The Robin and Kat Real Radio Breakfast Show (West of Scotland) advocating parking in parent and child spaces

[KirstyWirsty]

Oh they were having a right old laugh this morning about people who have teenaged or 30+ year old 'children' who still park in the parent and child spaces. Then they read out a text message from a Lothian Traffic Policeman who said that parent and child spaces are a 'courtesty' (which I already knew!!) and that there are no rules about their use!!! As if the situation isn't bad enough when you have to try and squeeze your child out of the back seat because the parent and child spaces are full of selfish, mindless morons who don't realise there is a reason why the parent and child spaces are a bit wider..

The really really really annoying thing about it was these people are PROUD that they are inconveniencing people who have a greater need than their own!!! Bragging about it on the radio

Time for a change of radio station methinks!!!

I've never posted on a P&T spaces thread as they generally become heated!

BUT this bugs me, as do the parents who park in them with their children, whilst one parent gets out leaving the children in the car!! (Sometimes with an adult and sometimes on own).

Radio 2 is quite good in the mornings? (But then I am quite old and often listen to R4)

it makes me pmsl the topics that can get heated here - P&T spaces, grapes, sausage rolls and fruit shoots

I think P&T spaces should be abolished entirely and replaced with disabled bays - and private car parks should be allowed to contract with tow companies to lift cars parked in disabled bays with no badge.

P&T spaces don't exist in other places and yet people seem to live without them.

Park in the back and walk.

I am shocked that anyone could get so worked up about parent and child spaces.

Same here, ks.

I remember when I could walk without intense pain for a whole year due to knee surgeries - bad skiing accident.

I had to use disabled bays and I swore I'd never grouse about having to walk again.

And I never did.

Sounds like a fun show, its amazing how many people get wound up over the use of these spaces.

What did parents do before they were invented, mmm maybe they used a normal space or perhaps parked in a quieter area of the car park.

Solve the problem, either get rid of them completely or put them at the furthest point of the car park with a walkway to the store. Then people wouldnt park in them to be near the store and if you genuinely need the extra space you wouldnt care where the space was.

Unless your actually taking an infant out in a car seat you dont really need any extra room. I can get my 4 year old in and out of his booster seat in a normal space with no problems.

My cousin parks her 2 seater sports car in P&C spaces as she's scared someone will bash it with a trolley on the way past.

I think parking spaces are way too small in this country especially as cars are getting bigger. Try parking between two people carriers in a normal space then trying to get two children out the back. Or worse than that you come back to the car to find some idiot has parked way to close to your and you have to really squeeze to get into the car.

I would rather park away from the store next to no one and walk rather than fight over the P&C spaces at the front but I know not everyone can do this.

It pisses me off!

Its nothing to do with the walking issue. If they placed p&c parking spaces at the back of the car park, it wouldnt bother me. Its the issue of space.

The amount of times I have bashed the car door into the car next to ours or we've found a space with no one next to us but when we come back some inconsiderate arse hasn't managed to notice the 2 huge car seats we have in the car and park so close that you couldnt even slide a piece of paper in the door.

Disabled people should be given priority everytime because they do need to be closer.

I think taking the piss on the radio station is just a joke.
It must be lovely for those without kids to pass comment and have a laugh about it.

Hi Sweetkitty

Why doesn't your cousin park in a disabled space - the same amount of space but closer to the shops!

expat - you;re missing the main point (at risk of getting heated ) p and t spaces aren't about being near the shop - they're about being wider so that you can get a car seat out. In most car parks it's physically not possible to do this if you have a car on either side of you. perhaps this means they should by baby and parent, rather than toddler and parent but they're definitely necessary.

PS Just in case anyone wondered this is sarcasm!

Out local hospital has actually had to move the disabled parking spaces to the furthest point in the car park and run a shuttle bus as disabled people weren't getting to use the spaces allocated to them

I think YANBU, but having said that, in this small here town, we don't have such things as P&C spaces, only in the big supermarkets in the next town. But in my last job as a nanny I managed, as I would either park next to something small (like a motorbike ) or park on the edge so that there are less cars around and more likely to have 2 spaces to myself. I've managed to squeeze kids into car seats in the smallest of gaps, and I have a wide arse! I know it's not ideal to have to squeeze, but having a P&C space is a luxury that not all car parks can afford. However, I agree that people without children parking in them is a bit out of order. Having said that, if I had the kids in the back and a disabled couple needed a space but all the disabled bays were gone, and there was one P&C space left, I'd give it to them. They have greater need IMO.

