Tesco Mother & Baby Club -parking rant

[lyndap]

THINK the baby club is sort of a product and so this is the Forum..
Just wanted to rant at the fact that I can rarely get parked in one of the Mother & Baby club spaces in my local Tescos. I have complained several times (having checked for evidence of children in cars and/or club stickers on car windscreens and finding that the vast majority are just being used by lazy b* who don't actually have to juggle any number of children to and from the car).
The response is that they can't enforce it. Now, I kind of appreciate that and I'm by no means suggesting that this is quite as evil as parking in a disabled space but if they are using the club as a means of appealing to us mums as customers and are earning money as a result - you'd think thay could at least ask their staff to tell people not to park in those spaces if they are not entitled! In my local store they do have a guy who checks that commuters aren't parking there all day and he issues tickets!

I have thought about confronting the offenders but have to confess to being a bit worried about getting a mouthful of abuse.

I must stop before I turn in to Victor Meldrew in drag. Just makes me mad!

WHen I started going to my local Tesco last Sept (after we moved) I did the right thing and went to the desk to ask to join the M&B CLub so I could use the parking spaces... They told me not to worry because they don't patrol them anymore and to just park there!!! I did join the club anyway for the vouchers, but I wonder if it was some brilliant cost saving solution by some male bureaucrat in Tesco's head office???? On the rare occassions when I go shopping in the daytime I have the same problem and get really cross about it too. My solution is to go after 8pm when sensible people are home watching TV (if you can)!!!

When i was pregnant and my hormones were uncontrollable, i found looking after my baby dd in the heat with a big belly just too much and really said something to some office people who were 'just popping in for a quick sandwich.'I just saw red, i was really struggling in the heat and they just sneered at me like i wasnt even worth speaking to.

I complained to the store, left a note on their screen and a tannoy announcement was put out warning them not to park there.

Othertimes since Ds has been born i find i just get sworn at or totally ignored so i try and keep out of it now. Theres bad cases of road rage and im sure goading these people may set one off iyswim and i wouldnt like to put my children at risk

I'm glad I'm not the only one, this just makes me see red. Before I was pregnant I never parked in the disabled/mothers with babies space. And now with 2 kids under 2 I still cant. I have seen loads of people park with no kids in these spaces and my blood boils. Its a real struggle to get 2 kids out of car seats, try to get them into a double buggy/shopping trolley, cant get the shopping trolly next to the car, so it ends up infront/behind the car where all the traffic is, normally with one of my 2 children in which I think is dangerous. And why is is that there are normally loads of the disabled spaces left empty.

Comes on Tesco's/Saisnburys/Asda, make shopping a little easier for all us Mums

we've had this rant before girls.
parking rant

a very popular rant by MN's!

Have just looked at the old thread so see that this is indeed a popular rant.
You'd think there'd be some kind of pressure we could bring to bear en masse?
BTW - I absolutely realise that this is not anything like as important in the scheme of things as the famine in Sudan or the war in Iraq -or even the issuing of blue disabled badge stickers but as a small, everyday kind of victory for consumers it would be nice!

I did challenge some tw*t bloke in a white van in Tesco's a couple of weeks ago. He parked in the P&C space and I was so angry (after reading threads on MN!) that I knocked on his window and told him that he couldn't park there. He ignored me so I told him again. He said he had his child with him (about 11)so I told him again. I must have looked a right sight - standing in his path with DS2 sitting on my hip saying louder and louder "You can't park here - you'll have to move". And, guess what - he did! He backed out of the space and parked somewhere else!
A victory!
The woman in the car who came into the space grinned liked anything and did thumbs up. I think it was definitely my anger and outrage that gave me the courage to do it!
(although I probably wouldn't have if he had seen which my car was just in case he slashed my tyres or something

Shop at ASDA (they are really really good about enforcing) or Sainsbury (enforcing varies from store to store). I stopped shopping at Tesco about a year ago after writing a complaint letter that was totally ignored. I don't regret the change one bit AND my groceries are lots cheaper.

I don't park in the M&B spaces anymore, as my DS twins are now 5.5, and it's easy getting them in and out of the car. I remember what it was like when they were small, in the days when trollies with two seats were like golddust!!!So leave the space for a more deserving Mum.
However, DH still parks there,even though I've told him not to, he seems to think he has the right even if our children are now older. Arrr Men!!!!