Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think elderly couple should not have parked in parent and child space?

260 replies

Pelly8 · 08/09/2019 16:40

Local supermarket has loads of disabled bays (which are 90% empty whenever i’ve been) but only 5 parent and child bays. Elderly couple (probs in 70s) parked their car in a parent and child bay just as I was packing away my shopping.

I almost pointed out that there was plenty of other places for them to park (including plenty of other non disabled bays close to the entrance) but bit my tongue.

AIBU to think they should have parked elsewhere?

OP posts:
DriftingLeaves · 09/09/2019 11:08

Some National Trust places have parking for people with mobility difficulties behind the blue badge bays. That seems to work well.

SlothMama · 09/09/2019 11:09

Personally I think they have the right to park there as much as everyone else, they probably needed the space to get in and out of their car.

I don't understand why some people covert these spaces so much, 20 years ago parents just got on with normal spaces.

Spingtrolls · 09/09/2019 11:11

@AnnaFiveTowns - if staff said bb holders could park in p&c that's legally ok.
If they said p&c could park in BB spaces, legally wrong.
BB spaces are protected. P&C a marketing gimmick that some parents fall for.

MummytoCSJH · 09/09/2019 11:12

It's not illegal for them to park there and if they need it due to mobility I have no qualms. However I do detest people prioritising elderly people and saying they're essentially entitled to do what they want purely because they're old (as opposed to real mobility issues). Okay, you were born before me, so what?

WhyBirdStop · 09/09/2019 11:13

I think it would be good if the P&C spaces were re-labelled accessible spaces, they were in Portugal, and separate to BB/disabled spaces. So you have a passenger in a full leg brace, use them, older person with less mobility use them, heavily pregnant and can't get in and out in normal size spaces use them, young children use them etc. Would stop a lot of the kerfuffle about who uses P&C spaces.

Spingtrolls · 09/09/2019 11:14

@CassianAndor - I've started to notice that more people leave the priority seats alone. I'm often on packed tubes and it's nice to see the priority seats empty.
Even on buses, they used to be the first to be filled, but I'm seeing more people walk past.

HoppingPavlova · 09/09/2019 11:15

You are lacking in common sense and are also incredibly entitled. No issue with the elderly or anyone else with a genuine need using them if they don’t have a blue badge.

Imagine this, when those people were young there were NO P&C parks (they are a marketing ploy and not a necessity btw), yet those people still managed to ‘wrestle their little octopus’ in and out of their car. Amazing!

MummytoCSJH · 09/09/2019 11:16

I want to add that if you have mobility issues and no blue badge and aren't elderly, its a totally different story. I've been shouted at multiple times for parking in priority (not blue badge) spaces despite needing it due to my disability. If you're old however, no questions asked!

SolitudeAtAltitude · 09/09/2019 11:16

my mum has no blue badge

My parents are elderly (mid 80s) and have both had fractures and walking is hard for them. They manage by parking as close as possible, and somewhere my mum can get out of the car (needs help after hip op)

I have found the amount of people who are rude about the elderly quite shocking.

The lack of sympathy! Bloody hell

Why would you begrudge them their spot?

Most of the time people just try to make it through the day ok, and don't need some cat's bummed woman to lecture them

EL8888 · 09/09/2019 11:17

I personally don’t think there should be parent & child bays. They should more be bays for people with disabilities, heavily pregnant women, people with small children, elderly people and mental health / learning disabilities. The problem is with many conditions you can’t tell from a distance or make judgements

As an aside I don’t think 70’s is old?

ErrolTheDragon · 09/09/2019 11:19

However I do detest people prioritising elderly people and saying they're essentially entitled to do what they want purely because they're old (as opposed to real mobility issues)

Is anyone actually saying that?

SolitudeAtAltitude · 09/09/2019 11:19

70s can be old or young, it varies

My FIL is 72 and is blind in one eye and cannot walk

MIL is 72 and rides her bike, her horse and can walk for hours

It really varies

WestEndWendie · 09/09/2019 11:20

Yawn not this again. It comes up periodically on these forums.

YABU OP. Get over yourself. Be kind. Maybe find something important to think about?

