What is with childless people parking in family spots!!!

[Asher09]

I have a toddler and a baby - so thats 2 car seats and a double pram. I genuinly need a fair bit of space when parking and recently I've seen so many people without children parking in the family spots - its so frustrating!

Surely family spots are there for a reason - they're closer to entrances and allow more space to get in and out. Its so helpful to a parent!
When inconsiderate people park there without thinking it leaves me driving around with a screaming toddler and a crying baby trying to find a decent spot where I have some room - some car parks have such narrow spots its impossible to get my kids in and out without hitting a car.

I've caught some people in the act, and have confonted them 'Hey I think you've left your kids in the car' but no one thinks they sre doing anything wrong or should move.

I think family spots should have the same rules as disabled spots. Just don't know how that would be implimented.

Yes, that’s the point. It’s “annoying” if you can’t get parked with a baby/small child or multiple of them. People can and do park without the wider spaces as evidence by any children’s attraction. A person with a disability may need to go home if they cannot find a space. That is completely incomparable.

Yes, but your point has nothing to do with mine, so I not sure why you quoted me.

If you want to take this up with me, perhaps read where I’ve said, repeatedly, that there is no way disabled people should be impacted at all by p&c spaces (other than that they should be free to use them of course).

The post you’ve quoted was in response to a pp wondering what people would do if p&c spaces were full. My response: they’d cope.

I appreciate what you’re saying and your post is very sensible. Thank you for explaining it.

I still don’t think this wholesale take-down of the OP was warranted in the slightest just because she made a (possibly thoughtless) comparison with the way another group’s spaces are guarded, and I’m not sure this sort of speculation is warranted on the strength of her comment:

although actually, if shops were told they had to provide spaces both for p/c and disabled people under the same legislation it’s extremely likely that they would start to label spaces as ‘accessible’ and allow people with kids and disabled people to use the same spaces, because it’s easier and cheaper for them-

OP wasn’t putting forward ideas for legislation!! She quite clearly meant just in the sense of ‘properly regulated’. As others have suggested, too, the disabled spaces on private land aren’t necessarily protected in the same way in law as council blue badge spaces.

I do take your point about ‘muddying the waters’ to some extent, but where does that end? It’s vital that disabled people have their rights protected in law, of course, but does that mean that no other group, whose needs might be distinct but not as serious, can never get anything protected in law because it makes laws for other groups look less important?

Is it so wrong for a mother to expect able-bodied non-parents not too clog up all the p&c spaces? Really?

Is it so wrong for a mother to expect able-bodied non-parents not too clog up all the p&c spaces? Really?

Not in the least, it would piss me off too. It’s thoughtless and inconvenient for parents.

The only thing that’s wrong is thinking that that experience of thoughtlessness and inconvenience is the same as the experience of disabled people.

Ok. I concede that.

It’s vital that disabled people have their rights protected in law, of course, but does that mean that no other group, whose needs might be distinct but not as serious, can never get anything protected in law because it makes laws for other groups look less important?

If the legal protection to the other group would lead to the legal protection being watered down, then no, legal protection should not be offered to the other group.

The PP you’re replying to gave great examples of what happens when companies/businesses are given the impression that parents have equal rights in law to disabled people. They merge the facilities provided and call them “accessible”. Then the disabled people find themselves without the legal protection which they’re due, because it’s all being used by parents.

The only way in which I’d support P&C spaces having legal protection is if said legislation required them all to be moved to the back of the car park (with roof-covered walkway). That way, there’d be no risk of them being merged with BB spaces. I’d also want there to be an increase in spaces for disabled people (not just BB-holders) at the front of the park, in recognition of the fact that moving P&C spaces adversely affects people who can’t use BB spaces but need to be closer to the store entry.

It’s not that no other group can be protected, but disabled people have a legal protection that parents do not have, and yes, the effect on the former takes precedence over the effect on the latter.

Mine are 2.5 and 5 now so less of an issue but back then I absolutely would have not cared one jot about distance from the store. What I cared about was not reducing mine or anyone else’s car to scrap metal while I wrestled a baby seat, buggy, buggy board, baby and toddler in and out.

I agree with you. I have a toddler and unless I can open my door fully I can’t get him out due to they style of my car however, I also have a mom who is awaiting an operation and struggles to go out. She can’t get a blue badge as it’s not permanent however she would be unstable on her own so I can’t just drop her off and park. When I’m with her I will use a parent and child space on the odd occasion I take her out. Things like this need to be looked into, however I agree I hate seeing people who don’t need them in any way using them. I’ve seen some just park in them to use there phone or wait for someone. This needs addressing.

