Parent and child space - disabled driver

pinkladyof66

Person_one wrote: »

Do you see the contradiction here?

You want sympathy from strangers who know nothing about your situation but you had no sympathy for the woman in the car park even though you knew nothing about her situation.

What I was saying is surely if there are disabled spaces nearer the store with extra wide spaces she would have been better parking there as there were loads free

Sally_A

There doesn't seem to be any small print on these Parent and child spaces, so me and my 21 year old daughter often use them.

Seriously, I think P&C spaces are there to protect other users, face facts, have you seen the inability of a woman with baby-brain trying to park outside a school

Disabled/blue badge holders should get priority and wider spaces, I see no reason for parents to have spaces closer to the store than others.

Similarly, I don't see why a supermarket shop is seen as a family day out - let hubby look after the kids, and do the shop on your own, less stress for you and more room in the aisles for the rest of us.

(PS. Have a stinking cold coming on - and am feeling a bit tetchy and argumentaive)

Humphrey10

skypie123 wrote: »

Recently I witness two 'gym bunny' blokes with a disabled badge park there, both in their early twenties and seemed in the peak of health to me, I saw them in the store buying their Whey protein so they didn't look too disabled.

You could be missing legs and still work out at the gym.

londonsurrey

skypie123 wrote: »

Perhaps so.
I live in Wakefield and the Wakefield Asda must surely hold the record for the most disabled spaces ever. And they are always full too! Recently I witness two 'gym bunny' blokes with a disabled badge park there, both in their early twenties and seemed in the peak of health to me, I saw them in the store buying their Whey protein so they didn't look too disabled. And plenty of grossly overweight (and smoking ) people too seem to park there. Surely if healthy and mobility is such a worry one would think that they might lay off the fags... And a glut of very smart cars too that they perhaps didn't want to be dinted anywhere else. I have a small child but I always park far away and leave the M&C spots for those with babies.
But for those abusing the Disabled spots, there but for the grace of God go any of us. I find those people disgusting. Like someone else mentioned though whatever qualifies as disabled seems to be broad. There seems to be an awful lot of family members of these blue badge holder taking the p*ss.

There was a brilliant incident at a Kent Tesco. I was waiting for a friend. Young man parked up in a disabled space, and ran in.

The car was clamped. Young man came out, and complained.
The reason for the clamp was politely explained to him. He said he had a blue badge.
He was getting very agitated. The Tesco rep remained polite and impassive.

It was established that the blue badge was not his. He said it was his mother's.
At that point, he was politely told that not only could they not release the clamp without the fine being paid, they couldn't release it to him as he wasn't the registered owner. LOL.
Karma was working that day.

Sally_A

As a total aside - have you noticed that men always have to reverse into a parking space in supermarkets - just to prove they can. Yes :T:T:T men, but it's much easier to load the boot if you park front end in - DUH!!

(This cold is making me feel really crabby - sorry folks!)

Tigsteroonie

I can understand why the OP felt frustrated. Ignoring whether P&C spaces are needed or not, they are provided by supermarkets and shopping centres for parents and children to use. Disabled people (non-parents) are permitted to park in them without threat of penalty, even if they fill all available spaces and leave none for parents to use. But if those parents try to park in the unused disabled spaces, they would be seen as greedy horrible people and threatened with parking penalties.

I accept that in such situations I could park further away, at the other end of the car park, though I too seem to suffer from a "magnetic" car whereby someone always parks next to me Am I grateful that I don't have to use a disabled space and can walk to the store? Of course I am. But at the time, I would still be muttering under my breath while doing the shopping about the unfairness of having to surrender the P&C space to somebody who had an alternative disabled space and didn't use it.

eta. Sally, I've read some of the signs and a few do say "children under 5".

skypie123_2

Humphrey10 wrote: »

You could be missing legs and still work out at the gym.

As they were wearing shorts and their legs looked to be real I find this highly unlikely.

Person_one

pinkladyof66 wrote: »

What I was saying is surely if there are disabled spaces nearer the store with extra wide spaces she would have been better parking there as there were loads free

Maybe, maybe not, don't jump to conclusions.

A random passer by might have assumed it was easier for you to just park at the back where you'd have lots of space. You've told us why you don't feel that was an option.

Do you see how problematic it is to make assumptions based on very little information? Maybe if she were to come on here she'd tell us exactly why the disabled spaces at that shop are inconvenient/unusable for her and it would be a perfectly understandable explanation.

Person_one

Sally_A wrote: »

Similarly, I don't see why a supermarket shop is seen as a family day out - let hubby look after the kids, and do the shop on your own, less stress for you and more room in the aisles for the rest of us.

Maybe if you didn't have a cold you could smell the privilege in your post.

Not everybody has the option of the bolded.

Person_one

Humphrey10 wrote: »

You could be missing legs and still work out at the gym.

Quite.

I believe some disabled people actually do quite well at sport. There's some big event happening in summer 2012, begins with a P...