To think that people who use parent and child spaces without children are selfish *****

[hotcheeto]

Fill in the starred swear word as applicable.

I've only started truly noticing how many idiots do this since I had my baby 4 months ago. I can't believe how many people I've seen do it. And yes I always call them out and have had some pretty disturbing abuse thrown back.

I have also always reported to the shop staff to be told it isn't illegal and there's nothing they can do bar having a parking attendant out constantly which isn't possible (I know this isn't the shop staff's fault).

No disabled spaces? Fair enough, crack on. But this isn't the case 99% of the time. People use them because they are close to the entrance. I would rather the spaces be far away from the entrance with a small trolley park nearby with car seat/child seat trolleys.

Yesterday I purposefully parked straight down the middle of two normal spaces because I didn't want to risk having to reverse out just to get my baby's car seat back in. As I was walking in I witnessed 3 separate very able bodied people walk back to their cars without children.

Just really pees me off 😒

Well you've lost any argument you may possibly have had by parking like a tit yourself.

They should do away with P&C spaces entirely and just put a bunch of wider spaces at the back of the car park and label them for use by people who need extra space. But they won't because they are an effective marketing tool.

I don't care who parks in them personally, if they feel they need the extra space then that's fine. It's nowhere near as rude as parking across two spaces.

Eh? I don’t spend more at the supermarket because they have a parent and child space.

It’s just easier to get small children in and out of car seats, that’s it.

Just get a Blue Badge 😂🤪…. If only it was that easy.

you can't do the weekly shop in the basket of a pram...

Not sure how old your DC is, but once mine were more than a few weeks old, I used the trolleys directly - all the supermarkets near me had trolleys with seats suitable for babies (as well as ones for toddlers). I put a blanket in the seat & popped baby in.

I never understand people putting a car seat in the body of a trolley & there's no trolleys I've seen here (Ireland) where they fit elsewhere.

Cars were also smaller 'in your day' making parking between 2 cars and getting a small child out easier. This might sound shocking, but things do change over time... 🤷🏻‍♀️

Cars are absolutely bigger than they used to be.

This is a subject that comes up year after year. I certainly remember the same conversation 30 years ago.

It will never change until they move some baby spaces away from the entrance.

As you say, you need the space in order to open the door wide enough to remove the baby seat and grab the correct trolley. So when supermarkets move the spaces to the back of the car park next to the trolley park, then the spaces will be free. The average Joe won’t walk that far, so they won’t park there.

We have the same problem with disabled spaces. We don’t need the space close to the entrance but we need to be able to get the tail lift down and get the wheelchair off without being hit by moving traffic. So again move some of those spaces. I have no problem walking and am happy pushing the wheelchair along the pedestrian path.

I’ve never really understood the argument of “we can’t walk far”, because surely for most people they still need to walk around the store?

I'm always curious with this argument.
If there was only one available bay in a car park and it was a P&C one, does that mean that someone else can't park there?

Yeah because disabled people can't have a job that requires a suit and young people are never disabled 🙄😂

It's true though, on buses anyone with a pram gets told to "campaign for your own space" and when parent parking is provided then people just act like its a free for all regardless. If you don't qualify for a blue badge then why don't you campaign for your own wider space.

I don’t think my Range Rover was smaller in the 90’s so really don’t get the well in your day it was different comments

Cars are absolutely bigger. The current Polo is longer than the original Golf. Compare the size of the current Mini to the original.

here's an interesting article

You don't get it or you don't want to?
Maybe you drove a range rover in the 90s but most people didn't. The size of a parking space was standardised in the 70s, the average car is 55% bigger now than it was when the space size was designed.
What don't you get?

Thats selfish taking up 2 parking spaces.

I believe that disabled people need reasonable adjustments by law, but parents of small babies do not.

Parking in a parent and child space could be considered a reasonable adjustment…. HTH

I'm not sure why wanting my child to be safe makes me obnoxious. Repeating myself but I did this the other day purposely because I had to put my child's car seat in the boot to reverse (thus blocking the way for a good minute or so in the process) to put the car seat in the isofix as I'd been trapped by two cars either side on a previous occasion. Please let me know what you would do? It goes without saying that I looked for spaces on the end and there were none. I really didn't think I had to say that 😂

Mom car? fgs.

I agree OP it makes my blood boil. Around heres it’s always 30-40 year old single men with a BMW or similar who want to ‘protect’ their cars. Around half the mother and baby spaces are used by them. I’ve tried calling them out ‘oh I guess you left your baby at home today?!’ And they are vile people so now I just give them evils

Yes that is true.

"Campaign for your own space"

Then

"It's so entitled to have your own space, anyone can use it!"

I think the obvious answer here is leave the car seat in the car. I was reading this thread trying to figure out why we didn't need p&c spaces(and no cars haven't grown enormously in the past 13yrs since my last kid was a newborn and I think the answer is that we just slipped the baby out of the car seat and put her in the sling/pushchair. With a toddler if there was limited room I would get them to climb in then reach back and fasten their seat belt. Of course if you choose to take a big piece of equipment designed for use in a car in and out of the car to pick up milk you are going to need more space but that is more space for the car seat not the baby.

That’s a Tesco - that’s the only one I can think of that does have extra space round them, but in my local one, they’re at the far side of the car park.

co-op there’s no spaces round them and they’re regular sized, Lidl same - though all their spaces are bigger than other car parks, the difference is just that they’re closer to the front.

I don’t go many places to be fair, but I’m very familiar with how big spaces are and where they are because I’m one of the people with a medical issue that affects how far I can walk and how I get out of a car but don’t qualify for a blue badge.

Yes, you're a dick for parking across two spaces. Hope you get clamped. I'll do it.

Try shopping online for the bulky stuff, just go for the nice stuff and have less to wrangle into the car.

Generally, cars are too fucking large and I wish people would get a flashy rolex, or similar, if they need another status symbol instead. Too many people can't drive a big car well enough.

Special parking spaces should be reserved for blue badge holders and local Olympic heros only. Having kids just doesn't cut it. You're not special.

Yes - if they don't have DC.

Wouldn't happen tho. If it's that busy, it'll be busy with P&C, who'll have used the space.

I myself have rolled my eyes and thought what terrible parking skills they must have when I've seen cars double parked, before I had my baby. It's obviously not ideal. But neither is people parking in p&c who don't need to.

I always report them to customer services and they either announce their reg plate or send someone out to politely draw attention to the ‘mistake’ they’ve made. I once spoke to someone directly and I got a mouthful of abuse about the fact that she had grandchildren blah blah. All pathetic excuses (the grandchildren weren’t with her and she had no car seats in her car) made because she knew she was in the wrong.