Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

To park in a Parent / Child spot with a child seat but no child in your car is wrong.

100 replies

sushipaws · 09/08/2007 16:10

Ok, so I was driving into Asda and as usual the car park is rammed. I'm not the best of drivers, I like a big spot so I can squeeze in the volvo and unpack the buggy.

I see a space in the parent and child area, hoorah Then this little car nips in and as I drive past a woman hops out and even though there's a child seat there is no child. "Oi" I shout out my window "thats a child place" she just locks her car and runs away.

It took me about 15 minutes to find another spot and even though I headed up each supermarket aisle ready to pounce on the selfish woman, I didn't find her.

Grrrrrrrrr

OP posts:

kyala · 09/08/2007 16:15

My mum did this a while back (being the offender) and she saw nothing wrong with it either, these people are mental and think they should be able to park wherever they want just cos they have proof that they have a child, even though the child isn't with them.

Not that I have any place to talk as I don't drive but I guess it's the same with people who take up the space on the bus for pushchairs/wheelchairs and don't move when I get on (heavily pregnant and struggling right in front of them to put the pushchair donw, with DD screaming at my side :P )

I'd've gone back to her car and scratched the paint, but then I'm a very quickly angered person right now with all the hormones and what not (and this would've given me a perfect excuse to do it too )

tiredemma · 09/08/2007 16:16

Oh god.

please no.

100 posts i bet in 10 mins...

kyala · 09/08/2007 16:16

Also you can report these people on your way into the supermarket and they get security to be there when they come out/leave a note etc

crokky · 09/08/2007 16:19

It's definately wrong, just another example of a person who cares for nobody but themselves.

Sheherazadethegoat · 09/08/2007 16:20

tiredmamma just got alot tireder!

Piffle · 09/08/2007 16:21

I think that it is about time the UK revised the gun laws so we could sort out these serial offenders properly.

Rumpel · 09/08/2007 16:21

Grrrr - slash their tyres!

flowerybeanbag · 09/08/2007 16:21

rofl piffle!

Sheherazadethegoat · 09/08/2007 16:22

or enormous trap doors with sensors that detect if anyone under teh age of 3 is in the car if not - into the crocodile pit for you!

tiredemma · 09/08/2007 16:22

Can I just ask- Is it really so difficult to get out of a car if you are not on a Parent and child bay?

FioFio · 09/08/2007 16:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Piffle · 09/08/2007 16:25

I have 3 kids, dd is actually severely visually impaired and has a blue badge and ds2 is 4 mths, yet I leave P+T spaces and disbaled spaces for those who really need them...

Sheherazadethegoat · 09/08/2007 16:25

god fio i couldn't even drive at 8 1/2 months.

HappyDaddy · 09/08/2007 16:25

Oh come on, it's hardly a hanging offence is it? If you'd scratched my car cos I wasn't parked as you liked, I'd be very pissed off.

NoBiggy · 09/08/2007 16:28

One time I met dp in town (didn't know he was going shopping too). He took DD and I went home.

I thought as I drove out of the P&C spot "this must look bad".

What irritated me one time, was arriving at Sainsbury's and not being able to use one of their trolleys with the little baby seat (the lying down one). While shopping, saw a woman proudly transporting a loaf of bread in one.

kyala · 09/08/2007 16:29

It's great that you guys are good enough to leave P+T and disabled spaces for those more needy (noble in fact, in this day and age), but if it's pooring down with rain, or you have a boisterous child etc to deal with it would be nice for those who don't need to use the spaces to not use them and give those who do need them the chance!

It's just plain annoying that she wasn't even given the choice, don't you think?!

kyala · 09/08/2007 16:32

happydaddy: depends on why you'd be parking in a space allocated for those less able to use the smaller spaces though?! It's just plain selfish and inconsiderate, it would be nice if someone in this world would think of someone other than themselves!

I'm sure you'd be annoyed if this was done to you and put you out in a similar way?

shergar · 09/08/2007 16:32

tiredemma - YES IT IS! You try manoeuvering a baby seat out of the car door in the normal, packed-together-like-sardines bit of the carpark. You need to get the doors fully open, for which you need a wider bay. Plus in the parent/child bays you get a safe path to walk to the front of the shop with your marauding toddler too. It's just not as safe to try to safely marshall an unpredictable small person across a large carpark otherwise, particularly not if you're also trying to struggle with said baby in their carseat (and on the way back, all the shopping too). I used to wonder why parents needed their own spaces once upon a time, but now it's absolutely crystal clear.

ledodgy · 09/08/2007 16:33

I can understand the outrage at someone illegally parked in a disabled space but someone parking in a P&T space who didn't have a child with them no matter how hard I try doesn't really get my goat.

If you aren't the best of drivers and like to park in a wide space maybe a Volvo wasn't the best choice of car?

ledodgy · 09/08/2007 16:35

Shergar TiredEmma has 2 children so I think she probably has at some point taken a baby seat and baby out of the car!

tortoiseSHELL · 09/08/2007 16:35

Goodness knows how our parents managed before there were dedicated spaces

shergar · 09/08/2007 16:36

Well she's a better contortionist than I am, ledodgy. And one who's more tolerant of risk too.

tiredemma · 09/08/2007 16:37

Im not a contortionist.

nomdeplume · 09/08/2007 16:39

As loads of others have said, parent and child bays are not legally enforcable (unlike disabled bays). However, criminal damage in form of car keying IS legally enforcable.

Yes, people who use P&T without kids or worse people with kids where only one parent gets out to shop and the rest of the family stay in the car do grate on me, but keying the car is not a reasonable response....

nomdeplume · 09/08/2007 16:40

"More tolerant of risk"

In what sense ?

Flip

1 2 3 4

Swipe left for the next trending thread