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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

... to expect people who use parent & baby car parking spaces to have children with them?

465 replies

fryalot · 05/02/2007 15:11

Or am I the only who gets fed up of waiting for a space because they are all filled with lazy b***ds who can't be bothered to walk an extra yard?

OP posts:
3andnomore · 08/02/2007 15:51

Jenwa, the problem is not the statement of becoming the carpark-monitor....the statement that she now uses the disabled bays instead is what is shocking, and being stressed or hormonla, or feeling wrong done by does NOT excuse that.

misdee · 08/02/2007 15:54

do not use disabled bays if not disabled. simple really isnt it?

having a baaaaaaaby does not make you disabled. i can neogiate a packed car park with 3 terrors, one with ASD traits, quite easily. shove my dh in the car, and if we cant get a disabled space or an end space for him to swing his door wide open, get his heart equipment in and out etc etc then we turn round and go home.

jenwa · 08/02/2007 15:57

3andnomore - I know thats what people are annoyed about, just agreeing with her re car park monitor.

I dont park in disabled places myself but know people who have. Although I do when I visit my gran in her nursing home as they are normally the only spaces left and the other ones are even more narrow then normal ones! I am there early and there are never any disabled drivers there and they know who I am if I need to move. (only park there when dd with me)

In our local carpark there are loads of disabled spaces and they never get filled , oph yes did park there once too but that was as the whole floor was empty and it appeared all mother and babys were parking there!

have not done though in tescos or at any other occassion.

2shoes · 08/02/2007 16:15

so if you can park in disabled bays i can park in p&t bays.

tirnanog · 08/02/2007 16:35

There is absolutely no excuses that can justify the use of a disabled parking bay by an abled bodied person.This discussion has rumbled on for days now and I'm completely amazed by some of the posts,life is hard enough when you are unable to walk very well or far but to find your ability to park in a spot which is designated to you ,not because it happens to be convenient but because it is essential is incomprehensible.

2shoes · 08/02/2007 16:51

well said tirnanog i have said you were lovely before and I will say it again

tirnanog · 08/02/2007 16:52

that has really made my day,thankyou

Muminfife · 08/02/2007 17:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

SparklyGothKat · 08/02/2007 17:56

again at some of these posts!! (i think that a every day so far) Having a baby DOES NOT make you disabled and I think that anyone that does it, is bloodly out of order. My DS is 9 and has Cerebral Palsy, he is mobile (atm) but as the years have passed he has got slower and he finds the effort of walking very very tiring, but he refuses to give up. Why should he forfit his walking, to go into a wheelchair because I can't get parked in a disabled bay, and has to park further awaY because some VERY selfish mother has decided that her and her baby are more important......

LittleBoSheep · 08/02/2007 19:10

Oh bloody hell if this was a flea bitten labrador it would have been put out of its misery by now.

ladymariner · 08/02/2007 19:19

Amazed this is still going on, but I have to say I think a PO counter for blonde Librans is a much more fulfilling proposal, jimjams, emerald & bumblebee!!!! (do you have to be a natural blonde though?!!)
(By the way, it is not my intention to trivialise any of this thread, most people seem to have some really valid, if opposing, views.)

bumblebeee · 08/02/2007 20:40

But it is going on, and on and on.......yawn

jenwa · 08/02/2007 20:51

i dont think having a baby makes you disabled or qualify for a space. I know plenty of disabled people and work with many who have disabilites but this is not about that, this thread started with being annoyed about mother and baby spaces.

I dont park in disabled spaces (only the two times metioned) and at the nursing home I can move my car as soon as required (and have only parked in that space twice since my gran been there) Would never park in disabled space normally and would feel uncomfortble doing so as I am well aware of the difficulties and possible use of equipment people have who use them.

Vicky75 · 08/02/2007 21:57

God, I'm really sorry for offending anyone. Of course I don't park in the disabled places-if there aren't any mother/baby spaces I park right at the other end of the car park where there is loads of empty bays so I've got room. I wouldn't dream of taking a place away from the elderly or disabled-I used to move out of the elderly seats on the bus when I was pregnant!
I did a joke in bad taste & I apologise

2shoescoveredinhearts · 08/02/2007 21:59

Vicky75 glad you were joking

Vicky75 · 08/02/2007 22:09

I feel really sick that I've upset so many people & that they've got so cross towards me.

SparklyGothKat · 08/02/2007 22:25

Glad you were joking Vicky, but I have seen people with babies park in disabled bays, when the P&T spaces are full.
Sorry for my rant

nannynickers · 09/02/2007 11:08

Another point - I have been ticketed (a polite notice from Tesco's) for parking in a mother & child space when there was no car seat in my car. BUT it was an infant carrier and so was in the store with me! I did take baby & 'polite notice' back into the store for an apology!

On the other hand I have seen people use those spaces with car seats but no children with them, it must be difficult for supermarkets/shopping centres to police.

3andnomore · 09/02/2007 12:15

Vicky, glad it was just a joke then.
Nannynickers...I meantioned that down below, no car seat in the car doesn't necessarily tell one anything in todays world of Babycarriers.

housemum · 09/02/2007 12:20

Ooh, so many posts...

Just thought I'd add another bit of bloody mad bureacracy to the p & T/disabled badge thing.

Apparently a disability has to be permanent to get a blue badge - which makes sense if, say, you have a broken leg and are on crutches OK you're inconvenienced but not disbled. I think there may also be some kind of age thing as well? (Someone on here will know the details I'm sure) But there was a pic in our local rag recently of a child about 18 months who had whatever it is with the hips that meant she was in one of those casts where the legs are in plaster and held apart by a rod. Why can't blue badges be issued with a big printed expiry date stamped on at the hospital? The poor woman is stuck with either getting 2 buses to get to the shops or parking and hoping there's a wide P & T space, or parking next to an empty space and waiting till someone comes back to their car if they park next to her.

Think of that when you're thinking it's tough!!

PS I drive a "bus" occasionally and manage to fit most normal car parks so that excuse doesn't wash! NB it's a diesel Espace not a 4x4 before someone lets my virtual tyres down!! I HATE 4x4s in town (my friend has one but she's excused as she tows a horsebox at weekends!)

drifter · 09/02/2007 12:24

What makes a 4x4 worse than an espace then?

housemum · 09/02/2007 12:58

I just like winding people up! Actually, the bus is used as little as poss and a lot of journeys are done in my small hatchback but as we frequently go out with relatives and I also pick up nephew and friends from school, I figure it's better to use one large car that seats all 6/7 than drive in tandem. My gripe with 4x4s if you don't need them for steep roads/dirt tracks etc is that they still only hold 5 people.

I'm just in a mood for stirring it though - have seen this discussion before!

drifter · 09/02/2007 13:12

I'm not in the mood for THAT discussion either, but incidentally, both my current and previous 4x4 did have 7 seats. Strange argument against them in my view.

housemum · 09/02/2007 13:30

OK - my ignorance and I'll put my hands up to that one! I've only ever seen the 5 seaters so assumed they were all just 5 seats, headroom and big wheels! Sorry!

housemum · 09/02/2007 13:32

... and re my earlier post I still think it's daft that someone can't get an expiry-dated disabled badge for a condition where you can't get in/out of a normal space!