their own belts and be trusted to walk safely in a car park. That's my criteria for not needing one anymore.

Wouldn't bother me you using one whilst very pregnant.

greebstreebling · 30/05/2016 22:19

I wouldn't care especially either. I still use them and have a 9 year old DD and a 6 year old DS who has ASD and is a runner. So, I get that people further up the thread might think that people with older children shouldn't use them but some of us have to...

But go for it. Park away!

Spudlet · 30/05/2016 22:24

I had SPD so badly I could barely move at the end... No parent worth their salt would begrudge you the use of a P&C space. Do it.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 30/05/2016 22:25

Walter I said I save my ire for those people so wouldn't care what OP did.

Ie I made a relevant comment to OP

I can read the OP, funnily enough Hmm

MrsAmaretto · 30/05/2016 22:33

Use them. Pregnancy can be hellish.

I remember sitting in tears cause I'd parked in various normal bays and couldn't get the door open far enough to get out whilst pregnant

Osirus · 30/05/2016 22:48

I'm 37 weeks and use them occasionally. There is no law against parking in them like there is with disabled. Who enforces the fine!?

MrsExcited · 30/05/2016 22:55

I say go for it. You have a child they are just inutero. You also need the extra manovering space to get said child safely in and out of the car, the same as anyone else who needs to fully open the door to safely strap their child in.

That is from someone who will pull snotty faces when people are abusing them. I never dreamed of using them prior to having children and can't abide the ones who

MummyBex1985 · 30/05/2016 22:55

Oh the etiquette! Lol.

Go for it. I wouldn't judge.

I used one for the first time ever this week. I never take my kids shopping but this time needs must. I had three under 10 DCs with me and I didn't fancy trusting their road sense so I used one. They were 70% free though.

Fully expected to be judged myself but I put my kids safety first.

AlpacaLypse · 30/05/2016 23:00

For the last six weeks of my pregnancy with dtds there was no way I could get in or out of the driver's seat unless the door was opened to max. yanbu OP, in a normal carpark there's always the risk of someone parking right up to the line beside your door while you're in the shop.

Amy214 · 30/05/2016 23:06

Just take up two normal spaces? Ive started doing this as inconsiderate people always bash the side of my car! In the last 6 months ive had a dent in my passenger door and white scuff marks on the other side, not once has someone admitted fault so i park however and wherever i want couldnt give a monkeys anymore! Cant afford to keep forking out for repairs.. (when i have my 2 year old dd i use parent and child spaces as its just the same)

Waltermittythesequel · 30/05/2016 23:43

I can imagine some prick damaging your car on purpose if you keep doing that though. So I'd be prepared to be forking out for more damage!

GreatFuckability · 31/05/2016 00:27

I use them when with my 9/11/12 year olds sometimes. I have a 2 door car, 9 yo is dyspraxic, 11 year old has Achilles tendon issues and i have a back issue which isn't bad enough to warrant a blue badge, but hurts like fuck regardless. I don't give a shit who judges me for it.

citychick · 31/05/2016 03:12

I'd probably just assume you already have a small child with you, because you're pregnant...And not give it another thought.

I do remember my DM attempting to find a parent parking place with My DS in the car as a toddler. She saw an older mum parking in the p parking place and was so fed up, she questioned the lady as to where her child was.

The reply was that she was nipping in to collect her daughter's 21st birthday cake, so yes, she felt she was fully entitled to use the space.

Que DMs cats bum face, hands on hips and a "well I think that attitude is quite disgraceful" reply.

And I do agree. That lady was taking the piss. But she didn't care.

MadamDeathstare · 31/05/2016 03:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

KoalaDownUnder · 31/05/2016 03:30

I couldn't care less.

If you're in that state, you're close enough to being 'and child', I'd say.

Plus, I really can't be arsed with the policing of these spaces.

Packergator · 31/05/2016 05:58

Oh, I do apologise booklooker, I didn't take a photograph to use as evidence on the extraordinarily obscure chance that my honesty would be challenged on an Internet forum that I posted on because it just happened to bear some slight resemblance to something I'd witnessed earlier that day that had particularly irked me. Tsk, silly me.

SanityClause · 31/05/2016 06:43

Well, frankly, packergator, considering how often these threads come up on MN, it would only have been a week, tops, before your photograph came in handy. Wink

WellErrr · 31/05/2016 06:50

I am also heavily pregnant with SPD.

But I have to take two children under 4 everywhere too, and if you think it's hard parking a few spaces away now, try it when you have 2 children the manoeuvre out of car seats and get safely across the car park.

YABU. You don't need the extra space as much as others.

randomsabreuse · 31/05/2016 07:06

In late pregnancy I've had to wait until the person next to me got back to the car as they parked too close for me to get between the cars. Getting in passenger side and climbing also not possible... for some reason I still tried turning sideways!

I didn't use the P&C spaces as apart from people parking like dicks I was lucky enough not to have any mobility issues but if I'd been stuck out of my car more than once then I would definitely have used the P&C space. Now with 9mo it depends how big the normal spaces are as walking isn't a problem but access to car doors can be.