To think this is utterly unreasonable... pic included

[ScottishJo31]

Just seen this on my local town Facebook group.....I can’t believe that someone would confront someone with a blue badge for parking in a p&c space.....especially as it’s massive carpark and there were loads of spaces...! [pic edited out by MNHQ - OP do feel free to repost having obscured the number plate below]

My local Tesco has about 40 BB spaces and 20 P&C spaces. They are all located at the front right next to the three entrances. All spaces are abused, I have seen able bodied people use the BB spaces, amusingly there was a Lamborghini parked there the other day and the chap that got out had issues with anyone who confronted them, he argued that his car would be safe from knocks. The P&C spaces are always filled with non parents.
I use the P&C spaces because heavily pregnant and bad back ache and sciatic pain but will always move for a blue badge holder, just because its convenient for me, doesn't mean I inconvenience someone who is physically not able.

I'm fully aware of invisible disabilities, but my kids belong to a large sports club and I regularly see certain parents park in disabled spots, displaying a BB - they then heft a heavy bag & run, going up several sets of stairs with ease. I know some are using relatives' BBs, but no one checks.

Good point. I think many use a relatives or child's BB for pure convenience, and this abuse enabled people's ignorance towards genuine use.

My local Tesco has about 40 BB spaces and 20 P&C spaces

Seriously? I'm not sure I've seen 40 BB bays anywhere.

Thanks @BlankTimes used to it, expect it even. The amount of people who stare at us struggling with a door far exceed those who help, for example.

People like that with the IQ of an amoeba don't even realise that some people who have a BB aren't in wheelchairs as not all disabilities are visible.

DP is blind. The abuse she receives compared to my own is a 90/10% split, and makes my abuse sound like a compliment. I wish I was joking. She's early 40s, looks younger, too.

I don’t know why people can’t just use parking spaces appropriately. If you don’t need a BB or P&C space then be a considerate and decent human being and don’t use one.

The following are not valid reasons for using such spaces:

• My car is large/expensive.
• ‘I’m just nipping in for two minutes’
• I’ve got kids but they aren’t with me.
• I’m with my teenage kids so technically I can park here.

Seriously? I'm not sure I've seen 40 BB bays anywhere

Both Sainsbury's near me have over that. One of them has a top level then an underground car park and half of the top level are BB spaces.

That must be some size of car park as they only have to give something like 4% or 5% of spaces and I've never known anywhere go over their maximum legal required by more than 1 or 2 as they don't like to limit spaces for other people

Hmm no it's well over 5%. They're always pretty much empty

I worked for a supermarket on the customer service desk and had an angry parent at my desk saying ‘I’ve just had to drive around in circles with my baby in the car park for a space and there’s a white van man parked in a parent and child space!! I’ve got the registration, can you do a call out and ask him to move?’ I would have to explain those spaces are courtesy spaces. I can’t force anyone to move and anyway, if I did a call out? The driver would either ignore it and head straight to their vehicle, or come to the desk to tell the worked up parent to wind their neck in

@DearPru what would you do in the scenario of someone inappropriately parked in a disabled bay with no BB?

I would be happy to do a call out but again as in most cases sometimes the culprit wasn’t even shopping in the store. There was a cinema and food court next door so people would be using the supermarket carpark but not using the store. Sometimes I could stand doing call outs for up to 30 minutes with no response. It wasn’t normally for people using disabled spaces though, there were always plenty of those. Normally it was people who had left their car door or window open, or people who hadn’t put their handbrake on properly and their car had rolled and blocked other drivers.

What pisses me off is when you see parents with older children park in P&C spaces. They don't need the extra space to get a child out of a car seat. They don't have to carry the child to a trolley. They don't have to supervise two or more young children across a busy car park.

It's just laziness ….

I find it slightly odd if the blue badge holder chose to park further away, though I assume all the disabled spaces nearer to the entrance were full.

My dad used to find it very difficult at the hospital at times, there were nowhere near enough disabled spaces.

