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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be a bit irked about disabled badge holders using mum and baby spaces

230 replies

mousemole · 29/10/2008 18:05

I am not sure why I am irked because clearly having a disabled badge means you have a need to park near a supermarket. But when all the mum and child spaces are gone, and I am struggligng with baby and toddler, and see a man with a blue badge RUN from his car in the pouring rain to Sainsburys whilst I can't get a space I have to admit to feeling P*ssed off. Oh and I also dont understand why totally able bodied senior citizens feel they have the right to park in them either.
Rant over.

OP posts:
cali · 29/10/2008 18:33

Don't have a problem with Blue Badge holders using M&B spaces, if they are being used legitimately.

What does annoy me, is the number of drivers who have no reason to park in them but do anyway.

Well, if you park next to me, you might just find a lovely big dent in the side of your car due to the fact that I drive a 3 door car and have to open the doors fully to get both dd's in the back.
Even worse, could be the lovely scrape in your paintwork, when dd1 pushes the trolley into your car whilst I'm fastening dd2 into her car seat.

You have been warned.

Original poster
mousemole · 29/10/2008 18:36

I agree Liffey and I am not comparing the differences in mobility. As Cali points out if there is a genuine need for BBH to use the space then absolutely take it. God, they just need to be ABOLISHED.

OP posts:
hercules1 · 29/10/2008 18:38

mousemole, I thought you accepted earlier in this thread that you were wrong, clearly not. Perhaps he was able to run in but after doing a shop knew it would be hard to get back to the car. Really, you have no idea and it's a horrible thing to judge.

hercules1 · 29/10/2008 18:39

oops sorry, read your first post as the last. Flipped thread!! Sorry!

wabbit · 29/10/2008 18:39

I have had one particular moment of feeling more than irked that the last Parent and child space was taken... by a nippy septogenarian couple

mind you I was lurching one-sidedly with SPD and had (unbeknownst to me then) a broken wrist, wrestling with the babycarrier was excruciating

we all have our reasons to ged pee'd off at others

I like my new sainsbury's car park as there are so many new spaces for disabled and parent customers... and babes in buggies spaces are marked with a different symbol to spaces designated for parents with children of an age to walk.

You're not unreasonable to feel as you do - you would have been unreasonable if you'd had a go

hercules1 · 29/10/2008 18:40

Cali, do you really scrape peoples cars and allow your children to do the same because they have parked in a parent and child space??

hercules1 · 29/10/2008 18:41

Cali, how on earth do you manage if there are no parent and child spaces? Do you just go home??

cali · 29/10/2008 18:43

Maybe they should be renamed "Easy Access Spaces".

At my local Tesco's, the disabled parking spaces far outnumber the M&B spaces and whenever I am there, the disabled spaces are only ever half full.

The M&B spaces however, are always full.

The answer would be to have stricter rules about the use of M&B spaces, imo they should only be for parents who have to strap young children into car seats and once a child is able to do this themselves, possibly at 8 years???? Then they should be treated no differently from other customers using the car park.

I think the use of the spaces should also be extended to heavily pregnant mums to be, as it is no fun trying to squeeze a huge bump through the minute gap provided between two parked cars.

jeee · 29/10/2008 18:43

Do you remember when Asda had pregnant women parking places? My wheelchair using sister drove round Asda carpark with me and my 14 month old in it looking for (a) a disabled place, or (b) a mother and toddler one. We failed to find one, and so she said, "I feel a bit guilty, but I guess I'd better use the pregnancy ones". She apparantly had failed to notice that I was 8 months pregnant.

cali · 29/10/2008 18:44

Hercules1, have you ever heard of irony?

TheFallenMadonna · 29/10/2008 18:45

8?

You've got to be kidding.

DS told me off for parking in one when DD was 3.

ewwwmy2shoesarefullofblood · 29/10/2008 18:46

By CandleQueen on Wed 29-Oct-08 18:14:52
2Shoes - leave my hobnobs alone or I will be forced to eat your blue badge!
I don't have a badge.......dd does, so you would have to eat her badge. you meanie

cali · 29/10/2008 18:48

Of course I do not go around denting cars or allowing my dd to scrape cars with a trolley.

