Parent and child spaces or parent and carseat spaces??!!

[margobambino]

I am getting really angry with people who park on the designated parent and child spaces just because they have a kid's car seat in their car. I strongly believe that I am not being unreasonable but wanted to ask your opinion anyway.
A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a parent and baby park in a retail park and saw one next to boots. I have a very active toddler and it is very difficult to keep him on the route so it would have been wonderful to park next to boots but a woman, who did not have a baby or child with her but had a car seat fitted in her car, drove faster and parked there. If I had time I was going to have a word with her and even take this to the shop managers etc. This happens quite often unfortunately. Next time I am planning to express my anger and concerns.

[WesternBelle]

Whaaaat!? Tis crapola, Chegirl!

I would most definitely not be taking the baby seat trolley to a special baby seat trolley park next to the mothership.

I would jam it in badly with the ordinary ones, and take the straps home (to reuse next time) (unless you are charged for them of course ) until the trolley staff moan loudly enough about it to management for the entire system to be reworked.

[twinmam]

Straps?! Am lucky to get a twin trolley in my local supermarket never mind one with straps in. I just plonk the DTs in and hang on to them This is toddler seats not baby ones I hasten to add - am not quite that blase with DCs safety! Maybe I'm meant to go and collect straps from customer services then...?!

Re. the parking thing, I did burst into tears when there were no P&T spaces on my first ever attempt to go supermarket shopping on my own with my then v tiny DTs. And a man honked his horn at me as I was driving too slowly round the car park which made me sob all the more God, had forgotten all this. When I did then get into the supermarket they didn't have the right size nappies so it was all in vain (more crying). P&T spaces are, I guess, intended to make parents' lives easier and they do mine so it's frustrating when people take the piss. That said, of course there is no comparison with disabled spaces.

[chegirl]

YES you do have to pay! Otherwise I wouldnt take it back believe!

Oh twin poor you. I am always really wimpy when I have a new baby (gobby mare the rest of the time, I soon get over it). I admit to using P&C spaces on those first few trips. Anyway if you have twins I do think you deserve a bit more of a hand.

I am not against P&C spaces. I think they are very nice and I love it when there is a handy one. I just dont like they seem to be put on a par with disabled spaces by a minority.

[twinmam]

Cheers Chegirl Babies & esp twin ones can make one a bit wobbly and I think stuff like P&T spaces can help with that a bit, definitely. So not on a par with disabled spaces though and hate how these kind of threads can descend in to Parents Vs The DIsabled, as if the two are somehow mutually exclusive or should be opposed.

Like you, am more gobby than that usually and in fact felt I had let myself down by not standing up to nasty tooting man SO.... wrote a very stongly worded email to Tesco when I got home telling them that they needed to provide more P&T spaces AND stock their shelves more frequently

[twinmam]

Should also point out that 'The Disabled' is not a term I use - was meant to be in inverted commas in an ironic way. More

[chegirl]

I love writing a good email to vent some displaced anger

Yes that always makes me a bit too. My OH is disabled and (oh my gosh) a parent too! As is my sister.

The looks we get when we park in a Blue badge bay. Thats why i get a bit cross and comments like 'I bet it wasnt their badge, they didnt look disabled'. My Oh doesnt 'look' disabled. He is, a lot.

Mind you he gets to park in P&C AND blue badge bays so its not all doom and gloom hey?

I am sooo wobbly after having a baby. I had to take OH out with me the first few times (this was my 4th baby btw). I felt all vunerable and girly. God only knows what a state I would be in if I had two of em!

[simplesusan]

Haven't read the whole thread but...
What is the legal position of someone who displays a disabled badge but is not themselves disabled and is parking in a disabled bay without the disabled passenger in the car (and not picking the disabled person up either). Hope this makes sense.
Surely they should only use the disabled facilities when they are transporting a disabled passenger which is similar to the ops question ie parking in a p&c with carseat but no child.

[MollieO]

What do people do with baby seats that come out of the car? When ds was a baby I got thoroughly fed up of notes on my windscreen when I parked in P&T spaces.

[twinmam]

It wasn't a very good email TBH - prob caused them some amusement tho. Am a better angry email writer when not in post baby/ies shock. Once helped get a BBC advert banned because it belittled domestic violence [proud emoticon] DH even better - once emailed B&Q referring to a member of their staff as a 'half man/half troll teenaged oik beast who could only grunt at our perfectly reasonable questions' He got a reply from their head office at least.

Oh the parking choices open to disabled parents eh? Lucky buggers.

[twinmam]

Someone using a disabled badge when they are not disabled or transporting a disabled person are, quite clearly, breaking the law and complete twats.

