Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Car Park Space

159 replies

NotSoEasyLemonPeel · 26/10/2023 15:46

I went shopping today. It’s half term so very busy!

I thought ooh that’s lucky last child and parent space. anyway the car a little in front pulls and she had no children with her!

I find a space pull up and I can’t get my LO out the car. I’ve got a travel system, LO is only a few months so their seat clicks onto the pram.

So… I very childishly go round and park behind the person who parked in child space. Ultimately blocking her in.

When I return just short of an hour later, to say she was raging was an understatement. I loaded shopping and LO into the car without saying a word. I was called a bich, cut. Before I left I said to her, you say you were just popping in for one thing, so it was quicker for you to park here, you’d been gone 15 minutes by the time I’d parked and left, so that’s not a quick stop and I couldn’t go in at all because you took a spot I needed.

Anyway, no idea how long she was waiting for me, I’m quite surprised she didn’t phone the vet police! I know I was being unreasonable and very childish but please think before you park in a space others may genuinely need!

OP posts:
thermalvestwearer · 26/10/2023 21:28

I'm disabled - if there are no BB spaces I park in parent and child. If the OP had seen me with no kids with me and blocked me in, I would have phoned the police.

luxuryinteriors · 26/10/2023 22:50

Did everyone clap and cheer, OP?

BodegaSushi · 26/10/2023 22:51

It’s half term alright.

ViaRia01 · 26/10/2023 23:06

@thermalvestwearer but you would have displayed your blue badge and so I’m sure OP would not have blocked you in as you do have permission to park there.

Kinneddar · 26/10/2023 23:07

luxuryinteriors · 26/10/2023 22:50

Did everyone clap and cheer, OP?

The supermarket manager gave her her shopping for free

Nsky62 · 26/10/2023 23:12

I have no sympathy, hardly seriously disabled
parent and child spaces relatively new, get a life

ttcat37 · 26/10/2023 23:43

I watched a woman park in a ‘parent and child’ bay in her shiny shiny car the other day. She did have a child, who was about 12. I thought that took the piss. They don’t specify the age of the child on the bay markings but there’s a picture of a pram so it fairly obvious.

Meanwhile I was trying to slither out the door with my rather large bump and struggling for space. It wouldn’t occur to me to park in a parent and child bay until he’s made his exit.

Onelifeonly · 27/10/2023 00:03

I'm reminded of an incident years ago in a multi storey shopping centre car park. All the spaces were the same size - no child and parent ones then or even designated as such. When I came back to my car the women in the next car berated me for parking too close to her car and that she couldn't get her toddler in. My car was within my own space but was somewhat nearer to her car maybe than it needed to be, but strangely, I hadn't examined it carefully to check for child seats before going shopping....

She was clearly very over stressed by it, so I decided to ignore her completely to avoid provoking her further but what I really wanted to say, being in the middle of a series of failed IVF cycles, was how fxxking lucky she was to have a baby at all. And to point out that now I had moved my car, she COULD get her baby in. (And she could also have backed out a little of course.)

OP you were unreasonable in the extreme. Two wrongs don't make a right and all that. Plus somehow people managed for years without the extra wide parking spaces now available. Including me later on.

Ktime · 27/10/2023 00:07

Did you check for a blue badge?

I had a woman get all hard faced and mouthy on me and my elderly mum when I parked in a P&C bay.

She hid behind her husband when I told her to check the blue badge in the car and mind her tongue.

JustALittlePotatooo · 27/10/2023 00:12

My husband once got shouted at because he parked in a parent and child parking spot on his own. He did so because he was collecting me and our then one month old from a GP appointment so needed the space to be able to get the baby in the car (big chunky car seat on the travel system for us too). I mentioned this on Facebook a year or so later on a similar post to this and was shouted down and told we were at fault as there were two of us and therefore we should have parked in a normal space and I could've waited outside with the baby while my OH pulled out the car (blocking the whole lane) and waited for me to then belt the baby in etc.

I still to this day don't know if we were the arseholes or not 😂 The idea of not being allowed to park in parent parking if there are two adults present really threw me! Hadn't even occured to me people might think that was wrong. It's been 3 years and I still think about this far too often!

rubyjan · 27/10/2023 00:24

Why did you assume she didn't have a child.

Someone once shouted at me, I took my child in her car seat inside the shop? So anyone looking in my car wouldn't have seen a car seat.

