Parent and child parking! 12 and 9 year old?!

[AnySecondNow]

Just had a row with a woman in Tesco car park. I waited 15 minutes for parking - have to carry a fairly solid 6 month old to the shop (post cesarean - still not 100%!)

Anyway, this family were parked in child and parent bay with a 12 year old and a 9 year old. Both very capable of walking and opening doors! I commented that she was rude to park there, she said she was entitled to. Then her husband complained about me to the management!!!

Wtf!? Ainu??! Parent and child surely means young child that needs assistance??!

Parking is a contract between land owners (Tesco) and land users.

No, it isn't.

I watched the kids get into the car and they didn't need assistance to get in or out of the car.

Doesn't mean they don't have a disability.

OP, you haven't explained why you couldn't put your child in a trolley seat.

The parking man was bang out of order to giving you permission to park in the disabled spaces. Instead of driving round and round for a space close you could have used the time sensibly and parked further away and walked

How is an autistic child meant to look 'disabled' exactly?

Pull your head out of your arse.

Post No of course you weren't.

I thought one of the reasons behind P&C spaces was so that children didn't have to walk through the carpark (which can be quite dangerous). Therefore I'd agree that it's fine to use for primary aged children... and it's just a case of first in first served.

Are 9 and 12 year olds suddenly adults then?

I did give an old bloke the evil eye the other day, he was taking up a child space and in said car park I literally can't get them out in a normal space. I hovered for 20 mins he didn't budge

How ridiculous. If your car is so big that you can't open its doors in a normal car park, even at the end of a row, your problem lies with your car.

I did give an old bloke the evil eye the other day, he was taking up a child space and in said car park I literally can't get them out in a normal space. I hovered for 20 mins he didn't budge

Ah. Nice bit of ageism there to round off the thread. Piglet is your MN Bingo card getting as full as mine too?

AwaywiththePixies27 ha yep. About to shout 'house'

My kids are that age - I haven't used those spaces since the youngest was 4. How bizarre. I always Thought the cut off was 5.

But people park so badly in supermarkets, in my local Lidl someone took the last 2 places in a tiny car by parking over the lines and refused to move. Another person parks their Range Rover with vanity licence (an ex England rugby player I believe) on the pavement and tons of people park in the disabled places with no badge. I hate going there.

OP....
At my usual mall there area spaces clearly marked "parebtvand toddler" , with wider bays etc...,
But round the corner there are spaces marked "parentcand child", regular sized spaces aimed for people ferrying children up to 12 from what I'm told.
You were out of order to pull these parents unless it was specifically a space for small babies.
You were annoyed from having to wait for a space and clearly uncomfortable post surgery so I do feel for you in a way....
but instead of pulling these parents in front of their kids which might have been unnerving for them, you should have noted their registration and reported them to management .
I'm pretty certain you'd have been told they're doing nothing wrong .
Do yourself a favour. Stop swearing the small stuff

Gosh
Can't type today 🙈
I'm sure you get my drift despite the typos

I always when I shop with DD 10 or 13 as it means a child parking space. Getting out of an s-max with kids is no mean fear. Asda b&c parks go up to 12, so a couple more years left for me.
Dd1 is actually taller than me but, being a child, she's not great at getting out of (stupid) small size parking spaces.
If there is no child space, ie Waitrose, I always have to try & find an End space or else reverse in & they have to get out.
So YABU.

if it just says "parent and child" then they are within their rights to park there

I'll tell my neighbour - it will make shopping with her 80 year old mum a lot easier.

AwaywiththePixies27 My son is autistic, I don't consider him to be disabled. You missed my point entirely; it was making the point of entitlement over need. I didn't feel entitled to a disabled space but on that particular occasion I was glad that a parking attendant saw my need. I also went to 'view' my dead father that day, so was glad of his compassion.

Unfortunately op ours round where we live are up to 12y but it does say anyone that miss uses them Can be fined. And one supermarket in particular has just started doing the rounds to do just that apparently. It annoys me when people with no children park in them though.

P and c parking places never existed when mine were babies. I don't know why parents with babies now need such special treatment. Is there actually a physiological change in humans occurring now that necessitates priority parking for them? Or are they just delicate nowadays?

Surely parent and child are for four wheel drive parking as they can't fit in the real parking , or a bmw i8 with doors that open like back to the future.

notquite I'm sorry you lost your dad and it must have been hard to have to view him. I still don't think the parking attendant was right to tell you to park in the blue badge spaces without a blue badge. Those spaces are for people with disabilities. That really should be the end of the discussion.

Nobody is in possession of all the facts, these people are strangers after all. The row achieved nothing at all, except to make everybody's day that little bit shittier.

Both our local supermarkets (Tesco and Morrisons) have signs saying under 5's only in parent and child. I did quite well as my children are spaced out in age so when dc3 reached 5 I'd been using them 13 years. So I miss them now. I wouldn't use them now my youngest is 7. I think mum's with car seats need the space. I have a big car too. Occasionally I get one that is next to the last mum and child which is great as more space. So no you definitely weren't BU

I've reported the disablist posts on this thread and I'd encourage others to do the same. Unless we keep banging our heads, MNHQ is going to let people carry on getting away with this shit.

As an aside to be quite honest I'd prefer (and if necessary would email etc) if the supermarkets had a blanket age across the board, eg 12 etc.

At least everyone would know then, the upper age limit!

All this frothing about parking spaces is so first world and arsey. Parents have managed to shop with children for decades without needing special car spaces or car park arguments. Move on and stop being so precious and angry. If this is a problem for you, you need to live a little.

You are not being unreasonable. I too have a six month old baby and i'm sick and tired of the parent and child bays being taken up by people with (very able bodied) older children or no children at all. In some shops it does say upto 12, but I don't know what this is based on and why an older child who has no special needs can't get out of a car normally and walk into a shop. Personally I often struggle to get baby in and out of the car when it has been parked in a regular narrow car space, and on one occasion I wasn't able to get baby back into the car as someone had parked so close to me on the other side. In my opinion just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should, and anyone parking in parent and child spaces when they don't need to is at best thoughtless and at worst inconsiderate.

Surprised some people think it ok to use these spaces with older children. DD is 7 and I never use the parent and child bays anymore. My assumption is that they are for when you need extra space to manoeuvre big baby seats in and out, or somewhere to locate your rear end while fiddling with harnesses. Not for children who can get in and out themselves.