After spending the last 10 weeks in the UK I can totally see how annoying it is when spaces are abused. It makes me so mad.
I have 3 little ones and if I am shopping with them then the first priority is thier safety. Therefore I park where its safe. The next thing is the space to get them all out without the car next to us getting pranged. I can always get a space in the M and B at our local Tesco as they are quite far from the shop but with a safe path that leads around the carpark to the shop...as its so far no one abuses them. Its a great idea.
As for disabled badges. Well, I agree that there are some scum out there who do abuse them. Its the ones who really deserve them that have to jump hoops to get one. We got our mums the day after she died... very useful!!! Those who deserve and need one have my total compassion. Those who abuse (we all know people do) are low life scum.
I hate it when these debates become a competition. I got out a car juggling 5 balls, with 3 sick elephants and I was 23 months pregnant... well that great for some but I personally find it very hard to get 3 little ones out of a car safely and dont mind admitting it!!!
Mother and Baby spaces will always cause debate and for that reason they should be made 'legal'. In a town centre car park in Middlesbrough you have to geta mother and baby parking badge. If you dont have it and you park in the spaces you get fined or clamped. You have to produce evidence that your youngest is under 8 to have the right to park there....good idea I think.
Honestly I'm not making it up, our supermarket car park is a council run one and the spaces just aren't big enough. When I was pregnant, I had the same problem, I could park the car but I couldn't squeeze myself out of the space left. I used to have to sit and wait for an end space because even in those circumstances, I wouldn't park in a M&B space. And I would never, ever park in a disabled space, on occasions when I've driven my father around, he'd tell me to use it myself but there's no way in the world I could have done so. Even though I know the scheme is open to abuse, there are lots of legitimate disabled people that really need them.
And for those that say, move on, try somewhere else, the next supermarket is 20 miles away, so not a realistic option.
Dee dee - that's a great idea they have in Middlesbrough, shame it hasn't been adopted in the rest of the country xx
That's a fab idea in middlesborough...Sounds like it would work great. In the multi-storey car park at our local shopping centre there's half a row of 'mother and toddler' spaces on one floor then the floor above they've made some of the corner spaces that already have bags of room m&b too. I don't see why they couldn't have done it on all the floors though. There's always hundreds of empty disabled spaces in there and never any m&b. Our local saishurus has got a couple of disabled spaces and four times as many m&b but still none ever free. Personally I don't have an issue with disabled drivers (genuine) using m&b spaces. If the spaces weren't so near the door but there was a safe path to use that would be fine...but as it is it's hard enough to walk through a carpark safely without carrying lo. I will put my jars up and admit I have used m&b spaces before I had ds and when he's not with me, but that's only been when I've popped into the supermarket ten mins before it shuts (at 10pm) or if we've seen a late film at the cinema (after 9) and again the carparks been deserted tbh I don't feel bad for that as lo's shouldn't be out that late anyway IMO. As fr disabled spaces I've never used one and wouldn't. It was a shame we didn't have a nearer asda as they got major brownie points for their pregnant spaces
However I do think that there is no need for them to be so close to the shop doors. If they were further back we would still have the extra room and no one else would want to use them as they'd have to walk further.
Yes, I agree this would be a good idea provided that there was a safe walkway directly to the supermarket door. Part of the point of m&b spaces is that you don't have to negotiate a car park with babies/toddlers in tow, imo.
I drive a Mondeo estate which is roughly the size of a yacht, and on several occassions when all M&B and disabled spaces were full, have managed to park in a normal space and get a baby and a 4 year old with a splint on her leg out, without causing damage. I wasn't *easy* but it was doable.
Yes it is do-able, and we park in a normal space rather than wait around for a m&b to become free too (Audi A6 estate which is pretty similar in size to a Mondeo). Just thought of it from a different angle, though - I bet given the choice people would prefer mummies to park in the m&b spaces rather than in a normal space, where there's a greater risk of their car being scraped. I bet it's the morons who routinely park in m&b spaces when they shouldn't who glower at people with kids parking next to them in a normal space!
