Im so glad this issue is being addressed at last. A few weeks ago I reminded an elderly man that the space he was parked in was a mother and maby space and that the disabled space were on the other side. He was not impressed with my comments and went off in a huff! Im sure he would have had enough to say if I had parked in a disabled space, or banged his door when trying to get my baby out of my car! Go Prima!!!

Hi there,

I'm disgusted at the people who park in mother&baby spots as much as I am at people who park in disabled spots.

When my daughter was 6months old I had been driving around looking for a space and was about to pull into the mother&baby spot when a guy in a white transit pulled in. I got out and asked him if he realised that the space wasn't for him and all I got was "what are you gonna do about it?"
With offensive replies like that what are we supposed to do? I mentioned to the store what happened and the woman shrugged her shoulders........:evil:..

I really get ticked off with people without children nabbing parking spaces to protect their nice shiny big cars and would rather see a heavily pregnant woman and toddler struggle out of a normal space. Every time I see this happening in my local supermarket I always remind the offender (politely......at first) what they've done but occasionally they get a bit rude back but when I said that was about to start labour any time and couldn't physically get out of the car in a normal space the bloke couldn't apologise and move quick enough!! Most peolpes response is that they couldn't be bothered to wait for a normal space but I just embarass them (loudly) into moving. These spaces need to be protected properly, if I used a disabled space I would soon be asked to move!!

It drives me absolutely bonkers when you go shopping, especially in the evenings and all the parent and child spaces are being taaken up by lazy people who can't be bothered to walk a bit further to the supermarket from a normal space. Even worse are the people who use these spaces to nip to the cashpoint.

I'm a mum of three and childminder and sometimes I can have as many as four children under five, I need parent and child spaces.:evil
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[Modified by: Purple Princess on May 23, 2007 08:54 AM]

Hi everyone,

No-one seems to be mentioning the most important reason for the use and placement of P&C spaces and that is safety. Disabled people and small children are unable to safely negotiate busy carparks hence why P&C spaces were created and located near to the entrance of the facility in question. I think this needs to be made clear to other motorists as they only see the spaces as an extra width space and don't think about the safety implications of forcing someone with a small child to park elsewhere. I think this should be clearly incorporated into the 'shame the driver form'.

Really pleased someone is doing something about this!
At my local supermarket I recently saw a woman park in the parent space with a car seat in the car but no baby! Really not helping the cause...grrrr!
In Australia the large shopping malls provide mums with badges to allow them to park in the parent bays.

It really REALLY hacks me off! There aren't enough spaces by half! Now i'm disabled and have a choice, but even when i park in a disabled bay i get tutted at, my disability isnt visible, im in pain every day of my life but i look normal, walk relatively normal..And when i have my kids with me they think i have done it because there are no spaces left! I complained at tesco customer services as a member of staff was constantly parking in the P&C spaces and they made him move his car, and he was warned and he never did it again...Workmen parkin their to eat their pre packed sarnies, and read their zoo mags...and of course the people with sports cars who race into the spaces! I have had to move my trolley about 5 times because they have mis judged it and nearly hit the trolley with my babies in!! Its horrific!

If you were parked in a disabled bay without being disabled, you would get a fine, so we need that enforcement for parent child parking! It shouldn't be a privalige, it should be a right!! Every parent and child has a right to safely get in and out of the car, how can we do this when there are so many idiots on the road...Selfish idiots who only care about the extra 10 steps it would cause them to have to take if they parked in a regular space!

Well one thing for sure, if my daughter happens to have my keys and she happens to scrape them all down the side of their car, i won't care one bit! Accidents happen regardless of wether you are parked in a regular bay or a child bay!

THERE'S NOTHING MORE INFURIATING THAN PEOPLE WHO PARK IN OUR SPACES. WHAT'S WORSE IS WHEN PEOPLE PARK IN THE SPACES, WITHOUT A BABY OR A TODDLER AND SIT IN THE CAR, WHILST YOU HAVE TO KEEP CIRCLING THE CAR PARK LOOKING FOR A SPACE. I HATE IT & IT DRIVES MY BONKERS!
I CONFRONTED A GUY ONCE IN OUR LOCAL MULTI-STOREY & WAS TOLD THAT HIS MERC WAS IMPORTANT THAT MY BABY. THE CHEEK OF IT, SO I FOLLOWED HIM TO THE SHOPS & FOUND A PARKING ATTENDANT ALONG THE WAY, WHO PROMPTLY TOLD HIM TO MOVE HIS CAR OR HE WOULD BE CLAMPED. HE ABUSED THE PARKING ATTENDANT & WHEN I RETURNED TO MY CAR ABOUT AN HOUR LATER THERE WAS A NICE, BIG, FAT YELLOW CLAMP ON HIS WHEEL.

MUMS & BABIES 1
ARROGANT OLD GITS 0 ( & £150 TO GET THE CLAMP OFF!)

I think its terrible that people abuse the parent and toddler parking spaces. Its also annoying that a lot of car parks in my area don't provide any parent and toddler spaces or very few. Something needs to be done.

