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!

Gangle - presuming you remembered to lock the car, no-one could nick your car in less than a minute. Trust me. In a car park or petrol station, no-one is going to be going fast enough to damage your baby if they do hit the car.

Try to be rational about it, please.

HedgeWitch - that'll be the Baby On Board sticker another of my pet hates!

i cant believe someone is stressing about there car being stolen when they are paying for petrol.

take the bloody keys with you

To be fair to Gangle the situations she has outlined with regard to danger of leaving DC in car have happened. It might be very very very unlikely but there is still the risk.

Also what does PARP mean, I have checked the PARP list and can't find it.

and pay at the pump - freaking hell - no pay at the pump.

So I either get the three dds out - one of whom needs to be hold onto very tightly, a 3yo and a 17 month old to pay for the petrol. I just go to a petrol station where I can leave them in the car right at the door and pay for petrol.

Since having DS I have a thought of numerous scary scenarios that never occurred to me before, e.g. buses mounting pavements and hitting the buggy, someone scaling the wall of the house to steal the baby. Sorry if that's not rational but I think motherhood makes you much more aware of things like this and extra vigilant for your baby - surely that can only be a good thing. These things also DO happen, however rarely and I would just prefer not to take the risk. And no, I don't have a Baby on Board sticker . . .

Gangle - i'm sorry, it's just that in you, i see myself 19 months ago. IMO this constant level of panic, this level of preciousness and trying to be the superwoman I'm just blatantly not, was for me a perfect recipe for PND. By the time ds was 9 months I was at the stage where i wished someone would farkin abduct the little fecker! Then i relalised it was ds' fault - i just needed to chill A Lot.

When I did I got a lot better! I do genuinely think you will look back on this in a year or so's time and cringe, the same way I am!

It wasn't ds' fault. Sorry.

Right - fun though this has been - dh has just come upstairs (we are at the IL's house for their Ruby wedding anniversary party) and said, "You can't come and do important things with your family because Someone On The Internet Is Wrong?"

TTFN.

Gangle, you offend me.

I think children under about 8 should be banned from supermarkets.

No, hear me out.

In one fell swoop mothers would have a cast-iron excuse to never have to take their small children to one ever again. They should also be allowed free home delivery from a supermarket of their choice with help available around the clock to enable them to set up and access a computerised account.

Fathers/inlaws would have to babysit if they wanted any food provided or they would have to do the shopping themselves.

When children reached the age of eight there would then be a ceremony to introduce them to the supermarket, tuition in how to conduct themselves and in how to shop well.

I think P&C spaces are necessary. It annoys me when people use them without children, not enough to say anything but enough to have a little moan to myself!
I dont even care about how close to the shop it makes me, its the extra room to kart the pram, car seat etc out and then that room of safety where I can leave the car door open and check on my DD whilst I unpack the shopping.
And of course I am better at parking in the big spaces!
And most importantly, their vicinity to the trolley park so that I can return it without having to leave DD unaccompanied (unless I want to carry all 19 lbs of her around the car park (unsafely) to do so.

Just read a bit more of the thread (not all of it as have terrible headache today and computer not helping)

I feel for Gangle.

I dont see why people get so critical of new mums being "precious". I dont mind being PFB, she deserves it and next time round I wont have the time or energy.

Let live.

I would not leave my DD (7 months) in a car alone to get petrol. I go to the credit card ones, it hardly damages my life!!

And I would only leave her to get a trolley/return a trolley if I was near the trolley park (3 or 4 spaces away).

I dont care that I am precious about her, am enjoying putting her first and over worrying!

[looks in, laughs and tries to walk away]

Oh one last thing (before my eyes give up on me today)

Obviously priority should go to disabled badge users, thats completely different. I dont consider it an "either/or" scenario

I think that should make all P&T places at the far end of the car park (no one would want to abuse them, lazy monkeys)Near a trolley park with a pedastrianised walk way to super market door.

Hardly difficult?

lol janni. I when Tom is screaming in the supermarket. One time he did a loud shriek it made some woman jump, lol. I work in Tesco and shrieking can make your head hurt a bit!

It's perfectly fine to take all the precautions you mention, pamelat.

P&T parking spaces are not a necessity, they're a marketing ploy by the supermarkets.

We managed for hundreds of shopping years without them.

My mother used to walk several miles to the local shop with me in a BIG pram - and the way back was uphill, and an absolute killer.

She survived, as did I.

(And she has still got fantastic calves and upper arms, as she eventually had three children to take shopping. )

Some people take their prams in the supermarket maybe because they are short like me and trying to lift up the car seat onto one of the car seat trolleys is impossible or they have walked to the supermarket but are being picked up. DP used to meet me there, but he locked the buggy in one of those trolley lockers.

I hate getting petrol on my own with Tom. I always lock the car when I go and pay.

I agree totally with Hedgewitch - a lack of parent spaces is NOT an insurmountable problem, you just park elsewhere, be it at the end of the carpark if you have to.

But what gets people's back up, as she so rightly identified, is the lack of common courtesy and manners shown by those who are by no stretch of the imagination "eligible" to use these spaces specifically set aside for the safety of very young children (I wouldn't care if the spaces themselves were several 100 yards away .... what I care about is having enough space to ensure my child is safely strapped into its seat ..... this can be almost impossible if you can't open the door wide enough).

People who use these spaces are simply selfish and fall into the same category as those who refuse to get up from disabled/elderly/pregnant designated seating on buses and trains. It's the whole "I'm going to do whatever I want and sod everyone else" type attitude, which grates so much ...... and this nasty selfish approach to other people seems to be on the increase, in all sorts of situations. Why should this be ignored by others who are more considerate ? Do that, and those types of people will continue to stamp all over everyone else without a care. Why is it so hard to show a bit of consideration ?

Lojoe, you're a bit sad if you're offended by a stranger's view on P&C spaces.

Catsmother you can do up your child's seat belt without having the door wide open. I get into the car to do it.

Lots of people would like special treatment. Some need it, some don't.
My father had a stroke and struggled to get in and out of a car. He would have benefitted from having a wider parking space.
Some pregnant women don't need the extra room. With some of my pregnancies a standard space was fine even post-dates.
It seems some people can manage a normal space with babies and toddlers or can think of ways around any difficulties they may have. Some don't appear to be able to or willing.

Perhaps the solution is for every carparking space to have a larger area.
Costco have wider spaces as standard. Perhaps all supermarkets should do the same.

Gangle, you do seem to be unwilling to accept any suggestions to make things easier on yourself. There are lots of ways around the difficulties of shopping with young babies/children. Why not listen to people who've overcome them?
The only thing I agree with you over is leaving the baby in the car. I wouldn't do that and haven't done that with a very young baby.

IME it's very young babies who care the least!