Beaverdam · 09/09/2019 11:20

I think they should park where they like. As you say, there were plenty of other parking bays so nobody would be left with no space.

CassianAndor · 09/09/2019 11:21

Jacques haha, hadn't seen Errol's post - yes, that wording would be good!

SarahTancredi · 09/09/2019 11:23

Imagine this, when those people were young there were NO P&C parks (they are a marketing ploy and not a necessity btw), yet those people still managed to ‘wrestle their little octopus’ in and out of their car. Amazing!

They managed to get their prams on buses or they walked too.

None of those umbrella one handed light weight strollers .

No online shopping either. They managed to walk miles to the nearest shop get the wheels shopping and had to carry it far further than the back of a supermarket car park.

We have so much that makes life so much easier than they ever had it and yet it's still far to difficult and old people are just entitled and they should just park elsewhere? Its beyond a joke

Bubsworth · 09/09/2019 11:25

I think it's no big deal, like others have said they could have had mobility issues and found it easier to be able to swing their door wide open.

In any case my parents managed to go shopping with 4 kids under 6 before the parents parking bays and we all survived. There's really no need to pander to parents imo (and yes I am a mother of young Ds)

ErrolTheDragon · 09/09/2019 11:26

yes, that could work, though priority is a very nebulous thing - I might be a priority because I'm in a tearing dash and 'can't' park miles from the door

There may be valid reasons - eg if you're picking up a prescription for someone who really does need it ASAP. That's where the 'you know who you are' comes in.

Jux · 09/09/2019 11:30

Having been a parent with a small baby/child, then a disabled parent with small child but no BB, then a parent with small child and a BB, then an elderly person with a BB, I can tell you that when you a fit person with a small child/baby - or even a fit person with numerous children - it is still the easiest easiest of all the choices. It is bewildering to me that supermarkets will give special bays just because you're a parent and yet not give those bays to the elderly-but-not-disabled.

Well, I'm not bewildered by it really. Your buying power is potentially much greater than an ordinary elderly person's so you count and they don't. One day, you will be one of them, though.

CornishMaid1 · 09/09/2019 11:30

I understand where OP is coming from (not berating an elderly couple though) - the supermarket designated that they are P&C spaces and I believe in following rules.

Saying that, a big part of the issues is that over time cars have gotten wider and the spaces are smaller - each time the Tesco near us re-does the car park it seems to shrink the spaces, so even parking dead centre it can still be a squeeze to get in and out of the car, let alone getting doors open wide enough to reach in to car seats, so I can see why parents want them.

P&C spaces do not need to be next to the door (at our Tesco they are closer to the door than the BB spaces), so they should move them to the back of the car park - after all it is the extra width not the distance - and move the BB spaces close to the door.

I like the idea of priority spaces near the door too, but I think they would be too easily abused - you will probably find some who decide that their rush to get a pint of milk is 'a priority'.

SoupDragon · 09/09/2019 11:34

Imagine this, when those people were young there were NO P&C parks (they are a marketing ploy and not a necessity btw), yet those people still managed to ‘wrestle their little octopus’ in and out of their car. Amazing!

Well, 1) there were no child car seats, 2) there were most likely no rear seat belts and 3) they most likely walked to the supermarket with a shopping trolley. We never drove there!

PurpleDaisies · 09/09/2019 11:44

There may be valid reasons - eg if you're picking up a prescription for someone who really does need it ASAP.

So ASAP that they can’t wait an extra 2 mins while you walk across the car park?

ErrolTheDragon · 09/09/2019 11:54

The hypothetical there was 'miles from the door' - yes, unlikely but possible. We've got a small supermarket near us with a small car park and no street parking for a long way around.

CassianAndor · 09/09/2019 11:58

but many supermarkets are huge with accompanying massive car parks. I can think of 2 near me off the top of my head.

JacquesHammer · 09/09/2019 12:01

I think someone using a space to nip in for a prescription or pint of milk is far less problematic than those who park in P&C spaces and wait in car with child whilst other adult goes shopping.

The only times I used P&C without kids was due to needing space - I was in and out in 10 mins or so.