Parent &amp; Child Parking

1 May 2008

"We do however, willingly park in parent and child spaces, I dont care what anyone says, parent with children DO NOT need to park outside the door,and you dont need them to be a little wider! my parents never had to, and id imagine that is true of everyones parents on here too, its just another marketing trick by companies to get the 'parent pound'parents are getting softer , and kids are getting fatter and fatter, maybe to battle obeasity the parent and child spaces should be at the back of the car park!"
I'm sorry but this really annoyed me.....it actually annoyed me enough to start a new thread as I don't want to detract from the original thread it was in.
As a parent I have been only too aware of some of the difficulties that parents face when doing the ordinary task of shopping. As an example (and based on the lay out of my local Twatco's) lets take a family with a set of twin toddlers and a maybe a 4 year old. These days what with IVF etc not an out of the ordinary scenario. Could have been myself actually even without IVF if things had turned out differently. Stop car in ordinary parking bay a small distance from the store no problem so far. Go to boot take out double buggy and set it up behind the car nicely in the path of other moving cars looking for car parking spaces because of space issues. Go to first side of car and take out first twin with car door only half open. Take first twin strap into buggy and whilst stressing about that twin in the buggy behind the car go and get second twin from other side of car also with only room to have the door half open. Both twins now in buggy. Now allow toddler out and get him/her to hold side of buggy whilst you manouvre it. All the while stressing that 4 year old just might take it into his/her head to let go and make a dash for it confused

Not easy is it :?:
Try it this way........
Pull into a P&C space right onto walkway into the store with ample space all round the vehicle. Now you can walk the couple of steps to the trolley container without letting the children in the car out of your sight. Wheel the trolley with two seats to the side of the car. Open door fully to obtain first twin. Wheel the trolley to the other side and comfortably obtain second twin and toddler. With two children secure in the trolley and the 4 year old holding on the trolley with no road to walk on as you are already parked at the walkway it's much more stress free and more importantly much safer for the children.
The old argument about whether you chose to have said children just does'nt wash with me I'm afraid as it's nobodies damn business but mine and their father's whether I have them or not. I work hard, I don't rely on anyone else for anything and if I want to take them shopping in safety then who is anyone else to take that choice away from me by using that space when they plainly don't need it mad

and let's face it trying to buy them clothes or shoes when I don't have them with me to try them on would be abit ridiculous now would'nt it rolleyes

The fact that my Mum didnt do it with myself and my little sis is also irrelevant since we didnt have whacking great big superstores with parking stretching for half a mile, she had different shops for different things and often was forced to leave either me or my sis in the pushchair outside a shop when she went in because of lack of space. Hardly a good idea nowadays eh! and even then the ONE car we had was at work with my Dad so she walked.
Oh and lastly
I am a size 10-12 and neither of my children are overweight.

1 May 2008

flippin' eck. Just use a bloody condom. rolleyes

1 May 2008

Quote by splendid_
flippin' eck. Just use a bloody condom.