It's just laziness

It's just convenience. I don't aim for the p&c spaces and can count on one hand the times I've used them since DDs were 3 or so, but if one is available I have occasionally used them, as long as my use is within displayed the terms and conditions of the car park.

*Why do so many people think their baby's car seat is permanently attached to the child?

Believe it or not, they can actually be separated.*

I don't understand what this is saying. Can @SuperSara elaborate? If i have a baby in a car seat and I'm trying to get both into the car and the door won't open far enough because people have parked too close to my car, how will separating the seat and baby help anything?

I live in NZ, it is only in the past year or so they have introduced P&C spaces.

Shock horror, every parent seems to have survived.

They just seem unnecessary...

My dad used to find it very difficult at the hospital at times, there were nowhere near enough disabled spaces.

Don't get me started on hospital parking... my local has perhaps 40, for the entire outpatients site, and have parking meters a five-minute walk from them. Immense fun when in a wheelchair/blind. More so in winter.

Best bit is this new site was built only a decade ago.

If i have a baby in a car seat and I'm trying to get both into the car and the door won't open far enough because people have parked too close to my car, how will separating the seat and baby help anything?

Why does the car seat need to go everywhere with you though? I leave the car seat in the car then it's much easier to get DD in when we're leaving.

It doesn't need to go everywhere with me. If the baby's asleep in it I take it out as it forms part of the pram. I find it easier to slot in the car seat into its clicky base than wake and strap in a sleeping baby.

I know car seats are a luxury, a convenience, yes.

I know Mumsnet hates p&c spaces but I found them invaluable when I had small twins.
Partly because of the extra space but mostly because I needed a double child seat trolley. The supermarket I used most had only a couple of these and kept them near the front door beside p&c parking.
I didn't want to leave dc in the car for too long out of site. I couldn't carry them around to look for the trolley easily etc, etc.
These spaces are routinely misused and they shouldn't be.

Sight not site, argh.

I know Mumsnet hates p&c spaces but I found them invaluable.

Don't agree, but I will say that pre-disability when DD was a baby and suffering severe scoliosis pain and gastro pain that P&C spaces didn't exist much so we had to use disability spaces at supermarkets and hospital. Blue Badges (Orange back then) weren't available to a seizure-prone diabetic and a scoliosis-ridden baby with a twisted bowel. Yet we got so few comments. We then used P&C once available, before finally getting a BB when my legs fucked up.

Yet people cry about BB being handed out like candy and other shite. Those with fit, and well, children should appreciate what life is like when an adult or adult with disabled child can be like, and the hell it produces.

I have two teens on low rate mobility. I'm a parent, I have children. They need extra space to exit the vehicle. I get looks all the time, judgy faces, whispers. Fuck them. I'm doing my best to stop your cars from being dented. They have no sense of space. They will open the doors fully, thus banging into the cars in the neighbouring spaces. Even if I put the child locks on, they still push the doors after they're released. Car parks still paint the spaces the sizes they did for cars when they were tiny little things and the occupants were small. I'm a six footer, my children are tall but think they are still toddlers. There is no age limit on parenting children with additional needs. I will use spaces designated for P&C if I can't find a space that doesn't hem us in.

On the other hand, my DSis has physical disability and has an official blue badge. She uses regular spaces to ensure she doesn't take up a space that might be needed by a wheelchair user. She relies on two crutches and her condition is deterioriating rapidly. She wants to keep being considerate until she needs a wheelchair wide space. I remind her that P&C or relatives of blue badge owners take the spaces she doesn't but she won't have it on her conscience that she has inconvenienced a genuinely needy person.

I have two teens on low rate mobility.

If low-rate DLA they are entitled to a BB. If they are on PIP, it's 8 point for the "Moving Around" activities. Might stop the ignorant fuckers I doubt it.

I may have missed this further up, but how does she know there's no children on that trip to the supermarket? Blue badge holders can have children too.