The exact opposite actually, I have lost count of the number of times my legs have been bruised by the car door as I try and sqeeze my children into the the car, making sure I do not damage the car next to me.

If I did do as I said in my earlier post, do you really think I would broadcast it on a public forum?

I was merely illustrating the difficulties we can have when there are no M&B spaces available.

BoysAreLikeZombies · 29/10/2008 18:48

Graceful retraction by mousemole.

Well done you.

[smlie]

scaredoflove · 29/10/2008 18:53

Actually, as the mother of a disabled child who has a blue badge, I would raise an eyebrow to this particular situation

If the man was driving, I doubt he would have a bluebadge for a severe learning difficulty, if he was running, I doubt he had a motor disability as legitimate blue badge holders need to be quite impaired or in receipt of DLA. Also, you should only use the badge if the disabled person is with you and getting out of the car, not just sitting in the car

There are many many stolen badges out there being used and many many people using relatives badges when they shouldn't

Absolutley, genuine blue badge holders should get presidence over mother and baby parking but we should be on the look out for fraudulent use too

edam · 29/10/2008 18:55

Good for you, mousemole.

lou33 · 29/10/2008 18:55

he may have been going to pick up someone who was disabled though

cory · 29/10/2008 18:57

scaredoflove on Wed 29-Oct-08 18:53:33
"Actually, as the mother of a disabled child who has a blue badge, I would raise an eyebrow to this particular situation

If the man was driving, I doubt he would have a bluebadge for a severe learning difficulty, if he was running, I doubt he had a motor disability as legitimate blue badge holders need to be quite impaired or in receipt of DLA."

Scaredoflove, it is possible to be quite impaired and yet be able to walk a few steps on certain days. My dd has days when she can walk/run a short distance and days when she is completely wheelchair bound. The problem is that if she does walk too far then day 1 will turn into day 2 and she will fall flat on her face in the car park.

Tortington · 29/10/2008 18:58

M&T spaces should go to back of car park - next to the recycle skips

potatofactory · 29/10/2008 18:59

I would happily key those two-seater no-knob-mobiles (and their owners, with sharp keys) who park in P&T - I'm not talking about the disabled issue though.

Obviously I would never dare, but I do tsk about there being no child seats or boosters in each car as I walk past. \

Bastards

Original poster
mousemole · 29/10/2008 19:00

Scaredoflove, thanks for your points, very valid. If it's true that there is a lot of fraudulent use of blue badges then it makes them less credible which is a shame. BoysarelikeZombies, thank you for your kind words. I wasn't looking for a fight or intending to be 'ignorant' as I have been described, I was merely seeking other people's valid and interesting views. hercules, you are a feisty one ! Cali, love your descritpion of your parking practices, made me chuckle !

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 29/10/2008 19:01

I saw a whopping big American car with fins parked in a disabled bay the other week. It overhung the end buy a good 3 feet and had no badge. I was very tempted to point it out to customer services so they could ask the driver of the "ridiculous American monstrosity" to shift it.

SheikYerBATi · 29/10/2008 19:01

Not this again.

Fooking Nora

The answer is

Get your shopping delivered

Or

Go when your DP/DH/Granny/4th cousin 3 times removed is able to look after your kid. I love going to the soopermarket sans brats.

LazyLinePainterJane · 29/10/2008 19:02

Watch out! Baby made of Sugar! Is there anything left of your precious children since you had to take them out IN THE RAIN? I find it very hard to imagine that the only space left in the entire car park was the parent and child one that you were after so I assume that you managed to find another space?

The sooner they get rid of parent and children spaces the better.

SoupDragon · 29/10/2008 19:04

Read the thread through before launching into a tirade.

"By mousemole on Wed 29-Oct-08 18:22:53

yes unsuspecting me !! Just posting on a genuine AIBU ?! Clearly I am. Signing off now. Too much PMT for big battle. Have decided a few things though

  1. A blue badge with a person in a wheelchair is not an accurate depiction of the wide range of visibilities. To most I think it implies a visible physical disability which clearly isn't always the case
  2. Mother and baby spaces should be abolished - they create too many issues ! "