I know in your case she didn't but you shouldn't just assume!

thermalvestwearer · 27/10/2023 07:17

ViaRia01 · 26/10/2023 23:06

@thermalvestwearer but you would have displayed your blue badge and so I’m sure OP would not have blocked you in as you do have permission to park there.

I do now - but before I got my blue badge, no I didn't. I parked in the parent and child spaces as a reasonable adjustment for my disability.

Original poster
NotSoEasyLemonPeel · 27/10/2023 08:30

Wow, I was not expecting so many people to reply.
To try and answer some questions it was an end space so I was only blocking her.
I am permanently sleep deprived with two children. If you’re not please share how you did it.
I wasn’t angry that’s why I didn’t get in to an agreement with her.
my post states I know I was being unreasonable - thought I’d share my moment of madness.

OP posts:
thermalvestwearer · 27/10/2023 08:33

I am permanently sleep deprived as a result of my disability. You are temporarily sleep deprived as a result of having small children.

That said, being sleep deprived does not give me the right to block anyone in.

thermalvestwearer · 27/10/2023 08:34

Why do I have to "think" before I park in a space I am perfectly entitled to park in? I NEED a wider space, if I haven't got that I have to go home.

The level of entitlement you showed is staggering.

HunterHearstHelmsley · 27/10/2023 08:44

Rosiiee · 26/10/2023 18:05

I was just texting my mums group about this! I went grocery shopping and there’s one row of p&c spots. None of them were free so I parked across from them, taking two car spaces 🤷🏻‍♀️

in the time it took me to put baby in seat, put groceries in boot, fold pram and put away, 3 different people had come and gone from their car in the p&c spaces, none of which had kids. I was sooooooo irritated. Then a mum with a newborn and a toddler was struggling to get herself organised because none of the p&c spots were free!!!

Ugh just really grinds my gear! I personally never park in a p&c spot without my kids because I know how hard it makes it for people who genuinely need the room to maneuvre!

I sometimes miss having my old car. It was a banger and tiny. If someone was parked across two spaces I'd park in one of the spaces too. I wouldn't risk it in my current car but if someone is going to a cunt then I'm going to out-cunt them.

HunterHearstHelmsley · 27/10/2023 08:46

BashfulClam · 26/10/2023 17:16

If this actually happened which I doubt then you are lucky as I’d have let all 4 tyres on your car down. You stop me moving then I’m doing the same because I’m petty as fuck when riled. Those spaces are not a legal right so actually anyone can park there unlike disabled spaces and therefore you have no more rights to that space than her.

Edited

I'd do the same re the tyres. I'd cancel all my plans and we'd have to sit there until we were both dead.

thermalvestwearer · 27/10/2023 08:50

HunterHearstHelmsley · 27/10/2023 08:46

I'd do the same re the tyres. I'd cancel all my plans and we'd have to sit there until we were both dead.

Show quote history

So you'd let down the tyres on my car, to be clear? I would phone the police.

HunterHearstHelmsley · 27/10/2023 08:53

thermalvestwearer · 27/10/2023 08:50

So you'd let down the tyres on my car, to be clear? I would phone the police.

Show quote history

😂😂😂

thermalvestwearer · 27/10/2023 08:54

HunterHearstHelmsley · 27/10/2023 08:53

😂😂😂

Show quote history

I would. And I'd report it as a disability hate crime.

ZiriForGood · 27/10/2023 08:57

Wow, so many CFs on this thread.

I find it hilarious. Not necessarily recommendable, but definitely funny.

The tyres warriors are laughable. So you would voluntarily sit there in your blocked car for much much longer?

HunterHearstHelmsley · 27/10/2023 09:00

thermalvestwearer · 27/10/2023 08:54

I would. And I'd report it as a disability hate crime.

Show quote history

How on Earth would it be a disability hate crime? I'm parked in P&C, you've blocked me in. I also have a disability by the way so I'd be reporting your obstructing my access to the highway as a disability hate crime.

GrumpyOldCrone · 27/10/2023 09:10

I never did this, but I wanted to do it at least 500 times when my kids were little. The people who minimise it are, presumably, the same people who park in those spaces without accompanying children.

thermalvestwearer · 27/10/2023 09:14

@HunterHearstHelmsley I think I misunderstood what you were saying - I thought you were saying you would block me in - apolgies - brain fog due to medication.

Ktime · 27/10/2023 09:56

ViaRia01 · 26/10/2023 23:06

@thermalvestwearer but you would have displayed your blue badge and so I’m sure OP would not have blocked you in as you do have permission to park there.

Except OP hasn’t said she even checked for a Blue badge.

Assumptions are dangerous.