I left an note…

[Whiskytangofoxtrot12345]

Basically, I feel like a petty “Karen”.

Our local supermarket has a limited amount of toddler parking. They are always full, normally parked in with people that don’t have kids, have teenagers with them, etc.

I have 2 children under 2. I really struggle if I can’t get parked in those spaces (have to leave trolley behind car with child in while I get the other one out and it’s a busy car park, i leave and go back later).

Went today and there was one space left. Saw numerous people coming and going, childless. So I left a note on one of the cars explaining why these spaces are important to me and if they could please respect that.

You’re supposed to be fined for parking in them unwarranted but it’s not policed.

AIBU…I feel awful now and regret doing it.

I just don’t see why I should struggle because people are lazy and want to park as closely as possible to the entrance.

@EssentialHummus

Karen is a fucking awful term, please don’t use it.

I have said on numerous occasions to people in a very worried tone….’excuse me..you seem to have left your child in the supermarket’.

I do this too. On one occasion when I wasn’t in a hurry ans it was the second time I’d seen the same (distinctive) childless car park in one, with every indication that they were an asshole rather than disabled/pregnant/confused/whatever other possibility might exist to excuse it, I parked across the back of their car and went into the shop cafe for a coffee and a good view out the window.

How exactly did this (made up story) help the situation?

If there was a dearth of spaces, how does you blocking someone into one help?

If I'd seen that and had been in our old Land Rover I'd have cheerily rammed your poxy car out of the way to let the person out.

You'd have had a lovely view whilst enjoying your coffee and

i used to handover my dc for contact with their dad in a supermarket....so if i used the p+c spaces at point of returning to car i had no kids

I wonder how people ever managed to shop with children before parent and child spaces were invented.

I also wonder how many parents would actually use them if they were at the edge of the car park instead of just outside the supermarket.

Yabu. What do you do in places where there isn't any of these parking spaces available? Or if you got there and it was genuinely filled by parents of toddlers or babies? What would you do then?

@Cheesybiscuitsmineallmine

Yabvu for using Karen in a sexist and misogynistic way. It's a name belonging to a lot of people, don't be so nasty.

Oh my god, read the full thread. OP has apologised more than once.

Karen is a classist, misogynist slur in the uk.
Used to silence any woman, but often working class, who gets ideas above her status or thinks she might, gasp, be entitled to some consideration.

Honestly, there's enough misogyny about without women joining in too.

Oh my god, read the full thread. OP has apologised more than once.

Oop. Sorry OP!

@Whiskytangofoxtrot12345

If you struggle so, then why not find a space further away, given you don't have mobility issues. Problem solved.

Drivers managed for decades without these spaces, so I'm sure that you could resolve this without being so passive aggressive.

@Whiskytangofoxtrot12345

Again, very sorry for the Karen comment

Report your initial post to MNHQ and ask that they remove the word or change it to something less offensive.

I wonder how people ever managed to shop with children before parent and child spaces were invented

Exactly! So many people struggle now as if it is the most unmanageable thing, however if they pulled up to a place where this wasn't catered for they would just get on with life

Can't you just park between two spaces? That should give you plenty of room each side to get the kids out. If you go to the edges of the car park there would probably be plenty of spaces to do this. I'm not a fan of passive aggressive notes.

Before I got my blue badge I parked in them.

At least I now look disabled so that is a plus of the crutches.

I mean. Who the fuck has the right to decide if I am allowed to park in those spaces? I parked in them before I had my blue badge so I could get in and out of the car. If I couldn’t get into them I couldn’t go shopping and more than once turned round and went home.

A note like yours would have had me in tears.

the OP has APOLOGISED ABOUT SIX TIMES!!!!!! Read at least her posts ffs!
It really doesn't matter if we managed without them before, if some of us are more capable and get less frazzled than others using the shop, or if some of the people using them have a perfectly good reason to, but lets not pretend that many many people who do genuinely just prefer the wider space so they can swing in and not have to really do a parking maneuevre and proximity to the door - and don't give a crap that they are making somone else's life just a tiny bit harder. Is it really so awful to wish that people could take the slighter less convenient option for themselves so that someone else can have a MUCH easier day? This has been done to death on here over the years but for me the bottom line is just that people who use them FOR NO GOOD REASON other than pure laziness are twats, far far more so than people who might politely challenge them or leave a note. Maybe if we all condemned anti social, inconsiderate behaviour a bit more there would be less of it.

