To have my whole day ruined by some idiot?!

[sugarmatches]

I was waiting for dh to pick me up outside my local shopping centre this morning and almost got into fisticuffs!

There was an elderly gentleman and his very elderly dw waiting in a car for one of the inconsiderate people who had parked their car in the handicap spot to return. His dw had an oxygen tube and many orange handicap stickers on the car. I smiled and he told me that sometimes he has to wait an hour for these people to move their cars and that he is used to it by now. It is the only handicap bay near where they need to shop and he cannot park anywhere else because she cannot walk very far.
I found this incredible!!
Cue obnoxious woman in SUV. A spot came available near the HC bay, but was not HC. The old man saw the car pulling out and slowly pulled up to go in the space. Horrible woman in SUV sped over to beat him to it and started shouting and honking at the poor guy. He got a bit rattled and eventually just pulled out (probably in fear for his life, she was ranting like a mad cow!)

I saw all of this and walked over to this woman and told her that they were HC and she probably should have let them have the spot as they had been waiting 20 minutes for a HC spot to be available. She then started on me saying how was she to know they were HC, I said the orange HC stickers and parking permit...oh and the elderly woman with the oxygen tube!!!!

She was really defensive and shouting, which is what tipped me off that deep down she knew she was wrong.

She eventually just walked towards the shop doors ( again!!) and told me to argue with someone else! I just shouted at her to have a nice day.

It really has ruined my day that people act this way. I really think they deserved more respect than that! Ughhh, people sometimes. All I know is that I am rasing my dc to be good people so that 30 years from now that b*tch wont be in the same position.

Disgusting!! I am off for a coffee (and maybe a biscuit!) to make me feel better. Sorry for the rant.

Poor old couple, even if they didn't have a badge I certainly would not fight them for any type of parking space. I wouldn't do it, especially someone significantly older than me (with more grey hair than me anyway). You can tell if its on old person driving a car by using your eyes. The woman was a disgrace to argue and then to park, and as she had no right to use that space.

The old man who lives in our road has an orange sticker, but I have seen blue too. But the colour of the sticker is irrelevant to the fact that the SUV woman was a silly cow!

I watched an old man take an eternity to reverseinto a disabled bay and a man in a Jag shot in behind him! Felt my blood actually boil so went over to the Jag driver and asked if he needed help getting out of the car, he looked at me very shocked and said "but Im not disabled!" my reply was "you bloody will be if you dont move your car!!"

I'm such a sweet-natured person usually!! Honest! Just hate bullish ignorance!!

Oh and he did move by the way!!

Though think he might have called me nasty names under his breath!

MB, what is the cardboard timer thing for? Is there a parking time limit, or is it totally unrelated?

The cardboard timer is so that you can say what time you will be back - as far as I recall there are time limits in some circs, so even though you can park on double yellows, you can only stay for 1 hour (as an example - I can't remember what the actual time limits are)

I know I am just not getting over this today...

She was very elderly and had an oxygen tube in her nose!! He was elderly as well and it was hard on him to push a wheelchair.

I guess it has just made me sad and I should just move on with my day. It is just the state of the world and it depresses me.

My intention was not to confront this cow, just to get her arse back into her gas-guzzling, spot stealing monstrosity and find a new space. She didn't, which made me even more upset.

The cardboard timer is used with the blue badge, when parking in a restricted are.
In England and Wales blue badge holders can park on single or double yellow lines for up to 3 hours. So you park and display the cardboard clock to show what time you parked. Traffic wardens do note it, so you can't just nip back and change the clock.

BTW we can't park on loading lines, nor anywhere which causes an obstruction to traffic.

Oh and Sugarmatches, I can understand your frustration with this example of 'humanity'.

My DH once helped a trolly boy at our local sainsbugs, who had asked a perfectly able-bodied bloke not to park in a disabled bay. Bloke was giving trolly lad a hard time, DH wandered up, allowed the bloke to assume he was a store manager, asked to bloke to "give consideration to customers less fortunate than yourself".
Bloke complained a bit but did shift his car.

orange badges have been phased out now for blue ones i thought?

orange ones are no longer valid iirc

Sugarmatches you did good.
The woman, I hope and I bet she will think twice before she does it again.
Some good will come of it.

Orange badges now deffo gone. But some cars still have orange stickers on them (which denote nothing without a valid blue badge issued by the council), just to try to stop people from parking too close to the doors etc.

A blue badge should only be displayed when parking, and taken down during driving. I wouldn't want to display mine all the time anyway, co some neanderthals out there would assume that it meant I couldn't drive properly or something.
Blimey, it's hard enough defending my ability to care for my son.

people nick them as well

Wish more places had the things like Asda which come on when you park in disabled bay and ask you if you really need the space.

sugarmatches only read the op. well done you for supporting the man

But to answer your title question, YABU. You did what you could, you've got ideas on what to say if it ever happens again so cheer up and don't let it ruin any more of your day.

Good for you, I'm so glad you did that and I'm sure you made SUV wmoan feel terrible which is why she was mouthing off to try and justify herself.

Also, ignore the mn-ers who can't just support you for being a good person who did a good thing and has every right to feel a bit stressed about it by questioning the details! Hole-pickers with nowt more positive to do with their time.

The back of the blue badge also has a photograph of the person who has the card. So I can used the card when I have dh in the car with me, but not when I am on my own (obviously! )

hole pickers....

anyway i get irate about disabled parking but it doesnt do any good to let it ruin your whole day

ooh mb i was at a hospital appt the other day and had to go and move my car because the time limit was expiring for parking

i was telling the nurse what i had to do, adding it would have been easier had it been an appt for ds2 as i could use his blue badge, and she tried to persuade me to use it anyway!

she said i had a badge so why not. I had to keep explaining that it wasnt for me but my son.

I guess it is just an example of all of the crap things that happen all of the time that we have no control over. I think if we are going to share the planet then we should all play nice.

This was just a little rant this morning, but I am over it now. I think it just might have made someone think about their actions and not repeat them.

That is what I am telling myself anyway.

i don't think the suv woman will feel terrible at all she will just be annoyed that she was caught out.