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

[sushipaws]

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

I'm sorry.

If you want a parent/child space or indeed a quiet car park - then go shopping when it is quiet - maybe first thing in the morning. Or learn to drive and park properly.

As someone said on another thread recently - it would have been better if m&t spaces had never been invented. People expect them, nay, think they are entitled

PAARP

So cross I posted twice

I don't understand why people get so cross with those (with children) who use P&T spaces, or think that they are a good thing, or think that those without children/blue badges/legitimate need for the wider space who do use them should be more considerate. I'd never use a disabled bay, and I don't believe that able-bodied parents' need is the same as a blue badge holder's need, but why shouldn't shops recognise the fact that dealing with babies/toddlers/car seats/mad kids in trollies makes life just a little bit more difficult, and provide spaces accordingly? What's wrong with a bit of consideration? Why should parents have to shop in the middle of the night, or use delivery services?

There weren't any P&C spaces when my two were little and I don't remember having any circus training. I took the baby seat out,carried it to a trolley and put it in. Oh yes, and there weren't any fancy baby seats in trollies either - just the standard foldout one for a toddler.
And when I had two, I held my toddler's hand or (shock horror) used reins....

Is PARP an acronym or is it intended as a written form of a farty noise?

They had a problem with this at my local Asda.

They had a barrier at the m&t spaces near xmas to check that cars going in actually had kids in them.
One attendent at the barrier told me they'd seen all sorts of scams by mad people too bloody stupid and lazy to park anywhere else.
He said he'd dealt with women with pillows up their jumpers pretending to be preg and Dolls in car seats. When he'd turned people with no babies or toddlers away some had tried to run him over.

People who park in these spaces without babies or toddlers are undoubedtly at the lower end of the evolutionary scale.

ok so its not illegal for me to sit on the front seats of the bus home from work, or the flip down ones. but i dont, because an elderly person may get on, or someone with heavy shopping, or a buggy, or a wheelchair. it just makes life easier for them and its not going to kill me to sit somewhere at the back. its about consideration that's all surely?

shows a complete lack of consideration imo, i think there is a distinct lack of manners around nowadays...

Yes nightowl it is, but there are an awful lot of people out there who don't have a big enough vocab to know what the word means

Exactly, nightowl

It always annoys me on these threads that so many people make a virtue out of being mean to parents of small kids. Being considerate of those with disabilities and being considerate of able-bodied parents needn't be mutually exclusive.

there'ssomethingaboutmarie - PARP is a way of saying 'I've got into an argument about this before/I'm too angry to get into an argument about this now/Everything that can be said on this subject has already been said'.

Thanks Policywonk.

My take on the Parent & Child spaces is this; it's a priviledge, not a right. It would be great if those without kids were more considerate but let's be pragmatic, we're not always going to encounter those kinds of people. Karma will come back to bite them on the backside anyway.

To end this, I agree, the spaces are a privilage not a right, I don't expect to use them, I just think people shouldn't abuse the privilage.

Some people are just annoying and I was just airing my mood in a place I thought people would understand.

Wasn't expecting to raise so many hackles and I'm sorry to those more experienced posters for bringing up an issue they have seen so many time before.

i am so bad parked in one the other day.. but it was only the co op, not waitrose or anything .. and hardley any shoppers.
i feel so bad now
however i wouldnt dream of parking in disabled bay.

however this Karma thing is obviously true since a week after my dreadful behaviour, my car failed it's MOT.

'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!

I rely on thse with my 3 thanks, none under 3 (7, 6, 4- 2 with sn but the council refused blue badges)

I believe myself entitled

(the appearance o0f this thread is getting more predictable than a glittery flicker on babyworld)

there is in tesco aaprently so i dont there (I would but dont ahve a tesco badge anyway- give us a few months eh? we'll both have tinies then)

when you join tesco you put the date of their 5th bday on the badge (tesco baby club) and it entitles you till then, but you dont have to have one to park there.

peachy perfectly entitled!

but tesco guidelines are 5yo.

O they told us 3

never mind then

Still, I keep my dla (disability living allowance) letter handy fr anyone who queries- anyone who'd choose to argue with that is mean imo

Anyhow ds3 is only 3rd centile and on reins, so you'd have to know him to realise his age- most epole think he's a year younger ha ha

Only use them fairly rarely now, but after April will- with 4 kids, one a newborn, plus the three I have and a very big car I think I may find I need mroe space than otherwise

I haven't read this whole thread, but have had this argument many times with my sister, who has a 2 yr old DD.

If the lady who started this thread had to drive around Asda car park 15 mins looking for a space because the child-less lady took the last P&T space, then presumably this other lady had also been trying to find a space for ages, and so took the first available space she found. Who knows, maybe she was in a hurry to get her shopping done so she could get home to her child / babysitter etc.

I wouldn't park in a disabled parking space, but the parent and baby spaces are a different matter (IMHO). Sure, if 'normal' spaces are available then of course I will leave the wider spaces for people who could use the extra space for loading buggys and car seats. But if the car park is otherwise full, then these spaces are fair game. And I'm sure the supermarkets would prefer customers to use an available parking space rather than take their custom elsewhere.

P.S. I am currently 26+6 with my first LO, and am stubbonly hoping that my opinions do not change once she arrives.

I don't care who parks in the parent and child spaces, I always to the the area of the car park which is furthest from the store and easily get a space. It's never very far to walk.

It's not just about the wdith of a space though. It's about coralling a variety of children across a busy car park.

It's like trying to herd jelly and the further away I have to park and run the gauntlet of:
mad old people who never actually passed their test,
cocky young people who still can't drive and
dippy housewives whose 4x4's are far too big for them
etc etc etc, then the more likely it is that a nasty accident will befall part of my herd of jelly, I mean children.

Car parks are full of people who cannot manover their cars.