I can quite understand parents getting cross when someone other than a person with child uses the parent and child spaces, we have often moaned when we have seen the elderly use these spaces! But I have a new gripe! One evening a few months ago, we went to Morrisons in Cambourne, near Cambridge. We had to use my husband's painting and decorating van because our car was off the road. It was a wet and windy evening and we were glad to have found a space in the parent and child parking. We took our very small son IN HIS CAR SEAT WITH IT'S RAIN COVER ON, out of the van and did our shopping. When we got back home, some woman had had the nerve to take my husband's number off the side of his van and leave a message on our answermachine to complain that she thought it was disgusting he had taken a space when she could see he had no baby, child or car seat in the van!!!! We were so cross that just because she could see no seat she just presumed we didn't have the right to be there. She didn't even have the nerve to phone his mobile, where we could have come out of the shop and proved we had a baby and the right to be there! Painters and Decorators have babies too, you know!!! And what's more, we couldn't call her back to say so. We spoke to staff at Morrisons, just in case they were able to put our point across if she ever said anything. OOHH, I was soooooooo CROSS! !

People who park in these spaces have no idea what it is like to be a new mum, no idea how hard it is to manage baby, shopping etc... It makes my blood boil!

It would help if the shops provided more parent & child spaces in the first place and did something more to enforce them.

Actually guys I think I have a workable solution. I emailed my MP with this the other day.:roll:
What if we were given a windscreen card like a 'disabled parking' permit when the child was born, valid for 18 months or so until the child is able to get out of the car himself. This would prove our validity to park in Mother&Child spaces.
Also, make all the 'disabled' and 'mother&child' spaces dual purpose so that either group could use the space.
I don't know about your local towns, but in my town the other day I walked past 3 car parks and saw a dozen or so spaces in each for disabled users and NONE for mothers and children. I don't want to take any spaces away from disabled users (subject for a different thread) but surely we are in the same boat here to some extent - we need to open our car doors fully.
So as I was saying - given a windscreen permit with a dated validity would dissuade freeloaders from using our facilities. This could be given to us with the child's birth certificate.
I saw a comment about expectant mothers being able to use these spaces. surely they could be worked into the system. My wife had issues getting in and out of the car when she was expecting.

There's hardly enough p & c spaces as it is, then to have a couple in a 2 seater van, with no children with them pull into a space we were waiting for was very anoying. My husband challenged them but they just walked off. We never park in the spaces if we are on our own, so why should others.
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[Modified by: jewels on June 19, 2007 03:56 PM]

I have just written to my local shopping centre which houses a Tesco where I shop every week because every week I see at least 1 person abusing the P & C spaces. I regularly challenge these people and im usually met with abuse infront of my 8 month old baby. These people simply do not care and they are never ashamed enough to move their car. These people are just lazy and selfish and think they have a right to park wherever they please. Im not adverse to walking its just the extra space we need which you dont get in the regular spaces so Ive suggested they put the P & C spaces further from the store and have all the baby trolleys near these spaces too. Will it ever happen? I doubt it, the response from the manager was "yes we know theres a problem but cant do much about it" Great. Rant over, I feel better now!:::D

It makes me SOOO mad when people with no kids park in our spaces. Also when disabled people park in parent and child spaces. I would never dream of parking in a disabled space.

The supermarkets often have staff members outside collecting trollys etc, they should be monitoring who parks in parent and child spaces.

I couldn't care less if the parent and child spaces were the furthest from the store - we just need the extra room to negotiate the buggys and car seats.

More should be done to protect our spaces.

I'm so pleased that this issue is gaining support and public recognition as a genuine concern. I'm constantly amazed at the selfishness of the people who park in the parent and child spaces, and even more astonished at their reaction when you pull them up on it.

The worst offenders are people with older children, who clearly don't need to use the spaces, they should know better than anyone how valuable these spaces are, and shouldn't abuse the privilege.

Another thing that drives me mad at my local supermarket, are the tight fisted idiots who insist on using the precious baby trolleys as they don't require a £1 deposit, meaning people who genuinely need them have to wait until they've finished. I've waited up to twenty minutes for a trolley before.

Where has peoples common decency and consideration gone?

I'm so pleased that this issue is gaining support and public recognition as a genuine concern. I'm constantly amazed at the selfishness of the people who park in the parent and child spaces, and even more astonished at their reaction when you pull them up on it.

The worst offenders are people with older children, who clearly don't need to use the spaces, they should know better than anyone how valuable these spaces are, and shouldn't abuse the privilege.

Another thing that drives me mad at my local supermarket, are the tight fisted idiots who insist on using the precious baby trolleys as they don't require a £1 deposit, meaning people who genuinely need them have to wait until they've finished. I've waited up to twenty minutes for a trolley before.

Where has peoples common decency and consideration gone?

:x I get so annoyed when I see someone using a parent & child space when they haven't got chilren with them. I have challenged people on a few occassions. Only once have I had an argument with one lady - she claimed she had just dropped her grandson off at nursery. Don't care he wasn't in the car at the supermarket so don't use the space. :x

One local supermarket has a tannoy system for the disabled bays that loudly asked if you were entitled to use the space. Why can't we have these for P&C spaces too? I wouldn't dream of using a disabled space so why do people use our P&C spaces. I wouldn't object if there were no disabled spaces and a disabled person needed to use the P&C space - they have priority.

The other annoying thing is the amount of spaces there are compared to the amount of disabled spaces - why can't we have the same number?

Quote:

Tesco Bbay Club does provide car badges that are valid for 5 years but not all stores have the signs displayed in the carparks or enforce them so they are basically a waste of time. If you were issued with an official one in your Bounty Pack or something then that would make it easier to enforce.