I would like to wade in on the disabled debate. I agree that only people with a real disability are entitled to a blue badge. This does not mean they are not abused. a few years ago i was a christmas car park attendant at my local asda store, and the car park was full, and i do mean full, there was a 20min wait for a space. a woman driving a normal sized car pulled up next to me, asking me if she could please get access to the disabled parking as she was a care home worker and had one of her patients blue badges so she could use the space. i will point out, she did not have the patient, or indeed anyone else with her. she was not even shopping for the disabled person. as it happens, there werent even any disabled spaces available.
the easiest way to tell if someone is abusing the disabled parking is to check their tax disc, those who are entitled to the blue badge also get free tax and this is written on the tax disc. i agree that mother and baby parking is a luxury, but that doesnt make it right for people to abuse it. when i joined the tesco mother and baby club, i got sent a little disc (about the size of a tax disc) which had space for me to put babies 3rd birthday date on it, this entitles me to park in the tesco mother and baby spaces until my childs 3rd birthday, which i think is a brill idea.
As for disabled badge holders, while I sympathise with those having real disabilities, some people do abuse these as well and it really irritates me to see a person who has a badge get out of the car normally and then walk off at a normal pace WTF!
The only way you can get a blue badge is either to be awarded the Mobility element of Disability Living Allowance, or to apply to your council outlining the details of your disability, which are then checked with your medical care providers. Having been through these processes, I assure you that neither are easy, and anyone who holds a blue badge has a very 'real' disability.
Just because you see somebody walk away from their car "at a normal pace" doesn't mean they aren't affected by a disability. My badge is for my daughter, who might well get out of the car and scamper off into the store looking perfectly normal, for which you would no doubt lambast me for 'abusing' the space. What you don't see is her after five minutes suddenly getting pain in her over-tight muscles and unable to walk, or tired out after walking around the supermarket with me (she's too big for the child seats in the trolley now) and limping back to the car, falling over every three paces, or me having to carry her, plus push the trolley with my 4 month old in it, because she is so tired or in so much pain that she can't walk any further.
Disabilities affect people in different ways, and if someone has a blue badge, it's because they need it. Please don't think that you have even a fraction of the information you'd need to judge if they are worthy of one.
agreed! i am also disabled with a blue badge and the medicals and drs reports you need to qualify are freeking reducluse. i look 'normal' but unless you have Xray vision then you wont be able to see my imparimnets unless i'm having a bad day which is when you will see me in my wheelchair, limping, on crutchers or on a stick. also i get a mobility scooter when i get into the shop so dont be so bloody judgemental!
i think maybe people need to read the disablility discrimination act!
As for disabled badge holders, while I sympathise with those having real disabilities, some people do abuse these as well and it really irritates me to see a person who has a badge get out of the car normally and then walk off at a normal pace WTF!
The only way you can get a blue badge is either to be awarded the Mobility element of Disability Living Allowance, or to apply to your council outlining the details of your disability, which are then checked with your medical care providers. Having been through these processes, I assure you that neither are easy, and anyone who holds a blue badge has a very 'real' disability.
Just because you see somebody walk away from their car "at a normal pace" doesn't mean they aren't affected by a disability. My badge is for my daughter, who might well get out of the car and scamper off into the store looking perfectly normal, for which you would no doubt lambast me for 'abusing' the space. What you don't see is her after five minutes suddenly getting pain in her over-tight muscles and unable to walk, or tired out after walking around the supermarket with me (she's too big for the child seats in the trolley now) and limping back to the car, falling over every three paces, or me having to carry her, plus push the trolley with my 4 month old in it, because she is so tired or in so much pain that she can't walk any further.
Disabilities affect people in different ways, and if someone has a blue badge, it's because they need it. Please don't think that you have even a fraction of the information you'd need to judge if they are worthy of one.
Whilst I totally agree that alot of disabilities aren't visible, I do know more than one person with a disabled badge that def doesn't deserve one. My husbands sister has one and there is nothing wrong with her at all, drives me mad. Like all government schemes/projects/benefits there are people that abuse the system :evil:
I hate it when these debates become a competition. I got out a car juggling 5 balls, with 3 sick elephants and I was 23 months pregnant... well that great for some but I personally find it very hard to get 3 little ones out of a car safely and dont mind admitting it!!!
