To take park over the lines?

[dollarstodonuts]

We went to Tescos today to pick up a few things and all the child/parent parking was taken as it almost always is. If I park within the lines I literally can't get my car door open wide enough to get the infant car seat out. We have a seven seater SUV because we have four kids. Looking back I would have bought something with sliding doors but I can't just swap it now. So I parked as far away from the door as I could where there were several empty spaces. When I came back a man had parked his car so close to mine I could have only fit my body between the cars. He began shouting abuse about how entitled and ignorant I was. I explained over his shouting that I needed to be able to open the door to get the car seat in. 5 year old DS is now crying because the man is now shouting even louder. I ended up crawling through the boot and over the seats with DS and the infant carrier just to get away. What do people do if you have an infant seat? I'm not a Brit and part of the abuse yelled was to go back where I came from which was particularly nice for DS.

It would be so much easier for everyone if standard car parking spaces were just that little bit wider.

I wouldn't be leaving my baby in a car seat on the ground or in the boot while I reversed the car either. Neither sound safe.

The supermarkets I shop at do (including Tesco) all have those trolleys with baby seats on, so I can carry baby DS3 (4 months) to a trolley and strap him in, whilst leaving the car seat inside the car.

Parking does seem to bring out the aggression in people.

Can't believe people have advised leaving baby on the ground or in the boot. Yeah fucking right

I just keep a lightweight carry seat in the boot and then I don't have to fart about getting the seats in and out. Sorry op but if you park like a twat then you are going to get people having a go.

Not saying it is right to have a go btw but I would expect it. People are very angry in carparks.

Oh yeah and for the racist comment you should have run the cunt over. Well no but maybe just his foot.

WTF is with the suggestions to put the baby and seat on the floor or in the boot? Have people not seen the ridiculous parking and driving skills exhibited in most car parks? What if someone clipped the back of the car whilst the baby was in the boot? Or hit the car seat?

Not likely though is it? They could just as easily hit your trolley with the baby in.

We used to drive a 7 seater - not an especially huge one (a qashqai 2+) but it was a struggle in a lot of car parks if you couldn't get a parent and child space. Nothing to do with bad parking (it had a 360 degree camera, a chimp could have parked it!), but a lot of the spaces just simply weren't big enough. Half the time the car would have a couple of inches either side of it which is fine until you need to get children or infants in car seats out - and if you're driving a 7 seater you often need to take the baby seat out to release the kids in the back row.

It's not ideal but sometimes the most sensible option is to park further away where it's fairly empty and take two spaces because otherwise there's a real risk of either getting stuck or of someones car (either yours or the neighbours) getting dinged.

But you can guarantee that even if you've parked at the furthest reaches of the car park and there's 100 other spaces some git will squeeze in beside you, just to make a point.

It is unlikely that someone will clip you or the car seat if the baby's in the boot or next to the car but imagine telling A&E, the police or your insurance how it happened!

At work we often ask 'what would the newspapers say' when deciding certain things. Imagine the headline 'Baby injured as mum left car seat next to car in supermarket car park to move car' I wouldn't want to be that mum!

The simple fact us that the standard car parking space size has not kept up with the increase in size of the modern car.
Side impact protection, proper seats etc make modern cars much wider than they used to be whereas the standard space has remained 4.8mx2.4m. Note for example a 2014 Ford focus (not a big car) is 1.82m wide excluding mirrors, whereas it's predecessor the escort was 1.57m (mk2, in 1980). 25cm difference which is a significant figure when talking about a 2.4m wide space.
Look up the size of your car and see how it compares, you'll be surprised at how little room there is.
Additionally, modern, thicker (side impact protection again) doors will need to open to a wider angle to give you the same access.
Spaces need to be made bigger to match the modern car.
So basically OP YANBU.

In this area we get fined for parking over the lines.