Do you actually know of the person whose car it was you left a note on had kids with them?

So it’s ok for the op to leave someone like me a shitty note on their car because she’s decided she’s more worthy of the space than I am just because I don’t have small kids with me?

As I said. At least I’m properly disabled now

I don’t have children and cannot think of a space I would like less than one right near the entrance where there is so much traffic coming and going. I prefer to park a bit further away where other than Christmas week it is generally not as busy. Like another poster, I wonder how much child spaces would be in demand they would be if they were at the far end of the car park.

I have never seen anyone without children using a child space, but I have seen people with able bodied children easily old enough to manage getting out of a car safely, e.g. 10yrs, which I have always thought was against the spirit of it.

What happens if you are 90 still driving & caring for your 70 year old disabled child
This is still a parent & child scenario

Child under 12 ?

@DifficultPifcultLemonDifficult

People who confront others over the use of P&C parking are ridiculous.

Do you really want to put someone in the potential position of having to explain their disability to you because you've had to park further away?

Those are the people who will be bothered about being confronted, people who use them out of laziness won't care anyway.

There are SO many disabled spaces firstly. And any disabled person would have a blue badge. People who park in Child spaces are not disabled.

@walkoflifewoohoo

"Basically, I feel like a petty “Karen”."

Basically you lost me when you outed yourself as a misogynist.

She apologised FFS

We sometimes use them, where we go the bluebadge bays tend to be full, at the moment the main place we park is still using the bluebadge bays for click and collect, so there are only three bays you can actually use at the moment.

Anyone can park in a child and parent bay, they’re not at all enforceable, thats why carparks don’t need to have them.

@PaleGreenGhost

Karen is a classist, misogynist slur in the uk. Used to silence any woman, but often working class, who gets ideas above her status or thinks she might, gasp, be entitled to some consideration.

Honestly, there's enough misogyny about without women joining in too.

Leave her alone. She has said sorry so many times.

@Mad4Max1

What happens if you are 90 still driving & caring for your 70 year old disabled child This is still a parent & child scenario

Child under 12 ?

Or in my case, the 60 something with the 90 year old parent - who, despite barely being able to walk, was apparently not entitled to a blue badge.

I totally agree with you. I've called out lazy fuckers who park there before. I've had 2 under 2, a double buggy and then another child. It's dangerous to leave the buggy at The back of the car while I get one child in, leaving one child in the buggy and lots of cars going past and there is no space at the side of the car even for a single buggy sometimes.

I’ve had to go round the other side of the car to get a baby into their car seat because someone has parked too close to me and there is no spaces to open the door wide enough etc . The space is really valuable to people with young children and it’s much safer to stop your toddler running off like an idiot while you’re trying to sort the car and shopping out.

Some people don’t realise this and they're just far too lazy and entitled. I’ve even had a heated discussion with a woman who had a car seat in the back of the car, but no child, and she parked there anyway. She was not giving a shit.

Leave as many notes as you can.

@EssentialHummus

Karen is a fucking awful term, please don’t use it.

I have said on numerous occasions to people in a very worried tone….’excuse me..you seem to have left your child in the supermarket’.

I do this too. On one occasion when I wasn’t in a hurry ans it was the second time I’d seen the same (distinctive) childless car park in one, with every indication that they were an asshole rather than disabled/pregnant/confused/whatever other possibility might exist to excuse it, I parked across the back of their car and went into the shop cafe for a coffee and a good view out the window.

Yeah course you did

You should be careful who you mess with. I would have reversed my old Defender into your crappy car if you'd been stupid enough to do that to me... if this fantasy actually happened it didn't

There are SO many disabled spaces firstly. And any disabled person would have a blue badge. People who park in Child spaces are not disabled.

@pollypokcet not all disabled people can get a blue badge. It’s very hard to get one.