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Original poster

Parent & Child parking spaces (in supermarkets!!)

51 replies

Manfwood · 13/05/2003 13:19

Following on from the infamous eating in supermarkets thread thought i would see how you feel about people without kids parking in the designated parents spaces! I had to tell off a couple of (admittedly young) colleagues of mine for parking there to get their lunchtime sarnie. But as i was driving out i saw a woman in a bright red AudiTT (complete with personalised number plate!) sitting there bold as brass on her mobile phone! Also another woman pulled up, clearly with no children on board.

Most people wouldnt park in a disabled spot (as is also illegal) so why do they feel it is OK to park in parents only spot!!

OP posts:
Azzie · 13/05/2003 13:23

This is one of my pet hates! When you're trying to get a baby in a rocker seat or a recalcitrant 2 y.o. in or out of the car you NEED that space.

Now that my youngest (aged 3) is happily getting herself in and out of the car I don't use the parent/child spaces because I don't really need them any more, and others do.

Claireandrich · 13/05/2003 13:23

Drives me mad!!!! One of my bug nears. I haven't been brave enough to say anything to anyone yet but I do normally give them one of my 'teacher' stares! At our local supermarkets these spaces aren't even the closest spaces anyway so why do they do it. They are just wider which makes getting children out the carseat easier. Oh, I feel wound up just thinking about it!

happydays · 13/05/2003 13:24

I also hate it when people go the other way and have kids 13 and 14 yrs old who use the spaces.

ThomCat · 13/05/2003 13:24

I also have a go at people for parking in mother & Baby places when thre is no baby. When I've walked my DD across the car park, in the rain, to see some middle aged git and his wife loading up their 3 bags of shopping i HAVE to have word, or 10! I got someone clamped the other day in sainsbury's. I had a word with him, politl;ey asked where his child was (no car seat in sight either) and he was rather rude so I happened to walk past a man witha trolley full of clamps on my long walk back to my car! Oh that felt good!!!

whymummy · 13/05/2003 13:24

it`s true us parents need the car as close as possible to the exits so we can do a runner without paying for the grapes

DebL · 13/05/2003 13:25

Agree it is annoying, but if there are none, I do get bloody minded and park in the disabled places. Why does my local Sainsbobs have more disabled spaces than P and C spaces? There is also a kerb you have to negotiate to get the trolley to the car!! V annoying - must get the manager next time I am in there.

happydays · 13/05/2003 13:26

Whymummy

Chiccadum · 13/05/2003 13:27

Sorry happydays disagree with you there, children are children until they are 16 so they are entitled to use the spaces

meanmum · 13/05/2003 13:29

RODFL Whymummy.

This is one of my gripes too. I refuse to park there if I don't have ds with me and can't understand those with children old enough not to need it that do (I'm talking teenagers). Mind you, I am guilty of parking in the expectant mothers section when I wasn't. I didn't read the sign clearly and the picture on the road looked the same as mother and baby so I was happily parking there for a number of weeks before I realised. Yes, very thick I know but honest it was an accident.

Claireandrich · 13/05/2003 13:31

Our supermarket's P&C places show signs of parents with poushchairs. They are clearly for parents with youngsters surely. Can't teenagers and older children manage in normal parking spaces, when P&C are so limited.

I'd never park in a disabled spot though. besides, our disabled ones hae loudspeakers that ask you if you should be there!

Original poster
Manfwood · 13/05/2003 13:37

Glad you all agree and have to say don't agree with older children needing them. Surely the point of wider spaces is getting toddlers/babies out and putting into pushchairs/trolleys and also being nearer to the shop! Teenagers should be helping to carry the shopping!!

P.S. like the bit about the grapes!! have to admit to doing this with DS - although dont like the fact that they arent washed although this never bothers my DH!

OP posts:
ThomCat · 13/05/2003 13:41

Sorry chiccadum but i really don't think that a parent with a 16 year old should be using mother and child parking places in my humble opinion. Are you saying that on a busy Saturday afternoon a parent with a child that is actually old enough to be doing the shopping themselves(!) should take the place over a new mother with a child that can't crawl let alone into the supermarket? Come on! If it's raining the parent and 16year old can hold an umbrella each and look out for themselves when walking across a car park. a mother with baby in trolled would find pushing the trolley with their dodgy wheels and trying not to get baby soaked very stressful. If that happened to me and i saw a 16 year old 'child' get out of the car I'd have a cross word in an instant.

Bozza · 13/05/2003 13:47

My local Asda has a sign that says they are the parents with children under five. Sounds like other stores should do the same.

Bozza · 13/05/2003 13:48

TBH I don't always bother with them anymore now DS is in a proper trolley. But all the baby trolleys used to be parked in that area so really awkward when he was younger if no spaces left.

Gini · 13/05/2003 14:01

I'm pathetic, the other day I was really annoyed when I went to supermarket at about 8am, the carpark was pratically empty but this stupid man STILL parked next to me in the mother and baby spaces, I began to drive away but thought, no, I should say something, he was gone when I got back so I left a narky note under his wiper - Made me feel better anyway.

