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.

I've never used reins

"My point was that it was a very unhelpful response to a situation described by a PP."

It was useful advice for people with toddlers just starting to toddle.
If toddlers are at risk from cars in car parks they are also at risk next to roads.

@Tahinii

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?

Prior to my experience, I would have parked elsewhere, as I did regularly. Until my child nearly got hurt.

After my experience, I'd have sat in the car and waited for a space, or gone home if the children got hot and kicked off in a still car. Shopping not done. Trip to be repeated.

Which is why people who DON'T have to keep small humans safe and protect them from danger, are very selfish for taking those spaces if they don't need them.

Fair enough.

Genuine question, what do you do at a child based attraction? If you’d told your child you were having a day at the zoo, would you turn around and go home? What if you needed something now like a prescription from a supermarket pharmacy?

I do think making all parking spaces a more suitable size for the modern cars is one way forward. I have a city car, so you cannot get much smaller and I don’t find most car parking spaces very spacious. It must be so tricky with bigger cars!

Genuine question, what do you do at a child based attraction? If you’d told your child you were having a day at the zoo, would you turn around and go home?

There'd usually be two of us then. So we can manage it. I became a lot more safety conscious when I was on my own + managing a heavy trolley in a space riddled with hazards.

What if you needed something now like a prescription from a supermarket pharmacy?

Try and collect it. A single item easier to carry than managing a trolley. I could also use the pram for baby and have my toddler standing on the board/platform thing behind it. Most often I'd phone my husband to fetch it on his way home from work.

@Tahinii to be fair I probably would have gone home as well if all the p and c were busy when my twins were teeny. After the experience where we couldn't get back in the car. It was very stressful (obviously not AS stressful as the PP whose child ran) but mostly I would have avoided taking mine anywhere where we needed to park in a carpark. At least on a roadside you can always get into the car. But really why should people have to feel like they can't go places? A child only place would have been the same for me. I wouldn't have taken them unless we could get public transport / walk/ or they had lots of p and c spaces. There was a farm we used to go to quite a bit where ALL the spaces had room around them. It was brilliant.
So while I obviously had more options than someone who needs a disabled space, there is a similarity in that we couldn't go to a lot of spaces if we couldn't get in a p and c. (Obviously trains were a possibility or walking - buses less so because of having a double buggy)
And YES I know it's still much easier than needing a disabled space, not least because my time in that situation was obviously limited. The only comparison I'm making is the potential of not being able to go somewhere.

@crochetcatsknitting you said this:

. I could also use the pram for baby and have my toddler standing on the board/platform thing behind it

Please be careful doing this. I had one of my twins in the buggy and one on a buggy board when they were very little (a single is so much easier to manoeuvre) and the twin on the board fell off as we were crossing the road. It was on a bloody hill and I was stuck between helping him up and letting go of the buggy. Luckily for us a kind lady was crossing at the same time and she took the buggy for me while I picked up my son who was terrified and screaming. Obviously looking back it was a bad idea to cross the road with them like that on a hill but I honestly didn't think of it.
Sorry don't want to worry you. Just something to bare in mind.

@Daisysrblu

That sounds totally terrifying. Fortunately, my daughter is 12 now 😂 so she would only get on a buggy board for laughs. But there are a handful of standout scary times in remember with my kids, and that car park experience was one of them.

And when you get back to your car that was parked in a space with no car next to it and find it is now hemmed in by a massive 4x4 who has left you no space? What then?

Stupid comment.

Then you end up leaving your baby on a pavement in the car seat being guarded by a stranger whilst you reverse out. I had to do this whilst a selfish childless woman ate a sandwich in her parked car in the Parent space and I had a baby and toddler in a teeny space that got parked next to.

It's unbelievably selfish to take baby spaces with older children or no children

Once I had my first baby I used Ocado. After a particularly awful supermarket trip where my baby screamed all through the checkout it didn't seem worth it. 15 years later I rarely go to a supermarket. I also find I spend less shopping on line as it's easier to keep to a budget.

You can get temporary blue badges for situations exactly like your mother’s. It depends on your LA but worth checking.

P&C spaces are just a marketing gimmick.

If supermarkets had research that showed people whose names start with 'K' spent the most money in their stores, they'd have special spaces for them instead.

Trying to equate P&C spaces with disabled ones is reprehensible.

So, as I said, I park furthest away as it’s easier because the majority of the time no one parks that far away and so it is much easier, and calmer. Try it.

Lauren Simon on cbb said that she always parks in parent and child spaces because she doesn't like walking. She's exactly the kind of person I would expect to do this.

Yes I'm not sure why more don't follow suit, given the stresses and strains of the supermarket

Wow! And this is precisely why legislation for P&C spaces should not be enshrined in law.