Parent and child spaces should be for those with children 5 and under

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Parent-child parking spaces at supermarkets should be reserved primarily for those with children aged 5 and under, aside from older children with special needs (although a blue badge might be more appropriate where they meet the criteria, in these cases).

I was alone with my 4 month old today, the trolleys with the baby seats are kept next to these spaces. The spaces which have the easiest access to the trolleys had all been taken with the last taken by someone just before me, I reversed into a space around the corner and the driver was shaking their head at me, presumedly because their space only had extra room on one side and my space came up to them (see picture). I was surprised to then see them get out with a child of about 13. I saw multiple other people using these spaces with children looking like teenagers. I was able to get a space which still had fairly easy access to the trolleys, albeit by needing to walk on the road and inbetween the other cars, multiple people had parked in the spaces with the easiest access with much older children. I was lucky to get a space at all, had I not I would have had to walk across the busy carpark holding my baby.

YANBU- Just because someone has a child under 16 doesn’t mean they should take up these spaces, they should save them for people who need them the most.

YABU- first come first served, who cares if someone with a baby is having to traipse across a busy car park holding a baby to get to the baby trolleys.

It’s hilarious that you are attacking someone for complaining about having to walk further with a baby and using having to walk further with your baby as a “gotcha” for the pain olympics 😂

My 7yo needs help to get his seat belt on in my car, he can do it in DH car but not mine, combination of the buckle being really low down and the shape of the car seat.

Don't judge under 12s using parents and child spaces

YABU, older kids can be pretty reckless when it comes to opening a car door and letting it hit the adjacent vehicle.

A 6 year old is still going to be in a booster seat, so the door will have to be fully open for the parent to reach in and unclip them etc.

Or the older kid might have SN issues that means the P&C space is justified.

What is BVU is confronting other people about their use of P&C and BB spaces. Maybe those people should google traffic warden job vacancies, and apply for them.

I use them when I'm with my 7 year old, when I'm with my 5 year old I don't bother.

My 7 year old appears "normal" but has ADHD, selective mutism, hypermobility and ASD, you'd never know to look at us though. She's not eligible for a blue badge (and rightly so!), so parent and child it is.

I get what you’re saying and fair enough but that doesn’t entitle the person with the older children to give us a dirty look for getting there first when we have a young baby that we have equipment for 🤷🏼‍♀️

Also not being funny but why do you need a parking space with huge gaps either side of the car just to lean in and help your child with a seat belt? No hate, I get kids needing help with seat belts, I work in education and have been on school trips where I’ve helped many children of a similar age with theirs when they were struggling. It didn’t require that much space though!

I’m short and a little bit fat (but below the uk average), so for me to lean over and belt in my 8 year old I need the door open wide.

Also rear facing til 6+ is becoming more popular, because a rear facing seat is further back and you need leverage to pull the harness right, so again you need the door fully open (even if you are skinny)

edit - presumably helping 6-8 year olds on a school trip meant they weren’t even in car seats, which is far easier to manoeuvre your arms around!

@Notmyuser thank-you that's the exact reasons. Short need to open the door fairly wide to lean in and get his seat belt. He can unplug ok but struggles to plug.

@RichinVitaminR wait a few years and you'll understand - it will all become clear!

Genuinely thank you for clarifying this, I’m used to the faff with the car seat for my 7mo but truthfully I don’t have experience with recent car seats for older children. I wasn’t aware that many children were still in rear facing car seats at that age. I guess it depends on the design, manufacturer, etc! Also this is very true, coaches don’t have car seats. The belts are fiddly but I think car seats for sixty ish children would honestly be nightmare material 😩

Edited just to delete an accidentally repeated word!

Just gutted that the car seats don’t get any less faffy as they get older! 😂🤦🏼‍♀️

They get more faffy, particularly the safer types!

I wouldn’t say many are; my elder is 8 and extended rear facing was unheard of by most when she was a toddler, but we got her to rear face til 6.

My son is 2 and will be rear facing until he no longer needs a harness as forward facing harnesses put too much force on their neck and can lead to pretty nasty injuries.