As for parents with older children, my mum always jokes that she can park in those spaces with me as she is my mum and I am her baby (being the youngest) - however, at 26 I know that she is only teasing. These spaces are for people with younger children in my opinion!

Marina · 13/05/2003 14:09

I'd have said 5 and under too, Bozza - that seems like a commonsense sort of cut-off point. Ds is nearly 4 and what I like about the wider berth is that a parent can be close by to block any attempt to bolt as the child climbs in or out.
We have complained in our supermarket in the past about people with no children in evidence using the designated spaces. I honestly think it's a despicable thing to do - there are never enough of these spaces as it is.

Demented · 13/05/2003 14:42

I really hate this too. I think there should be a cut-off and agree that it is probably five. I had DS2 at the doctors surgery on Saturday (they do not have P&C spaces) but when I came out with DS2 the cars parked at either side were so close I could not open the door far enough to put DS2 and his seat in, I had to leave DS2 on the grass verge whilst I moved the car out. Although this has never happened at the supermarket it has been close a few times and I would be very hesitant to leave him whilst I moved the car in that situation. People just do not think. When DS2 was newborn I had to carry him in his car seat across the car park of our local ASDA in the rain and when I approached the P&C spaces (where I obviously hadn't managed to get a space) there was a fifty something couple (no children with them) getting into a car in one of these spaces, my blood was boiling. I have in the past approached people about their parking in these spaces and reported car registrations to members of staff in the store it depends how hormonal I'm feeling. DH was told once by a parking attendant in ASDA that there was nothing they could do about someone who had parked in a P&C space it's just a courtesy thing.

Just to add I would never park in a disabled space, although I have two under five (so IMO entitled to a P&C space) I am fit and healthy and can cope if I can't get parked near the door or don't have the extra space at the side of the car, disabled spaces should be left for disabled badge holders.

grommit · 13/05/2003 14:44

My mother really annoys me about this - she believes that these parking places are unnecessary as mothers and kids should be healthy enough to manage in a normal space!!!!? Follows her 'in my day we just got on with it..' way of thinking. Grrr

meanmum · 13/05/2003 14:45

One thing some of our shopping centres do in Australia is for parents to have a special badge for parking in the P&C area. You aren't allowed to park in these spaces unless you have the badge and you get fined in the same manner as you would if you parked in a disabled without the badge. I thought this was a really good idea and suggested it to our local Asda. Nothing yet though. Obviously this wouldn't work if you were not a regular shopper at the store/shopping centre but I also suggested they have tickets at the customer service desk which would allow you to get one for the day which you could take back to your car. It might take slightly longer in time to go into the store and back out before doing your shopping but I thought it would at least cut down on the amount of people that park there without children.

Dahlia · 13/05/2003 14:51

What store has an expectant mothers section in the car park?

chiggles · 13/05/2003 15:07

Dahlia.. Asda do. Well they do in Spondon, Derby. Some Asdas even have a special card that you have to swipe to park in the spaces for children. Don't know where though.
We parked in a child space once and saw an oldish couple get out there car, no children!! I swore at them and they walked off ignoring me, so on the way back to the car dh went and let one of his tyres down!!! (I wouldn't let him pop it!!) I always ask them where their children are and usually end up calling them 'ignorant kn*@s (door handles)'Apparently Sainsburys and Asda will tell them over the speaker if you give them the reg of cars who don't have children in them and tell them to move them. Not tried that one yet! I would though. They wind me up so much.
As for 16 year olds being children, most of the spaces say for parents with YOUNG children and have a picture of a buggy and unless your 16 year old is in a buggy they shouldn't be used.

tallulah · 13/05/2003 17:57

Just to upset you all, I always park in the baby spaces when I go to Safeway I only ever visit that particular store late in the evening (after 9 pm). They have loads of baby spaces & there are always most of them empty at that time. I have my 17 year old baby with me.

I use them because they are wide. During the day, elsewhere, I don't park in baby spaces, BUT, it doesn't matter where I park- how far away it is from the store entrance or how many other spaces are free, someone (in an old banger) ALWAYS squeezes next to me and dents my door. I'm sick of it. Using the baby spaces means that their door doesn't hit mine and I can open the back door wide enough to get my shopping on the back seats because the boot isn't big enough unless I fold all the seats down & at 10pm I can't be bothered.

I used to be really good & put up with the door-denting. THEN I noticed that everyone else parking in the baby spaces didn't have children... I'm effectively reserving a space for white van man!

You lot can steal grapes- I can steal car spaces.. hehe

ninja · 13/05/2003 18:11

In Tescos it's also under 5's - it's always he middle aged business men in smart cars isn't it. It annoyed me before I had a child!

SoupDragon · 13/05/2003 18:13

Dhalia, the Tescos P&C spaces include expectant mothers too. After all, you do have a child with you

Tallulah, I'm shocked. Disgraceful behaviour!

pie · 13/05/2003 18:13

ninja, if it says under 5's and its buisness men in their flashy cars...well that about sums it up