WIBU to park in a disabled space?

[FairfaxAikman]

Ordinarily I wouldn't dream of it.

Our local supermarket closes off half the car park with barriers overnight to deter boy racers. It doesn't reopen until after 8am. ALL of the parent and child spaces are in the closed off side.

DS is still small enough to be in his car seat. In the past if I've arrived before 8am I've parked in a normal space but every time I've ended up with someone next to me, making it hard to get DS back in.

There is a row of 10 disabled spaces, all empty. WIBU to park in the furthest one from the shop?

• Yes you are being unreasonable you are not disabled. I would ask in store why they block off the parent and child spaces and what they recommend you do ?*

RTFT. I did ask. Prom g I. The disabled space was the store's "solution", not mine.

If you (or your child) don’t have a blue badge then yes, you were being totally unreasonable and you know it.

Professor. Clearly I can’t comment on the deleted posts but I have RTFT and can’t see anyone commenting on the OPs situation that is saying that.

If I were you I would just shop somewhere else.

It was on the deleted posts.

Have not RTFT as it seemed to mostly be filled with people ranting at the OP for something she hasn’t done, and isn’t going to do.

The real issue here is the completely ridiculous and inexcusable lack of action from car park authorities, whether council or privately owned, to resize ordinary spaces for larger cars. I drive a fairly mediocre sized hatchback and have no children or physical impairments and yet even I struggle to get in and out of my car in many car parks. There just isn’t enough room full stop!

Have you considered escalating this point to the supermarket OP?

Candle. The OP did that and the supermarket said they will feed back presumably to head office. In the meantime they were the ones who suggested the OP use one of the 10 BB spaces if necessary before the parent spaces were available at 8am

Fair enough! It just seems like one of those things that shouldn’t even be a problem if someone involved in planning/design actually used their brains a bit

Candle. Think you’ve possibly hit the nail on the head there!

Unfortunately, the parking is what it is in the OPs particular situation and she suggested a couple of perfectly reasonable options that could be adopted to improve it in a way that means everyone can park where they need to.

OP have you got enough replies saying you are unreasonable? You asked someone in store what to do (not the store manager I presume). Morally you know you can't park in a disabled bay. Let it go. Hopefully those people that don't feel well, have a bad back, mobility issues, those not quite unwell enough for a blue badge or don't fancy walking too far - decide they are in more need of p&c space than you are - more disappointment when you can't get in a p&c space.

@FairfaxAikman sorry I missed that part about you asking a member of staff, I thought that would have been quite an important part of the post and in the main post, but apologies for missing it. See what the store come back with once she has escalated it for you.

So in summary yes you would be unreasonable, maybe ask for the post to be moved from AIBU to somewhere more "ranty" as 30 days or something, as you have stated , you already kind of know YABU.

@bourbonbiccy yeah I realise I should have put it in the op. I'm blaming exhaustion as I'd been up since 5am and DS is a shit sleeper.

It sounds that the supermarket has buggered up...

No one please park in BB spaces.. If you do, I and other BB holders can't access shops....

Yes I know I look 'ok'... You haven't seen my diagnosis and prognosis and the fact I'm in agony, often even with morphine...

It may be the only time I've managed to get out this week

Oh Christ this is actually painful. When will people realise that P&C spaces are not essential? If you turned up and all the P&C bays were full and all the BB bays were full, what would you do? Go home or park somewhere else and make it work? You can't relocate BB bays as many of them are where they are (in this case on the "in" side of the barrier) to allow those with disabilities a shorter walk to the shop and back again. If you want to move them then go ahead and campaign for it. But just wait until the day comes where you may be unlucky enough to need.

Take your baby out of the seat, rather than the seat out of the car. Simples.

I'm american, and at least where I live parent and child spots are practically unheard of. Somehow parents manage just fine.

Zfactor, having travelled a lot in America I can confidently say you guys have decent sized parking spaces. Regular spaces here are ridiculous.

I’m questioning why the spots are even needed? When I had mine they didn’t exist. We managed. Even people with multiples! Now if someone can’t park in one they have to post their conundrum on the Internet, potentially miss out on shopping given they can’t seem to use normal spots so have to turn around and go home (I have read this in some posts) or debate in the carpark who is the most deserving of the spot complete with telling and leaving nappies on windscreens. Another corker I recall was a poster who was irate that a BB was parked in a parents spot (obviously BB full) because this causes a huge hassle for parents. Just get rid of the damn things and people can do what people have always had to do.

The cars have grown argument doesn’t really wash either. When I was a child the cars were huge, not tall SUV’s/4WD like now but just as wide, I believe we had very different cars here than the UK. Cars here would be narrower on average now though taking medium/small cars into account that didn’t exist here back then.

They're not needed - it's ridiculous. All they do is cause animosity between the entitled and the disabled.

We all managed before them. It's not rocket science to get a baby out of a car.

No P&C spaces here either, and the regular spaces are small.

For those posters saying it's immoral to park in a BB space - you are aware that it is also illegal? In Holland it's a 370 euro fine, and that's assuming you don't get towed.

Cars might be bigger these days but they are also a lot easier to handle with power steering, parking senses and the likes.

The annoying thing is is that many parents seem to think that the inconveniences caused by the equipment most choose to use (pushchairs being the main one) means that they qualify to use the accessible spaces which disabled people have fought for. You see this all the time on here! Buses, toilets and parking seem to be the biggest gripes. In most cases, these inconveniences for parents last for a few short years, for most disabled people they last a life time. One of the reasons I believe more parents aren't fighting for more P&C spaces, P&C toilets and more accessible buses is because the issue is only temporary for them and by the time their cause has traction, they no longer require the facilities and move onto their next one.

For some parents they do create a sense of helplessness

I realise I shouldnt have done that legally but at the time I didn't see an alternative and she clearly needed them as she can't walk more than a few feet and is almost blind.

Don’t you see how hypocritical it is for you to be telling posters not to park in B.B. spaces when all you’ve done here is justify what you did?