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?

there is one good thing about changing 2 of the bb bays to p&c. disabled people without a BB could use them. wonder what the op would do then.

and yes disabled people often have to go home if they can't park, I remember Misdee posting on mn years ago about that. her DH couldn't get out if not in a bay.

Imagine the fume if some of the p&c bays were coverted into a runway professor

HiHo that made me do a snort

Maybe a discussion for the car park owners to make it easier for everyone!
Not a great idea to make it super difficult for one group to park just for the ease of others.
P&C spaces are used for ease. Disabled spaces for necessity.
But the supermarket could have the brains to keep a couple of the P&C spaces open during these off peak times.

Don't know if this has already been asked but why are you at the supermarket before 8am and if the car park isn't open then surely the shop itself isn't open?

Sensible suggestion to move some of the P&C spaces to the other side of the barrier. They don't need to be swapped with the BB spaces, they could go on the next row over instead of some of the ordinary spaces.

Cars are getting wider. I've just looked up some dimensions. My mum had a mini (width 1.4m) and later a polo (width 1.6m) and I never had a car seat so my mum never had to lean in to fasten me into it.

Our cars (Leaf and Avensis) are about 1.8m wide. A standard parking space is 2.4m wide so there's less space available between cars.

YABU. I often park in regular spaces despite having a baby. Either park really close to the bay line on the non-baby side so that you've more space to work with or get in the back with baby using the non-carseat side and then buckle baby in from inside the car.

It’s not always quite as easy as ‘park really close’ to the line on the non drivers side, especially if there’s other cars already parked or who park after you. As many have clarified, cars are bigger these days so space can be tight.

We all KNOW it’s possible to ‘manage’ usually but in this day and age why would we want people to struggle when there’s an obvious and helpful solution?

I certainly wouldn’t expect to have to drag my DC out through the boot as several posters have suggested! For goodness sake we live in a modern society and as long as there’s adequate, reasonable parking first for BB holders (which there is in this situation) then why deny someone else the opportunity to make their life a little easier too?

Is the real problem that normal car parking spaces are just too narrow for most cars? All car parking spaces should be wide enough to allow you to get out of the car without a major struggle.

Similarly all toilet cubicles should easily allow normal sized people to fit in, and allow adults to take toddlers in.

Yes you fucking would.

I am disabled and so is my child. If I cannot park in a blue badge space then I can't get out of the car as I have to be able to open the car door at full width.

I cannot believe the number of people on here all saying that they would never park in a BB space. About 40% of people using BB spaces in supermarket car parks are doing so without having a valid BB.

The most frequent abusers are those middle aged daughters and sons who take their elderly parent with them in the car, who has a BB. They then park in a BB space. So far, so good. They then LEAVE the elderly parent in the car dozing, while they themselves, able bodied, jog into Tesco's to get their mother's shopping. Why oh why oh why do they feel this is ok? It's not, it's illegal and wrong. The elderly parent could sit in the car in any space in the entire car park if they're not actually getting out the car. The number of people who then think it's ok to abuse me when I ask them about it is unreal. Them parking there often means all the BB spaces are taken up and I can't park at all so I have to leave.

But it's not just them, it's all sorts of people. Yesterday I parked in a BB space at the local leisure centre. When I came out someone and parked in the BB space next to me AND was parked right on top of the zig zags which meant she was within 30 cm of my own car.....so I couldn't open my car door safely to get back in again.

She was paged by the gym, and came dashing out of her spin class, annoyed. When I explained what she had done she became abusive.

And then there are the people who park in the BB spaces "just for a few minutes". Argh! I don't know if you're going to be a few minute, do I? All I know is that I can't park and have to leave.

I've had builders vans in the BB spaces ( really abusive when I asked where their BB given that they had just sprinted out of the shop due to the heavy rain), people waiting for able bodied friends, parents dropping their kids at a nearby school who use the BB spaces and then scowl at me when I show my BB and ask them to move....it goes on and on.

All I can say is wow, all of the people on here saying the OP is unreasonable for parking in a BB space. Actually in my daily experience she is being less unreasonable than all of the above instances, and I'm afraid the daily frequency that I see such abuse means that I don't believe all the indignant people on here that they, or their DPs have never done such a thing.

Please just stop and think what impact your trying to save yourself thirty seconds of time has on genuinely disabled people.

@Onlyjoinedforthisthread Jesus, she’s asking, she didn’t actually do it.

@fluffandnonsense37 I do park in disabled with my mother in law who has a Blue Badge. Sometimes she stays in the car. She asks me to park there and displays the Blue Badge. Because she has difficulty getting in and out of the car, and moving, she too needs to open the door the whole way, she needs to know that she is not trapped inside the vehicle and that if she needs to exit safely, then she can. If I hemmed her in a standard space she could not. Sometimes popping in the shop takes 5 mins and sometimes 20. She may need to use the loo or feel slightly better and able to come in.
The sweeping judgements about why people validly use disabled bays with a Blue Badge don’t help anyone.
I can imagine its very frustrating when builders etc take the bays, but stop judging actual Blue Badge users.

I personally know of a number of mums of young disabled children and they use the badges when the kids are in school or not with them. That is Naughty as the disabled person isn’t there.

I have no idea what is so wrong with taking an evidence based approach to assessing the number of spaces. If they are 'all full' or even 'mostly full' even some of the time, then there is absolutely nothing to fear.

There's a very patronising undertone to this, as though disabled people are paranoid for (rightly) fearing that if you give able-bodied people an inch they'll take a mile. Activists fought hard for those spaces.

I personally know of a number of mums of young disabled children and they use the badges when the kids are in school or not with them. That is Naughty as the disabled person isn’t there.

Yes, this sort of thing happens all the time. The law says that it's ok if you are dropping off or picking up the disabled person; that is legitimate use. But if you are doing neither it's illegal and you can be fined £1000, and I wish more people were fined as it would mean that legitimately disabled people can actually park and do the things that are hard enough already.

@bananacakes “I do park in disabled with my mother in law who has a Blue Badge. Sometimes she stays in the car.”

A genuine heads up - this is not what the badge is meant to be used for and so you risk a fine or having the badge taken away. You cannot stay in the car if you are a BB holder. I understand why some people do but unfortunately, some people take the piss which means it’s against the rules.

@Flowerpot2005

”For the genuine percentage of blue badge holders, I'd say the vast majority won't be up & about so early due to their conditions & need for medications etc”

Your above statement is highly offensive to many but actually, I am laughing your ignorance. You may know some blue badge holders but how you can say the “vast majority” won’t be up early?! I could say I think the vast majority of people with blue eyes are vegetarian but it would bollocks and based on a small pool of people that I know who happen to be both.

I’m sure it would blow your mind to know many mobility impaired work and therefore, we do have to get up early. We take our children to school or childcare, as well as go to work. We are everyday people and do everyday things. Stop othering us, it’s beyond ignorant.

I was reminded of this awesome tweet. 👏

Dear God. Every Thread on MN about disabilities just echoes how much this country NEEDS to have Disability Education taught regularly in schools.
So much ignorance & othering, everywhere, all the time.

#dadsabouttogetmobbed

MonsterTequila You are so right. The post below proves your point. Parents clearly aren’t good role models and don’t teach their children basic respect and manners, so obviously we need formal education.

I’d be very disappointed if my children thought they could use a blue badge space or a facility solely reserved for a person with a disability just because they can.

^^ sorry, I should have said SOME parents refuse to teach their kids, not all parents.

you ok there under the bridge dads?