Sleepbeccie - I'm sorry if I caused you any offence, it certainly wasn't my intention. Perhaps I'm guilty of being judgemental but if you had read my other post, you would see that I was actually referring to my father, who IMO doesn't warrant having a disabled persons badge, yet he has gone through all the stringent tests you mention. He can quite happily walk for miles, shop for hours, garden for England and carry whatever he wants. Disabled on paper - yes but in reality, no way! He is not alone, there are plenty of others too xx
Yes, I agree this would be a good idea provided that there was a safe walkway directly to the supermarket door. Part of the point of m&b spaces is that you don't have to negotiate a car park with babies/toddlers in tow, imo.
All our local stores have random spaces stuck in the carpark with no safe walkway. There is a walkway from a different part of the carpark but not where the parent and child spaces are, go figure!!
Our local Asda has the smallest spaces in the world. We have a 3 door car so I have to open the door then climb in the back to undo LO's carseat and heave him out that way, that is nearly impossible in a normal space unless I manage to find an end space to park in so no one can park next to me. Unfortunately the store is in the middle of the town centre so people use the car park to go into the town too so it is always full and can be difficult to find any space at all. I have also never seen it quiet, it's like the busiest store ever!
I have started shopping at night so I can go alone but that leaves me with 2 other problems, no food on the shelves and no parking spaces when I get home (we live in a flat with limited space and an overflow multistory that is the opposite side of the complex from our flat, quite a distance with a lot of heavy shopping)
I was going to do online shopping until I saw it costs ??4.50!!!
I'm with Lawso - whilst I agree completely that you cannot see a person's disability just by looking, I know that there are tons of people who abuse the system.
My ex is a disabled man - he works in a disability charity who helps people jump through the necessary hoops to get disability benefits such as DLA, Mobility etc. However, he is the first person to abuse the system and to hand out his blue badge to his work colleagues when they want to nip out to lunch, and to his parents when they want to do the weekend shopping.
Whilst there are plenty of people who need the disabled spaces, I think there are also plenty who abuse the system.
Personally, I would never park in a disabled space, and I wouldn't park there if I couldn't find a mother and baby space, but there should be more schemes like those in Middlesborough where the spaces are more enforced.
There is no need for M&B spaces to be close to the shops, so long as the spaces are big enough to get car seats in and out of, and so that they have a safe walkway to the store. I have 2 children, I don't mind them having to walk across a car park to get to a store, so long as there is a safe path.
I too get annoyed when I see people misuse the M&B spaces.My hubby's favourite one is when you see a car parked in one with the hubby sat in it with the kids waiting for the wife to nip in and out. Another reason to move them further away from the store me thinks!
However, to add to the debate, my brother has chrones disease and if he is having a flare up then he needs to get to the loo pretty damn quick! He therefore at times needs to park as close to the door as possible and if this be a M&B space then so be it. I think sometimes it is easy to judge other people without knowing anything about them. I would be quite upset if someone was to lay into my little brother for not looking 'ill' or having baby with him.
Just thought I would throw that one out there. I also have no issue with elderly people parking in the spaces if they are nearest the shop. I do get annoyed at our local asda when blue badge holders park dangerously because there are no disabled spaces available. It happens a lot but asda just dont do anything about it.
Ho hum, I mostly do online shopping anyway. Tee hee!
Replies
I have 3 little ones and if I am shopping with them then the first priority is thier safety. Therefore I park where its safe. The next thing is the space to get them all out without the car next to us getting pranged. I can always get a space in the M and B at our local Tesco as they are quite far from the shop but with a safe path that leads around the carpark to the shop...as its so far no one abuses them. Its a great idea.
As for disabled badges. Well, I agree that there are some scum out there who do abuse them. Its the ones who really deserve them that have to jump hoops to get one. We got our mums the day after she died... very useful!!! Those who deserve and need one have my total compassion. Those who abuse (we all know people do) are low life scum.
I hate it when these debates become a competition. I got out a car juggling 5 balls, with 3 sick elephants and I was 23 months pregnant... well that great for some but I personally find it very hard to get 3 little ones out of a car safely and dont mind admitting it!!!
Mother and Baby spaces will always cause debate and for that reason they should be made 'legal'. In a town centre car park in Middlesbrough you have to geta mother and baby parking badge. If you dont have it and you park in the spaces you get fined or clamped. You have to produce evidence that your youngest is under 8 to have the right to park there....good idea I think.
d xx
And for those that say, move on, try somewhere else, the next supermarket is 20 miles away, so not a realistic option.
