LOL you really don't have a clue, lovely theory but wait till reality

 

As has been said, there are MANY times when this just isn't practical, affordable or whatever. Believe me, shopping with youngsters is NO fun - few people would do it out of choice. I'm sure all these parents would appreciate being told they "aren't trying very hard".


"Worthy" is your word. How do you know that ALL disabled drivers have as much of a disability as a mum with two toddlers (who really CAN be a disability, believe me)? You're generalizing to make the story fit your views.

Not sure why patronisation and "mystery" have to be part of this. The probable fact is, you have no real-world experience on which to base your views about this, and it shows. And i think you know it. I probably thought similarly myself at one time, before i knew better.

 

My reality is just fine thank you very much. I have absolutely no problem with kids at the supermarket.

Why do parents choose to have kids and then whinge about how difficult it is??

 

I think you need to start a new thread

 

Please remember - nobody held a gun to your head and said "You will have a child", it was your choice and I hope you went in to it with your eyes open and with some idea of what it would entail to be responsible for a child.

Don't take them, there is always an alternative. That you may "choose" not to pay out for such an alternative is your choice again, don't bleat because you chose the option that makes your life more difficult.

If you view having kids as a "disability" you really are twisted.

You are assuming left right and centre. You "think" I don't have kids, you don't know if I do or not as you don't know me. You think that "when" I have kids my views will change. That's a one hell of a presumption based on an assumption. By all means claim that your views changed following some event but don't start thinking you can tell me mine will when I may well have already experienced that event and my views did not change.

 

Yeah - that was kind of my point way back I guess. Mis-use of disabled parking spaces is an issue, parent child parking isn't (in the scheme of things) and the two shouldn't be discussed in the same thread.

 

Of COURSE we had an idea what responsibilities having children entailed. Having to take them shopping is one of them. Using the specifically designated parking bays is a way of minimising the inconvenience and danger of undertaing that activity. It really is bloody obvious to anyone who's had to do it what the advantages of these things are.

You also know damned well what i mean by referring to two screaming kids as a "disability". Trying to infer i am twisted for doing so is, with respect, pathetic.

If you DO have kids, then the further assumption i'll make is that it's your wife who does the majority of the shopping, possibly while you look after them. If you did the shopping regularly, on your own, with young kids, you wouldn't hold the views you do. It's THAT straightforward.

 

Unless you are clothes shopping then taking them with you is NOT a requirement, its your choice, you keep forgetting that. Having said that in this day and age with online / catalogue shopping you can order from the comfort of your own home and send it back if it doesn't fit.

If something is "that" inconvenient and dangerous, guess what, don't do it. You really are making this hard for yourself.

Does this mean you are now assuming that I DO have kids??? You could have chosen an awful lot of terms to try and describe the difficulties in taking 2 children shopping - but to try and draw any parallels with a disability is the pathetic cheap shot - not pointing it out.

Hell why not - seems to be something you enjoy doing...

Assumption

Assumption

Assumption

How many times - you choose to take the kids, don't complain about it if they make the shopping difficult. Most people learn and if something is difficult they look for an alternative eaiser method the next time round.

 

I personally DON'T use parent and child bays because i think it is better to teach the children how to cross roads safely

you generally don't need to cross the road from parent /disabled bays

 

If you have to take the kids shopping, park in a normal bay and leave em in the car! If they're THAT much of a pain the ***, no-one's going to want to nick em! If it's hot, leave a bowl of water and crack the window a few centimetres!

(This post was made in jest)

 

LOL, i'm NOT complaining - i'm just pointing out the fookin OBVIOUS advantages that these parking spaces afford parents who have to shop with kids in tow!

You can pull apart posts and repeat "assumption" as often as you want, but i'll continue to treat your views with the indiference that i currently am, based on your OBVIOUS lack of real-world expereince here. I'm almost at the point of enjoying knowing that the existence of these spaces distresses you - from the unpleasant side of your character you're displaying over this, i wouldn't be surprised if i'm not alone in that.

Pugoetru - at our supermarkets, the parent/child spaces have a pavement leading to a zebra crossing across the road, so you can teach road-crossing skills without having to expose kids to the (obvious) dangers of walking amongst moving cars in the car park.

 

So Olly

Do you have children?

If so, how old are they?

 

Unfortunately, at the age that kids are for whom these spaces are primarily designed, anything more than 10 minutes of parental absence can lead to great distress. As i've said, most parents avoid taking kids to supermarkets at all costs - it can be a nighmare. Occasionally, unfortunately, it's all but unavoidable. But parent/child spaces do help, obviously (to most people).

 

Yeah, you're joking about the water, surely? I mean, they might spill it on the seats!

