Mother and Child parking.......

[IsawKIMIkissingSantaClaus]

Has there been a thread about the woman of 41 weeks pregnant who got a ticket for parking in the M+C space at Tesco?

Poor woman was huge, I think she should have been able to use it without penalty.

Really Tired...I'm sorry to say, but you must have lost your brain. I agree with you that lots of places do not have mother and child spaces...we do not have then in America, but you usually get a blank stare when asking about it. That's because the parking spaces in America are a decent size. I don't have a big car in the UK, but the spaces are too tiny to get in and out of with an infant carseat, and when trying to put a small child in or out of the seat it's impossible in the tiny spots. Also, the stupid spaces in the UK are so small, you can't get a buggy (sorry a trolly) in between the cars so the darn trolly is at the back of the car as you unlock and ready the carseat for the baby.

In the UK, it is a blessing you have these spaces...since kids are so hated so many places here like decent restaurants.

What do you mean when you say, "Unless a child has a problem with physical development, they should be able to either be light enough to carry, or able to walk..." I am 5 ft. 4 in. and 18 mo. old DD is going to be much taller than I. At 30 lbs., don't know kg.., it kills my back to carry her far. Are you saying she should aim for being an anorexic? Should we put her on a diet? Should I not have kids because I'm short?. I'm not even sure you are even a mom, because what do you do with a child 18 mos. that has a mind of their own....Sure she can walk, and she often wants to sit down in the road or just stop for no reason.

There wouldn't be a need for these spaces if the spaces were large enough. I know space is an issue a lot of places and in the medieval city centre where I live, but honestly Tesco's could build bigger carparks or multi-story parks if people demanded them.

In the US when we want something changed, we boycott a company. Why not quit going to Tesco's until they have bigger spaces? Or quit going one day a week or something, and demand they have bigger spaces.

Are Asda's spaces larger? I boycott them because they're owned by Wal-Mart, and I hate them and never give them my money...I try and shop at Waitrose because they care about their employees, they care if you end up buying something that's off and they are helpful. Yes it costs more, but I buy most of my bulk stuff from Costco....Costco is wonderful and better and cheaper than Tesco's.

Tesco's is coming to CA, and I've made sure I've let everybody I know know about them. I do not shop there because the food is sometimes inferior and I can't ever get a mother and child space and they've never seemed to care when i complain that older kids are in the mother and child spaces...so weird that this poor pregnant woman was fined.

I hope I don't offend anyone, but I suspect it is because she's a women and I cannot believe how sexist I find the UK to be. I knew some countries were this way, but I thought the UK was like the US in this sense, but I'm sure wrong. I bet they wouldn't have arrested an old person parking in these spaces..certainly not an old man. never heard of this happening

hi egg, hope those little lovelies are cooking nicely

expatinengland........now theres a thought!
maybe i should get a cart for the shetland pony?

sorry to be so hot about this topic, but when DD was 1 mo. old I went to a carpark in the central part of our medieval city (not tescos and no mother and child spaces available) and I parked and got out with dd and had no problem UNTIL I returned to the car. The carseat was one that popped out from the base and attached to a pushchair, but there was not enough room to even get DD's carseat back into the car because I couldn't open the door enough to get it in my car.

I cried for almost 30 min. and breastfeed in the back of the car..thank goodness I have an estate...but finally I did the unthinkable...I put her back in the carseat and just placed it in the back of the estate and drove long enough to find a place where I could safely pull over and safely secure her back.

What would I have done had I not had an estate? Put her in the boot and closed the lid?

Seriously, of course I could just have left her in the pushchair and backed out of the space enough to be able to get the door open...but I NEVER thought of that and not saying she would have been safe by herself in her pushchair for a few moments while I backed up...what I'm saying is this is crazy to have to do this.

Thankfully we got out of there, and I never went back there again in the car.

oh expatinengland thats awful.

cazboldy...at least you have a unique way of getting your groceries home..Ha! The cart would keep you from having to carry then on your head or on your back...I have visionsof you and I walking long distances back and forth...all uphill of course...with our purchases...Wait...I've got it.