Dee dee - that's a great idea they have in Middlesbrough, shame it hasn't been adopted in the rest of the country xx
In the multi-storey car park at our local shopping centre there's half a row of 'mother and toddler' spaces on one floor then the floor above they've made some of the corner spaces that already have bags of room m&b too. I don't see why they couldn't have done it on all the floors though. There's always hundreds of empty disabled spaces in there and never any m&b.
Our local saishurus has got a couple of disabled spaces and four times as many m&b but still none ever free.
Personally I don't have an issue with disabled drivers (genuine) using m&b spaces. If the spaces weren't so near the door but there was a safe path to use that would be fine...but as it is it's hard enough to walk through a carpark safely without carrying lo.
I will put my jars up and admit I have used m&b spaces before I had ds and when he's not with me, but that's only been when I've popped into the supermarket ten mins before it shuts (at 10pm) or if we've seen a late film at the cinema (after 9) and again the carparks been deserted tbh I don't feel bad for that as lo's shouldn't be out that late anyway IMO. As fr disabled spaces I've never used one and wouldn't. It was a shame we didn't have a nearer asda as they got major brownie points for their pregnant spaces
Yes, I agree this would be a good idea provided that there was a safe walkway directly to the supermarket door. Part of the point of m&b spaces is that you don't have to negotiate a car park with babies/toddlers in tow, imo.
Yes it is do-able, and we park in a normal space rather than wait around for a m&b to become free too (Audi A6 estate which is pretty similar in size to a Mondeo). Just thought of it from a different angle, though - I bet given the choice people would prefer mummies to park in the m&b spaces rather than in a normal space, where there's a greater risk of their car being scraped. I bet it's the morons who routinely park in m&b spaces when they shouldn't who glower at people with kids parking next to them in a normal space!
I agree that only people with a real disability are entitled to a blue badge.
This does not mean they are not abused.
a few years ago i was a christmas car park attendant at my local asda store, and the car park was full, and i do mean full, there was a 20min wait for a space.
a woman driving a normal sized car pulled up next to me, asking me if she could please get access to the disabled parking as she was a care home worker and had one of her patients blue badges so she could use the space. i will point out, she did not have the patient, or indeed anyone else with her. she was not even shopping for the disabled person.
as it happens, there werent even any disabled spaces available.
the easiest way to tell if someone is abusing the disabled parking is to check their tax disc, those who are entitled to the blue badge also get free tax and this is written on the tax disc.
i agree that mother and baby parking is a luxury, but that doesnt make it right for people to abuse it.
when i joined the tesco mother and baby club, i got sent a little disc (about the size of a tax disc) which had space for me to put babies 3rd birthday date on it, this entitles me to park in the tesco mother and baby spaces until my childs 3rd birthday, which i think is a brill idea.
As for disabled badge holders, while I sympathise with those having real disabilities, some people do abuse these as well and it really irritates me to see a person who has a badge get out of the car normally and then walk off at a normal pace WTF!
The only way you can get a blue badge is either to be awarded the Mobility element of Disability Living Allowance, or to apply to your council outlining the details of your disability, which are then checked with your medical care providers. Having been through these processes, I assure you that neither are easy, and anyone who holds a blue badge has a very 'real' disability.
Just because you see somebody walk away from their car "at a normal pace" doesn't mean they aren't affected by a disability. My badge is for my daughter, who might well get out of the car and scamper off into the store looking perfectly normal, for which you would no doubt lambast me for 'abusing' the space. What you don't see is her after five minutes suddenly getting pain in her over-tight muscles and unable to walk, or tired out after walking around the supermarket with me (she's too big for the child seats in the trolley now) and limping back to the car, falling over every three paces, or me having to carry her, plus push the trolley with my 4 month old in it, because she is so tired or in so much pain that she can't walk any further.
Disabilities affect people in different ways, and if someone has a blue badge, it's because they need it. Please don't think that you have even a fraction of the information you'd need to judge if they are worthy of one.
agreed! i am also disabled with a blue badge and the medicals and drs reports you need to qualify are freeking reducluse. i look 'normal' but unless you have Xray vision then you wont be able to see my imparimnets unless i'm having a bad day which is when you will see me in my wheelchair, limping, on crutchers or on a stick. also i get a mobility scooter when i get into the shop so dont be so bloody judgemental!
i think maybe people need to read the disablility discrimination act!