 

The spaces cause me no distress whatsoever, what annoys me is pig headed ignorant parents who think having a child is a "disability" and entitles them to use disabled parking spaces or who seem to think that 2 kids in tow is as big a hardship as being disabled and justifies them trying to compare parent and child spaces with disabled spaces.

And I should think disabled people reading how you are so hard done by having to deal with 2 kids are probably not too impressed with your attitude either.

 

Exactly mad_dr if you were a parent surely you would have said 'Tippee mug' or something rather than a bowl of water

Ooops i may have assumed something here <ducks for cover>

 

Olly- Whereby I commend your attitude towards the importance of disabled parking bays I can't agree with your crusade against parent and toddler bays.

Telboy didn't honestly imply that children were a disability in the true sense of the word.

Both a disability and children are harder than being childless and able bodied, so why not have things to make day to day life easier?

 

There speaks a man who is neither disabled, NOR had to cope with two young kids on his own, making assumptions (lol) that the two are entirely dissimilar...

*This user is wryly amused*

 

Quite, but i think we've entered a zone of "selective comprehension" here...

 

I am watching 3 kids under 5 this morning........





hence the reason i am going nowhere

 

Careful that the 3 under the 5 can breath ok.

 

Break one of their legs - then you can go shopping and use the disabled spaces..

 

Err Seats?? How the hell are they going to get out of the boot, past the 'dog' guard?

 

Err one is something you choose as a life style choice, to enrich your life and pass on your genes the other is something that you (except for some rare cases) had absolutely no choice about whatsoever, does little if anything to give you a better life than an able bodied person and can with some disabilities prevent you from passing on your genes.

Hmmm - yeah lots of similarities.

It amazes me that we have people who choose to become parents. Choose to bring a life in to this world, supposedly with the intention of passing on their genes, nurturing that child, loving it, caring for it, educating it, providing for it etc etc and then claim that the child is some kind of hardship. Its your child, your choice, yes parent and child spaces may be a "nice" thing to have, but compared to a people with disabilities it does count for spit in the scheme of things. Its a simple point, that people seem to have things out of proportion here and consider something that is "nice" for them is as important as spaces provided for those with disabilities.

 

PMSL at some of the comments on this thread.

At my local sainsburys a few years ago they had a dedicated car park for disabled parking. The whole car park was then 'refurbed' and the number of disabled parking places multiplied overnight. I have never ever seen even half of the disabled places occupied, which makes me wonder why are there so many. I'd assume that many of the abled bodied people who do park in these places feel the same and say to themselves that there's plenty of spaces for disabled so I'm not doing any harm.

If there were less disabled spaces rather than masses of unsed bays I think there would be much less of a problem of abled bodied parking in these spaces.

What I also find interesting, genuine disabled card holders parking in their designated bay, then walking around all the other bays checking who has the relevant disabled documents on display. Surely this is a bit ironic?


I don't park in disabled spots. But if the situation arose where there were no spots for me to park in and there were a load of empty disabled spots, then I'd park there.

 

Sure, there's a difference between "nice to have" and "need to have", but i really am failing to see what the difficulty in accepting BOTH is.

From where i'm sitting, you're saying that by having kids, parents who "choose" to take them shopping should struggle with them in a supermarket carpark, since to provide any sort of solution to make it easier is just pandering to their lifestyle choices. Don't you see the selfishness of that train of thought yourself? If there's the space, why the hell NOT provide assistance? I can't think of ANY valid reason, not one.

 

many a true word spoken in jest....

 

Oooh, I wouldn't - I'd go to another store, if the car park was that full then the queues at the checkouts would be horrendous, presumably

 

But isnt the point to have those spaces free so that a disabled, short-breathed, heart diseased wheelchair racer can park there when they get to the supermarket (usually at 5 pm when it's busiest)? Surely if those spaces were taken, no one could park there?

 

I must have been asleep when I said that parent and child spaces should be banned.

I'll repeat myself again. If you have kids and the parent and kids spaces are full or non existent where you go shopping big deal, it is an inconvenience. Stop trying to lump it in with people parking in disabled parking spaces and suggesting that it is as much of an issue, it isn't. You can cope, belive me you can.

This is a thread about people parking in disabled spaces. Its like trying make a big deal about kids scrumping apples when the thread is about ABH, yes they are both wrong but at very different ends of the spectrum.

I don't belive I have said "struggle" at all. I have said you have choices. If you have a "special" place to park because you are a parent then bonus, but if they are full or other people are using them big deal, cope with the kids or make alternative arrangements for them.

The selfish part is hijacking a thread on parking in disabled spaces and trying to suggest that parent and child spaces are as important. As I said, no issue with the spaces being there, just don't try and kid yourself that are more (or even as) important than disabled spaces - they ain't. Whinge about people parking in parent and child spaces in another thread.