They should have golfcarts for sale in the UK and people could just take them....well not you..since you have your pony Ha! But the rest of us could manage with that...or those people taxis like they have in London and India...seriouly I feel so bad for the folks inthe world who dont have the choices we all do...we should try our best to help them progress rather than going backwards ourselves..I'm outta here...good evening

A pregnant woman is a parent with a child. The fact that the child hasn't been born yet should be neither here nor there.
And I don't think the issue with older children is how far you have to carry them/they have to walk to the store, it's about the spaces being big enough to open your car door wide enough to strap your children in. I don't care if the P&T spaces are nearest to the entrance or furthest, i just want a space big enough to cope with all the faff that goes with getting two small boys and a pushchair out of the car and then back in again.

A pregnant woman is a parent with a child. The fact that the child hasn't been born yet should be neither here nor there.
And I don't think the issue with older children is how far you have to carry them/they have to walk to the store, it's about the spaces being big enough to open your car door wide enough to strap your children in. I don't care if the P&T spaces are nearest to the entrance or furthest, i just want a space big enough to cope with all the faff that goes with getting two small boys and a pushchair out of the car and then back in again.

I thought M&T spaces were a bit like parenting clubs - an incentive for parents to shop at a particular store. Its not about whether the parent needs or deserves a space, its about competing for customers. Presumably you can make quite a bit of money selling nappies.

expatinengland - are you expatinscotland under a different name?

only if not it is confusing

your typing style is different

No, they are different people, although both American so very confusing.

Expatinengland, I can't believe you are objecting to elderly people parking in the M&T spaces.

I was ashamed the other day when I visited my local Tesco to see an elderly lady with 2 walking sticks having to hobble to the far end of the car park with her daughter guiding her. Ashamed because I was able to pull into a space much closer to the shop than hers - she was on her way out when I arrived but it really made me think.

The Gyle in Edinburgh has the right idea. Their spaces are for P&T and Infirm. Far, far more sensible. In fact, I would go so far as to set aside spaces for the elderly close to the store and P&T at the far end with a safe walkway/trolley bay close by.

As I came out of tescos yesterday, I was really cross to see a smart, besuited man, and a boy (aged about 9) get out a Golf, parked in the last available disabled bay, an sprint across into the store.

Now that's teaching your son to be a responsible considerate member of society, isn't it?

I hate this debate, it's gone on too long.....but here I go:

Our Sainsburys attempts to enforce the spaces by only leaving baby and wheelchair trolleys by the spaces so you'd have to walk anyway if you had an older child, or peer over the big plastic red childseat and have people look at you and ask if you'd 'lost something' on the way from the car!

I parked in P&C when I was pregnant because I was in a wheelchair, but couldn't get a badge quick enough (we still had to eat). I'm pregnant again and already am finding walking tough - DD is 13 months. I now can't use Tesco car parks because they only have six spaces which are always full and their trolleys are at the store entrance and I can't carry DD unaided that far.

Oh and I have a fairly big car because we have to lump large equipment round for work. But it's just as easy to park and open the doors (providing you have a healthy disregard for unscratched paintwork). But fairly big cars tend to have wide opening doors which are longer - which means - even in a small space you can open doors quite wide without bashing the car next to you IME.

Reallytired - I sort of agree with you - if everyone parked sensibly (ie not taking up two spaces or parking two inches from your door) and if everyone was willing to accept that perhaps as a kindness it'd be a nice gesture if those that were able to parked all of 60 seconds stroll away, then yes, let's ditch both P&C and Disabled parking. The problem is one of attitude not facilities.

expatinengland - if I was given a free Range Rover, I'd sell it and buy a smaller car and use the extra cash for something else. Honestly. I live in the country and don't need a 4x4. Nor do I want one.

I tended not to clip my car seat on to the trolley - put basket on pram a lot, but if I have another baby I think I'd wear a sling for shopping. Hip seat a godsend for carrying heavy 1 yo, by the way.

With the rising costs of petrol, a 4X4 car is not an option for us.

I don't like having a baby in a stage 0 carseat more than they have to be. Carseats are great for cars, but it can't be comfortable for a newborn. However its worth sacrificing comfort to prevent a child being killed in a car accident.

When my son was little I liked him to have space to stretch out and wriggle. Also stage 0 carseats are incredibly heavily. They are certainly bad for the mother's back, yet alone the baby.

Slings are great for babies and small children. If you get a sling with the baby sitting on your hip it is quite comfortable. I used a sling with my son until he was three and half years old.Admitally its a bit difficult to carry twins in a sling. I think the people in this link must be exceptionally strong.

www.betterbabysling.co.uk/slcarry5.html