As for disabled badge holders, while I sympathise with those having real disabilities, some people do abuse these as well and it really irritates me to see a person who has a badge get out of the car normally and then walk off at a normal pace WTF!
The only way you can get a blue badge is either to be awarded the Mobility element of Disability Living Allowance, or to apply to your council outlining the details of your disability, which are then checked with your medical care providers. Having been through these processes, I assure you that neither are easy, and anyone who holds a blue badge has a very 'real' disability.
Just because you see somebody walk away from their car "at a normal pace" doesn't mean they aren't affected by a disability. My badge is for my daughter, who might well get out of the car and scamper off into the store looking perfectly normal, for which you would no doubt lambast me for 'abusing' the space. What you don't see is her after five minutes suddenly getting pain in her over-tight muscles and unable to walk, or tired out after walking around the supermarket with me (she's too big for the child seats in the trolley now) and limping back to the car, falling over every three paces, or me having to carry her, plus push the trolley with my 4 month old in it, because she is so tired or in so much pain that she can't walk any further.
Disabilities affect people in different ways, and if someone has a blue badge, it's because they need it. Please don't think that you have even a fraction of the information you'd need to judge if they are worthy of one.
Whilst I totally agree that alot of disabilities aren't visible, I do know more than one person with a disabled badge that def doesn't deserve one. My husbands sister has one and there is nothing wrong with her at all, drives me mad. Like all government schemes/projects/benefits there are people that abuse the system :evil:
I hate it when these debates become a competition. I got out a car juggling 5 balls, with 3 sick elephants and I was 23 months pregnant... well that great for some but I personally find it very hard to get 3 little ones out of a car safely and dont mind admitting it!!!
d xx
Sign up to the petition though ladies as suggested by WebEd, power to the people and all that.
All our local stores have random spaces stuck in the carpark with no safe walkway. There is a walkway from a different part of the carpark but not where the parent and child spaces are, go figure!!
Our local Asda has the smallest spaces in the world. We have a 3 door car so I have to open the door then climb in the back to undo LO's carseat and heave him out that way, that is nearly impossible in a normal space unless I manage to find an end space to park in so no one can park next to me. Unfortunately the store is in the middle of the town centre so people use the car park to go into the town too so it is always full and can be difficult to find any space at all. I have also never seen it quiet, it's like the busiest store ever!
I have started shopping at night so I can go alone but that leaves me with 2 other problems, no food on the shelves and no parking spaces when I get home (we live in a flat with limited space and an overflow multistory that is the opposite side of the complex from our flat, quite a distance with a lot of heavy shopping)
I was going to do online shopping until I saw it costs ??4.50!!!
My ex is a disabled man - he works in a disability charity who helps people jump through the necessary hoops to get disability benefits such as DLA, Mobility etc. However, he is the first person to abuse the system and to hand out his blue badge to his work colleagues when they want to nip out to lunch, and to his parents when they want to do the weekend shopping.
Whilst there are plenty of people who need the disabled spaces, I think there are also plenty who abuse the system.
Personally, I would never park in a disabled space, and I wouldn't park there if I couldn't find a mother and baby space, but there should be more schemes like those in Middlesborough where the spaces are more enforced.
There is no need for M&B spaces to be close to the shops, so long as the spaces are big enough to get car seats in and out of, and so that they have a safe walkway to the store. I have 2 children, I don't mind them having to walk across a car park to get to a store, so long as there is a safe path.
I shall get off my soapbox now
xx
Another reason to move them further away from the store me thinks!
However, to add to the debate, my brother has chrones disease and if he is having a flare up then he needs to get to the loo pretty damn quick! He therefore at times needs to park as close to the door as possible and if this be a M&B space then so be it. I think sometimes it is easy to judge other people without knowing anything about them. I would be quite upset if someone was to lay into my little brother for not looking 'ill' or having baby with him.
Just thought I would throw that one out there. I also have no issue with elderly people parking in the spaces if they are nearest the shop. I do get annoyed at our local asda when blue badge holders park dangerously because there are no disabled spaces available. It happens a lot but asda just dont do anything about it.
Ho hum, I mostly do online shopping anyway. Tee hee!
Serena