Called a "c*nt" in front of his kid over a P&C spot...

[SorryIParkedWrong]

Hi all,
Need a sanity check on an interaction I had yesterday that's still bothering me.
I used a Parent & Child spot yesterday at a quiet retail park. I know, technically wrong, but I was doing a massive haul for a house move and needed the boot space, and loads of other P&C spots were free so I wasn't leaving anyone without.
The issue happened when I got back to my car after shopping. I was in the driver's seat, engine on, and was just about to reverse out and leave.
A car pulled into the P&C space next to me. A woman got out with her young child and. She came right up to my window, which was cracked open, and said in a really aggressive tone, "You shouldn't be parked there."
Not wanting any drama or to explain my point to an emotionally enraged individual, I just said, "Ok," and put the car fully in reverse to leave. That's when she and the dad who appeared completely kicked off. Standing right by my car door, she launched into an absolute tirade.
She was shouting all sorts - "cunt," "fucking little shit," "look at your shit car," "fucking shit driving." All while her own young child stood there watching the whole thing.
I briefly stopped reversing, said through the window "I hope you have a lovely rest of your day," and then started to move again. She and her husband just kept going with the abuse, so I stopped the car again because I was just in disbelief. I looked at her and started laughing at the sheer absurdity and the level of her rage.
I know I shouldn't have used the spot. But AIBU to think her reaction was completely unhinged? Does my minor error give someone the right to hurl that level of personal, nasty abuse at a stranger, especially in front of their own child?
It honestly felt like she was just projecting all her life's problems onto me over a parking space. What do you think?

Well, in his case it is rather too late for that.

Honestly, I don’t disagree with you, but I just cannot get that worked up about it.
I think part of it is knowing that P+C and Women’s Only parking spaces are larger than normal- and therefore used by misogynists as an example of how women are “shit at parking” /less competent generally/ deserving of being treated badly. I also try to imagine that maybe that person would be really grateful to use the space today and maybe we can all pay it forward so that on the day we need to call it in maybe it will be OK. (e.g. I am generous with letting traffic merge).
I also think in terms of the example one sets to children, we can make point about selfishness to children in a way that is light hearted and good natured.

theyre always full in my tesco and half of them dont have kids with them they just cant be bothered to park further away

they were ott and as youve admitted op you were also wrong

She is a moron. I can’t imagine getting even mildly peeved over something so unimportant.

Why don’t shops make p&c spaces the furthest from the entrance? That would stop those that use them to be lazy.

What a coincidence that you always manage to be around when half the people are either parking up or walking back to their cars!

Or let the elderly lady have the space she clearly needs, park a bit further away yourself and walk.

I’ve wondered about this for a while too. In a couple of my local supermarkets the P&C spaces are nearer the entrance than the disabled bays. If the intention is to make it safer for children to exit the vehicle into a car park surely it would make sense to put them in a quieter part, away from the main traffic. And it would discourage people from using them just because they’re too lazy to walk. Although I get the sense from OP that it wasn’t proximity to the entrance that caused her to park there - more the space around the car allowing easier access.

its by the entrance ive been going there for years

Whilst they were a pair of grotty Chavs, I do echo their sentiment that you are a C word for parking there, an entitled C word.

Like I say, a really unbelievable coincidence that you manage to see half the drivers in the few mins it takes to park up or return. Gosh!

i think I've only ever seen maybe 1 or 2 people either parking up/returning at the same time im there and I go to a massive extremely busy Tesco in a town centre.

I guess I might see half eventually if I hung around for 40 mins checking though.

Oh come on, this can't be that befuddling can it? P+C parking spots are put close to the shop entrance because kids are 1) often small, and thus more difficult to see from the driving seat of a car (particularly an SUV with a high bonnet and a letterbox back window), and 2) even with the best, MN-approved parenting and the highest standards of supervision and tutoring on road safety, prone to doing daft stuff now and again.

Disabled people also should be given priority over more able bodied folk. But given they have already managed to get to their car, drive to the shop, are presumably going to walk/wheel a reasonable distance round the shop anyway, and are fully grown compos mentis adults, it's fair enough that they fall below children in the pecking order.

Are you actually fucking serious?? This has to be a sarcastic post surely

yeah you got me🙄

? I can see you are upset but if you want a proper reply you might want to engage with what I said a little more deeply. Are you sure you've understood it correctly?

I’m a rule follower so when I see people park in places they’re not meant to I do think well they are a bit of an entitled c*nt. Obviously in my head not usually my out loud voice.

No worries, thought it was a bit odd. Most people exaggerate sometimes to try and prove a point 😊

I'm not upset at all. im puzzled at your motives with your post. That's all.

Are you sure you've actually understood what you wrote?

Not arsed about a proper reply, you really, really aren't that important.

She sounds deranged.

Just ignore it.

Her kid will likely be in the news in the future and not for good reasons. You were in the wrong (although less of an issue if loads of P&C bays were free.

But her and her husband are violently unhinged.

I mean you already know you started out in the wrong and, while she may have overreacted, two wrongs don’t make a right and all that.

But before anyone can judge the woman’s (and her husband’s) reaction, I have to check something: you say, that she was stood right by your window when she said you shouldn’t be parked there, and then you say: ‘I just said, "Ok," and put the car fully in reverse to leave. That's when she and the dad who appeared completely kicked off’.

When you say you put the car fully in reverse, do you mean that you actually started reversing and at speed? And while she was still stood very close to your car? If so, she probably thought you were doing something incredibly aggressive, rather violent and potentially very dangerous. And so, yes, standing yelling obscenities at someone who nearly ran them over while their child watched, might be a rather understandable thing to do!

However, if you mean you made your intention clear that you were going to reverse soon, and didn’t in fact move, then she overreacted.

You do know that disabled people can also be children?
Or they maybe adults but with the cognitive ability of a small child ,not all of then will be in wheelchairs or able to drive a car
Which is why the law rightly andv legally provides spaces for them whereas P&C spaces are just a courtesy .

I can’t believe someone is arguing that able bodied children and parents need parking more than those who are disabled. Has society really reached that level of self obsession that able bodied people can’t walk through a car park but disabled people have to?

Some people are just totally unable to look at the bigger picture outside of their own little bubble.

Tbf it will only be a very small and silly minded disablist minority that think that.

Even though I don't believe the OP, your post made me 😂😂

You should have filmed it. You could be making bank on the viral video now. These people are basically free money, just record them, upload and let the internet do it's thing.

Woah woah woah, this has escalated fast. I'm not some disablist bigot; I completely agree that particular provision should made for parking for disabled people. And FWIW my 'bubble' includes regularly raking my mobility-impaired aunt shopping - in fact I probably do that more than go shopping with my kids. I'm just saying that there are good reasons why, when a shop is deciding what priority to give various groups when it comes to parking, they decide on 1. Kids, 2. Disabled people, 3. Everybody else.

If a disabled person is also a child, then their parents can park in the P+C spot can't they? That's an easy one. And yes it may be that a fully grown disabled person may have the cognitive abilities of a child, but such a person driving themselves to the shops is going to be a much less common scenario than simply children being taken to the shops. I'm only talking about it being understandable that a shop might conclude that P+C might be given a slight preference over the disabled spots - a matter of a few metres - but people are reacting like in advocating banning disabled people from the shop altogether.