1 May 2008

Quote by firelizard"]"We do however, willingly park in parent and child spaces, I dont care what anyone says, parent with children DO NOT need to park outside the door,and you dont need them to be a little wider! my parents never had to, and id imagine that is true of everyones parents on here too, its just another marketing trick by companies to get the 'parent pound'parents are getting softer , and kids are getting fatter and fatter, maybe to battle obeasity the parent and child spaces should be at the back of the car park!"
I'm sorry but this really annoyed me.....it actually annoyed me enough to start a new thread as I don't want to detract from the original thread it was in.
As a parent I have been only too aware of some of the difficulties that parents face when doing the ordinary task of shopping. As an example (and based on the lay out of my local Twatco's) lets take a family with a set of twin toddlers and a maybe a 4 year old. These days what with IVF etc not an out of the ordinary scenario. Could have been myself actually even without IVF if things had turned out differently. Stop car in ordinary parking bay a small distance from the store no problem so far. Go to boot take out double buggy and set it up behind the car nicely in the path of other moving cars looking for car parking spaces because of space issues. Go to first side of car and take out first twin with car door only half open. Take first twin strap into buggy and whilst stressing about that twin in the buggy behind the car go and get second twin from other side of car also with only room to have the door half open. Both twins now in buggy. Now allow toddler out and get him/her to hold side of buggy whilst you manouvre it. All the while stressing that 4 year old just might take it into his/her head to let go and make a dash for it
Not easy is it :?:
Try it this way........
Pull into a P&C space right onto walkway into the store with ample space all round the vehicle. Now you can walk the couple of steps to the trolley container without letting the children in the car out of your sight. Wheel the trolley with two seats to the side of the car. Open door fully to obtain first twin. Wheel the trolley to the other side and comfortably obtain second twin and toddler. With two children secure in the trolley and the 4 year old holding on the trolley with no road to walk on as you are already parked at the walkway it's much more stress free and more importantly much safer for the children.
The old argument about whether you chose to have said children just does'nt wash with me I'm afraid as it's nobodies damn business but mine and their father's whether I have them or not. I work hard, I don't rely on anyone else for anything and if I want to take them shopping in safety then who is anyone else to take that choice away from me by using that space when they plainly don't need it
and let's face it trying to buy them clothes or shoes when I don't have them with me to try them on would be abit ridiculous now would'nt it
The fact that my Mum didnt do it with myself and my little sis is also irrelevant since we didnt have whacking great big superstores with parking stretching for half a mile, she had different shops for different things and often was forced to leave either me or my sis in the pushchair outside a shop when she went in because of lack of space. Hardly a good idea nowadays eh! and even then the ONE car we had was at work with my Dad so she walked.
Oh and lastly
I am a size 10-12 and neither of my children are overweight.

I am def not going to argue with you on that one! lol

1 May 2008

pity we cant get rid of the little boxes we have painted on the regular car parks that say, mini you have this much room ...oh and landcruiser so do you...if only we could be trusted to park sensibly without them...it works elsewhere in the world...maybe thats part of the british psyche, we need to be told where to park...anyway back to topic, with you all the way ...
lol

1 May 2008

I agree with you Fire, I had my niece few weeks back and it was a nightmare. Mother and baby parking spots, same as disabled parking, they're there for a reason, the reason being the users of the parking spots are at a disadvantage that's why they need to access them.
End ofx

2 May 2008

Totally agree.....having a child ourselves we know just how difficult it is to get children in and out of cars in busy carparks.
Also if a supermarket (who owns the car parking spaces) decides they want to make them parent and child only, what gives people the right to feel they can ignore them ? You may well be a customer but you still abide by the rules and if you don't like them don't shop there (though you'll struggle to find a supermarket without them as they are recognised as a very good idea by the industry).
I think I'll finish my little rant now and as a final point I'll state that I thought parent and child spaces were a good idea a long time before I even dreamed of having a child and now he's just out of his pushchair I've stopped using them.

2 May 2008

I think they are a cracking idea....
Minimises the risk of damage to other cars and gives moms/dads that bit of extra room to manouvre(sp)
I have 2 children but as they are now old enough to know how to open a door without causing damage to mine or other vehicles I no longer use them but I dont begrudge anyone else using them provided they have children of course ;-)

2 May 2008

I agree totally I have twins and my eldest was 5 when they were born. Someone said on another thread that more twins were out of IVF mine weren't and I know many twins that are both ways natural and IVF it doesn't make a difference which way they were concieved.
These spaces are a great idea, and should be kept for the purposed intended.
I stopped using them when my children were at a age that they understood to be careful when getting out of a car in a busy car park.
The other thing that used to anger me was the lack of twin trolleys, then seeing people in the shop using them for extra shopping bag space.

2 May 2008

i must admit, i have parked in these too...(regards to other thread)but u have def made me think about how i dont really need to park there, but someone esle might redface

ops: :oops:

3 May 2008

I tend to park as far away from the shop as I can. I can then rely on the great god of parking to grant my wishes when I need to park near my house.
This habit has infuriated almost every partner Ive ever had. To me it just seems simpler to dump the car as quickly as possible and walk.

3 May 2008

As with disabled parking its often down to how effective the whole scheme is in the planning of the parking layout.
In a multi storage car park its almost redundant. If there are enough floors, then there will always be somewhere to park, except probably during xmas. The distance travelled on each floor to and from the car is about the same, with the difference being probably about 2-3 car lengths. It may save only part of the overall journey. So is it an arguable factor? It is but its a marginal gain.

3 May 2008