In thinking mother and baby places should not be used by those without children not pregnant etc and then laugh about it treating it as a joke!!

[2luvlyboys]

PILs park in the mother and baby space all the time as a matter of course using the fact they have a child seat in there as an excuse!! Never take my dcs shopping never why would they? That is very very unreasonable imo and makes me ! They have been challanged about it and they say they make a joke about they left the kids at home!
Observant ones will notice I put this on another thread but then thought it deserves an aibu in its own right iyswim!

Anyway, another vote from me for the abolition of P&T spaces. Then there would be none of this nonsense.

Lovely car park attendant at local shopping mall let me use P&C space for the rest of my pregnancy as I need to open the door the whole way to get in and out of the car. I would never have dreamed of doing so without being invited. Was parking miles away to get a space with sapces round it, but then was knackered by the tiem I got to the shops!

I have looked into the criteria but we fall down here:

(from the NAS link)

OR

has a severe mental impairment and displays severe behavioural problems, and qualifies for DLA care component at the higher rate.

My ds does sometimes wake in the night but not enough (by their rules) to qualify for higher rate care. So, no higher rate mobility!!

I really don't care whether people get stroppy about us using a P&C bay (10yrs old rule wouldn't stop me either). I seldom take ds shopping - too stressful but it's good to know there are options if I really have to (disabled trolleys, nearby parking spaces).

How did you record the 'wakes in the night' on the form?

Wakes in the night and "I need to get up 25 times for 2 minutes at a time" counts as zero time up.

Wakes in the night and "I need to get up once for 20 minutes" counts and will get you higher rate DLA.

Never mind that most of us would prefer to take once for 20 minutes over 25 times for 2 minutes at a time.

Given the descriptions you've given of your son you should be getting higher rate care.

I told them that ds sometimes wakes and that we give him a bottle of milk and send him back to his bed. This works 99% of the time. He will often go straight back to sleep, whereas once awake, it can take me much longer to nod back off aagin - sometimes much longer than 20mins, though I doubt DLA would be very sympathetic about this!!.

It is crazy isn't it - I mean, their logic suggests that a child who sleeps at night is somehow less disabled during the day!

I wish my ds could trade off his disabilities for length of unbroken sleep!!!

That waking in the night rule seems severely ridiculous...surely mobility/severity of disability, etc...should be the deciding factors.....! Who comes up with stupid rules like that?

Jimjam, of course parents of Baby's etc...have optionsopen to them, that disabled people/parents of disabled Kids don't...well, or the choice...as usual, I didn't put it well....but am only digging myself into a deeper hole, I think...if I attempt again....

just thought I'd throw something else into the mix here, since this thread seems to be going every which way!

My sister tells me (she has 3 DDs under 5) that she has been told by attendants in a petrol station that she shouldn't leave her kids unattended in the car while she pays in case someone sets fire to the place by ill-advisedly smoking a cig or using a mobile phone and igniting the joint. Since being told this, she has now resorted to taking all her kids into the petrol station pay booths with her, causing HUGE delays, I'm sure.

I think this is ludicrous myself but just thought I'd give gangle something else to think about and wondered if anyone / else has heard/ been told this?

I thought that was the case, thumbwitch, so I tend to use a pertol station at my local Asda, which has a sort of 'drive thru' pay bit.

A possible solution when all P&C spaces are gobbled up:

Park over 2 empty bays where you can find them. The avg parking space has shrunk so possibly why P & C spaces were invented.

I thught it was illegal to park over the lines in a parking bay?

thumbwitch - that petrol station attendant is talking bolleaux. You don't set fire to a petrol station with a carelessly discarded cigarette - it takes a bit more than that to ignite an entire petrol station! And how would you set a petrol station alight with a (modern) mobile phone?

Far, far more dangerous to drag 3 kids across a petrol station forecourt IMO.

Kiskidee - i owe you an email. But things are much better since you wrote - thank you.

I don't know if I'd have the balls to park over two bays!

I have never heard such a thing myself. considering that supermarket carparks are owned by the supermarkets, i can't see how that is so.

Did the email help UD? or did it make me seem like some sort of looney fringe lentil weaving mama. I don't mind if you are honest.

No - it was great. Morgan emailed me some helpful stuff too. There is some really loony fringe stuff out there though!! And I don't mind a bit of lentil weaving here and there - i wish i could be more lentil weaving myself!

thanks Thumbwitch, that's really nice of you.

I am a Londoner : I mainly shop online.
I am also disabled and get very annoyed, when I do drive to the supermarket or where ever and there are no disabled bays left ( many of which occupied by people not displaying badges - Tesco apparently can do nothing about this happening in their car park )

Then I look and see all the parent and child bays. I am a parent with a child. The childen go into a trolly surely if they are not big enough to walk around the shop, so do not need to be parked nearer to the shop! If they are big enough not to need to go in a trolly, they are also big enough to e able to walk a little bit further to the shop!

Lastly, I do think that the extra wide spaces are a good idea for P&C as it helps to be able to get siad child in and out of the car without twisting HOWEVER the need to have them near to the store is unjustifiable IMO...

Yes have them, but make them in spaces which are not essential for disabled customers... Before anyone suggests that a wheel chair can wheel from a distance a) try wheeling yourself in one see how easy it is. b) many disabled people have limited mobility, not no mobility c) it is the exra wide spaces that are of most use for many disabled drivers ( myself in this category) as they cannot twist of maneuver themselves into/out of car without door wide open.

Gangle - like your other scenarios it's so unlikely to happen that it's beyond ludicrous and it's far more dangerous to drag your child across the petrol station forecourt!

pretty sure my driving instructor told me that....also, even if carparks are owned by the supermarket...if their is roadsigns and like arrows to show direction to drive...if you don't police could you pull up for it....well, or so I was told

Some shopping centres and car parks will fine you for parking over 2 spaces.

I actually don't think it's that unlikely at all. Cars get stolen the whole time, especially around where I live which isn't the greatest area. How about a bit of respect for someone else's choices and parenting? Isn't that what mumnset is all about rather than a load of judgemental bigots critising someone for taking, as they see it, the best possible care of their child?

Gangle - the likelihood of someone stealing your car in the time it takes you to pay for petrol is very small. It takes a while to break into a car and then hotwire it. Assuming you remembered to take the keys out and lock it then someone stealing your car would be at a bit of a disadvantage. And no half sensible car thief would take a car with a baby in it!

I don't think that this neurosis about our children does them - or us - any good at all.

shall continue to park over 2 bays till i get fined then.