I'm not missing the point, hat. They are a courtesy. Not necessary. Millions of people in other places get their kids out of cars parked in normal parking bays because P&T ones don't exist!

Or they go to the back where there are fewer cars around.

In the Tesco I used to work in before leaving school, there were different clubs... wine club, food club and things like baby and toddler club. To use the P&C spaces, parents/guardians had to join this club and have a badge in their window. I think it alienated the childless brigade though... you know, the ones who moan at the checkout assistant when there are vouchers for schools because 'we never get any incentives for our shopping' You can't please all people, all of the time. But when the store was knocked down and rebuilt into an Extra, they put two whole rows of P&C spaces, but anyone can use them as there is no club to join.

Then again, at this store, staff had to have orange stickers in their windscreens so that they didn't get clamped!

And I think Sainsbury's used to have a system where you had to obtain a sticker from them in order to use the spaces. Not sure if you had to pay for it or just prove your need. I might not be remembering rightly as I am going back to my childhood and some 15 years or so!

ok it annoys me yes but if i can manage to get ds out in his car seat and dd out of her high backed booster with about half a foot either side of the car then anyone can!

not something i would spend too much energy on.....

although the other night i did embarrass some builders who parked their van in the p+t space, i turned round and said loudly 'i wonder which one of them is under 5!' they ran away quick red in the face

i do think they'd be better off as disabled and parents should learn to park in normal spaces and just be careful etting their kids out!

i think they should be for under 8s

I do agree that they would be put to a better use as disabled spaces but the unfortunate fact is that people don't respect the disabled either and just park where suits them with total disregard

I challenged a man in his sports car one day and was told 'sorry I'm being inconsiderate today'

I think they should be restricted to under 2, and say so on the signs, so that there is no room for ambiguity.

Went to Ikea yesterday. All the P&T spaces taken. In one a woman with a "Princess on Board" sticker but no sign of a child anywhere loading up her car.

I usually park as far away from the doors as I can, away from everyone else, and always come back to find someone snuggled in next to me- usually on both sides.

If people were more considerate in parking then we wouldn't need P&T spaces.

On the Robin and Kat breakfast show this morning one man was bragging that he's bought a car seat at a car boot sale specifically for parking in P&C spaces!!!

Maybe the 'princess on board' was bought for the same reason??

Could you be a bit clearer? In what way was parking next to you, being inconsiderate? Unless you had a neon sign in your rear window, saying 'I have children with me, please do not park next to me'. Unless they parked a bit of an angle...

Parent and child spaces are there because normal spaces are too narrow, not because other drivers are inconsiderate. And yes, they are there for courtesy, and usually so that parents will shop at that particular supermarket and not go to one WITH the spaces.

We're too spolit I think. I reitterate what I said: the town where I live, has none of these spaces, but we do cope, and I did cope getting three young children in and out of a 4x4 nanny car. That's the other problem of course: cars are just so much bigger now than they were many years ago, and so spaces do need to grow to accomodate this. Then maybe there would be no need for P&C spaces.

I think I would actually prefer that places didn't have parent and child spaces as when I try to park in one and can't because of people with no children in the car it makes me mad and spoils my shopping trip.

I've actually stopped using Asda in Linwood due to the people who use the car park's lack of consideration for the disabled, the elderly and anyone else. If I do have to go there I park in an ordinary space and spare myself the grief!

I agree horseywoman parking spaces in general should be bigger would also prevent cars being whacked by trollies as people are trying to squeeze their trolley between 2 parked cars.

Kirsty - my cousin probably does park her car is disabled spaces too because she is a childless moron whose whole life revolves around her sports car. Not saying all childless people are morons just that she sees her car as being much superior to other peoples so she needs the extra space in case it gets damaged.

Maybe thats an idea at Tesco you are allocated a space depending on how much your car cost

Sweetkitty

Not that I would advocate such action but I would have thought she's putting her car at more risk of someone 'accidentally' running their trolly into it while parked where she shouldn't be!!!