Id recommend joining a Facebook group for extended rear facing, or visiting a specialist retailer to get the best advice to keep your kid safe as they grow 🙂

OP, I am disabled, and it really boills my pee when every Tom, Dick and Harry (without blue badges) park in the disabled spaces.

In many supermarkets, I've been told by security that if a disabled space isn't available, disabled drivers have priority (over parents with children) for the use of the P&C parking spaces. So, on several occasions, I've been seen getting out of my car, parked in a P&C space, without a child, and have been shouted at by people about it, but I've just referred them to the store's security for confirmation of the disabled driver's priority.

I've asked the question about the legality of people who don't have children with them, using these spaces, of a friend who is a highways specialist, and it transpires that these spaces have NO law attached, and are just discretionary, so basically, ANYONE can park in them.

I dunno about you but my parents only really had to deal with those loose booster seats that slotted the belt into groves once my siblings and I were toddlers (3/4 I think)😳 Safety has come such a long way! It’s great albeit fiddly!

I honestly don’t have much information on this so huge thank you for mentioning it 💐 Hugely appreciated. My partner and I will need to do a bit of research for future reference. We’ve been umming and ahing about when to adjust her car seat further because she’s tall/long for her age - in 9-12m clothing purely based on height, and her legs are very tucked in getting her into the car right now 😩 Will have a look for groups on Facebook too!

@RichinVitaminR
Loose carseats are really no longer a thing most are isofixed and high backed with side impact protection so you need to lean round that.

DS has the same seat in both our cars the position of the buckles he can sort himself in DHs but not mine. I don't remember his brother having the same issues but it was a different car and seat.

If your looking for Car Seat advice their is a Car Seat section of MN and and incredibly knowledgeable poster called BertieBotts.

Yup. No baby here, but I'm on crutches about 80-90% of the time. Awaiting a total joint replacement (18 month waiting list), and already had nerve damage. I need to get the car door right open to get in/out. Yet, I've just been refused a Blue Badge. If I can't find a suitable space, I just have to go home again. It's shit what my life has become in my mid-40s.
But, it shouldn't surely be this hard to be able to get in/out of my car at Aldi.

YANBU people who use these without small children are generally selfish dickheads. I’ve literally had to go home when a P&C space isn’t available as where I live the rest of the car parks have particularly small spaces (something everyone locally moans about and nothing gets done) so couldn’t physically get in to get my kids unbuckled from their seats. So many in my area are used by retired couples who give you the we didn’t have these in my day and we managed bollocks. You also had smaller cars, less cars on the road and no requirement for the car seats we use now Marjorie so it’s not really the same situation 🙄

Cars were a lot narrower then. With all the crash protection, electrics in car doors, they are a lot wider. Even house builders haven't changed their size of their garages. My parents can park in their garage of their 20 year old home but in order to get out of the car, they need to open a door which they can't, even parking their car to one side.

It's definitely an issue that cars have got bigger but spaces generally haven't.

For multi storey car parks another issue they are really broadcasting is many will have to reduce their capacity as electric cars are far heavier than the equivalent combustion engine car.

This.

I went from having a tiny kid (9th centile) to a huge kid (91st centile) - my son is 2 and still has ages rear facing in our Joie spin safe. Leg room isn’t really an issue, it’s torso length that matters more - fortunately for me, my kids both have really short torsos! If you have a Joie seat, their Facebook page is really good - they can do virtual fit checks for harness adjustments etc, and get back to you within a few hours.

Cars are broader, car seats are more bulky and Extended rear facing means an adult has to open doors wider.

Yeah, I know it’s all isofix now 😊 My daughter has a Cosatto car seat on a rotating isofix. I was just saying it’s wild how much these things have come along! I will look at the car seat advice section though as this will be really useful as my daughter gets bigger. Thank you!

This is the tricky thing - I say her legs are very tucked in, but it is because she has a long torso that this is the case! She slouches in her seat currently for this reason 😩 But we’ve followed the advice on our car seat for this so far, which is based on her length. We have the Cosatto All in All i-size rotating car seat. I guess it might be worth seeing if Cosatto have similar information on their Facebook page.

@RichinVitaminR what do you mean she slouches, does the headrest move up or is their cushions under the bum that need to come out.