So sorry, I did quote the wrong person! I was agreeing with you 🙂 and disagreeing with them. I never get the quote function quite right.

If you cannot manage to get your child safely from one side of the car park to the other, you’ve got bigger problems than P&C spaces pal.

Oh ok 😂I’ll stand down!

Is there a reason why everyone in the car is screaming? 😆 sorry but it’s not that hard, I have a baby and a toddler and usually just find a space that doesn’t have a car parked next to it, literally every mother in the history of driving to supermarkets has managed, there are very rarely p&c spaces available. No offence but are you on the larger side? That could be why you struggle as I struggled when I was pregnant but it’s not hard to slip into a small space and grab an even smaller human get them out if your smaller.

Not read the full thread because I got irritated very quickly. I was also indifferent to the reasons for parent and child parking spaces.

Until the day I tried to navigate my way across a busy parking lot with my two children. I was pushing a very heavy trolley laden with groceries and my baby son in a car seat - with one hand - while also trying to hold my toddlers hand who was straining hard to be released. Pushing a trolley with one hand while a child is going bonkers in the other hand and be alert to traffic and risk is very very hard.

She slipped my grasp and I had to choose between abandoning the trolley and my baby, or grabbing for her. I was trying to do both and failing. She came damn close to being knocked by a car and I managed with the help of a stranger. It all took seconds.

I see those spaces about safeguarding. Safeguarding is never about the majority who mostly are unaffected and who (frankly) come on threads judging and sneering. It's for the tiny minority who have moments like I did.

My children are much older now and do what they are told in the presence of cars. I NEVER park in those spaces, not because of princess mothers, but because it helps keep struggling excitable toddlers safe.

(... I now wait for the comments telling me I should have grown three hands, only gone shopping with a friend, been a better mother to a three year old so it knew how to behave properly, only shopped at midnight when there were no cars around, etc ... To which my response is 'Toddlers bored in supermarkets. Exhausted mothers. Life + kids routines. Etc'

I don’t know why people don’t seem to understand the need for p&c spaces.

If the spaces are small (as they often are) and you have to lift a small child out, it is impossible without being able to open the door a certain amount.

Clearly parents with children above about 6 using them is not their purpose and I can see why it might annoy elderly less mobile people.

Of course, your local super centre may always have empty parks a bit further away, but some close to me are always chockablock and people queue for parks.

My children are teens now and it would never occur to me to use one, even sometimes when I had small injuries and was hobbling around. Ultimately, if I am fit enough to shop, I am fit enough to walk a little further from a normal park.

Nicely done, but it’s clear you are trying to be offensive here.

Are you… fat, OP?

We see you.

"Ultimately, if I am fit enough to shop, I am fit enough to walk a little further from a normal park."

People often use them because of needing extra space to get out rather than distance to shop.

I recommend reins for those with running off toddlers. We still use them with severely learning disabled teenage ds.

My child's response to reins was to go limp and flop on the floor. Which would have left me carry a struggling toddler under one arm while trying to push a heavy trolley with baby with one hand.

You need to start using reins when they first start walking outside of the house and to be persistent with it.

Underhisi · Today 11:49

You need to start using reins when they first start outside of the house and to be persistent with it.

Or, instead of going back in time and teaching your toddler to accept reins from when they started walking, you could just park in the parent and child space as long as selfish people who don't need them haven't used them?

DT’s didn’t get a choice - reins or no trips to the park, on the tube etc

But they may be full of non selfish people that do have children! Or overflow from disabled bays?

You're the parent, do you always make sure your child gets their own way? It's not a good idea, you need to be able to make safety decisions and in force them.

My kids are older but as I have twins, I did use reins. (Which also caused a lot of tutting and "they're not dogs" type comments from people) My point was that it was a very unhelpful response to a situation described by a PP.
Obviously if the p and c spaces are all full then you can't park in them, so you have the option to go home or try a regular space, which as I explained up thread may mean you can't get the babies in / out of the car, or like PP said, with the potential dangers of walking across a busy carpark 🤷
A 2 year old was hit by a reversing car in my local Tesco a couple of months ago. It was in the local paper. I don't know if they survived or not because it was upsetting so I didn't read past the headline.

What if they are full of people who did have a need? What if it happened there was an influx of parents with small children?

I didn't start out with a child that I thought would consistently need reins. So I didn't feel the need, or even anticipate a need, to train her. That day in the car park was completely random. She could just as easily have been quietly 'helping' me push the trolley. Except she wasn't.

The PP reference to a child being knocked over in a Tesco car park literally made me feel instantly sick.