[MollieO]

One of the stipulations on a disabled badge is that it is only for use when transporting a disabled passenger who will be getting out of the car. If no disabled passenger in car or disabled passenger will be remaining in car you cannot use the disabled badge to park.

[chegirl]

I am not sure about the last bit MollieO. It would seem a bit harsh to only allow the use of the badge if the person with the disability had to get out of the car everytime it was parked.

Car parks are different from the use of blue badge on the road. Car parks are not covered by the same laws.

Lol at twin you sound like me! My friends are used to my little campaigns. I used to have to write real letters, so much easier now you can shoot off an email! Bastards are less likely to answer though - letters always get an answer.

[MollieO]

chegirl - this is what it says here. Makes sense as is the badge is for the disabled person not the able-bodied person who may be accompanying them.

[NoseyHelen]

I totally agree that P&C spaces should be for parents with young children who require the space to fully open a door.

I however solve this problem by leaving the children with my husband and doing the shopping at the weekend so I can park where I like with no hassle.

[chegirl]

Mollie I dont disagree with the first bit. But disabled people have families and do ordinary things like pop out for bits and pieces IYSWIM. I know I am not being clear but I know what I am trying to say (not that helpful )

It is pretty much assumed that disabled people are all single or at least childless. that they rely on others to care for them etc.

Not that they have kids and partners and live normal lives.

For e.g. if my OH needs to drop my older boy off somewhere. He is not going to get out of the car but needs to make sure DS gets in safely. He would need to park near the entrance so he could watch him go in. Does the law say this is not allowed?

BTW I am not digging you out, I am at the law, not you.

[MollieO]

I'm only going on what the law seems to say and what I would follow. I assume your OH wouldn't be sitting in the car waiting for some time. If I was dropping someone off I would park where it was safe to do so as I'd only be there for a minute whilst whoever I was dropping off got out the car and went into school/building etc.

I think this rule is more for people parking in disabled spaces and then going off to do a shop whilst disabled person sits in the car. If they aren't getting out of the car then why park in a disabled space in the first place? I wouldn't do it if I was with my mum and she wasn't getting out of the car. Imo disabled spaces are for disabled people to use, not able bodied people who happen to have a disabled person in their car.

[2shoes]

why are people so hung up about disabled parking, I am sure if you asked the person would hapily give you thier blue badge and thier dsability.

[Colonelcupcake]

Look atthis pregnant woman What would you say to this

[MadEyeballsMoody]

I don't think anyone is hung up about disabled parking, except the OP and I don't know if she retracted that or what. Someone, generally someone who uses a blue badge, always pitches in with the blue badge argument but, as I've said earlier in the thread, no one who is sane has an issue with blue badge holders using P&T spaces, but it always ends up as part of the debate anyway. How come we can't discuss the rights and wrongs of people using these spaces when there are no children in the car and no 'evidence' of a disability (and don't give me hidden disabilities, that's included in the 'evidence' IYSWIM!)

Ultimately, they may be a bit of a perk, and we may not die if we don't have them, but why is it so wrong to be annoyed that people who aren't entitled to use them, do?

And if we're on disabled spaces, if you need one, come and live in Surrey because every supermarket around has about 400 disabled spaces which are never ever full .

Disabled spaces 400 - P&T about 12 (which is as it should be before anyone shouts me down )

[bratley]

Our local supermarket has P&C spaces, they run down the middle of the car park, heading away from the shop, so unless you get one of the first few you wont actually be any nearer the shop.
Yet still people park in them without kids. So its not necessarily because people are lazy and want to be closer to the shop.
We were there a few days ago and there was prat, on his own with no child seat even, parked in the P&C space next to us, who obviously just needed it as he was incapable of parking his huge, fabulous car in a normal space. As he reversed out of the space the front end came across the extra bit and I had to close DS's door and move out of the way, and he shook his head at me!

[chegirl]

bratley 'my' Ikea is like this. It has loads of blue badge parking bays but they run in rows away from the store. So you can always get a space, it just happens to be about a mile away! Surely it would better to have them running parallel to the shop even if there were a few less?

Ikea has tons of P&C spaces too. But I think its the law that you have to have a child to go there or at least be pg

[bratley]

definitely, I always leave Ikea with a piece of furniture I never knew I wanted and the urge to have another baby!

I'm really not that bothered about having to walk to get to the store, its not about being near the front of the store for me, its about being able to get to my son without having to be a contortionist, his safety while I'm getting him out and also not having someone smash their door into mine as an act of revenge because I bumped their car as I squeezed my arse in the tiny gap trying to control the 2yr old octopus trying to leap out of the car!