As I was doing a bit of shopping yesterday I approached Dunnes Stores and its car park to get a few bits and bobs for our mini family trip away at the weekend.
They have now marked about 10 spots with just “Parent & Child parking” so the parents have enough space to get the kids out safe and put them back in the car and also don’t have to walk far inside.
So as I was driving around to find a space ( I had Chloe with me), the car park was packed and even all red marked parent & child spaces were taken, I saw an old man maybe in his 60’s parked in one of those spaces. No child in sight. He slowly packed away all his groceries, lit a cigarette before entering the car as if he doesn’t have a care in the world.
Now the question… Should I have asked him nicely to remove his car because he didn’t have a child with him and he was just being lazy parking further away from the shop? Or should he be allowed to park there too being an older man?
In my opinion, I probably should have asked him nicely to remove his car because those signs “parent & child parking” are there for a reason and no other people should be entitled to park there. It annoys me that people are taking advantage of these spaces because they are too lazy to drive around and find a space somewhere else. This also applies to the disabled people spaces.
Not only at Dunnes Stores but also at my local shop up the road I had to see people parking in that one parent & child slot and I ended up parking further away which led me to taking the buggy with me because it’s too far.
After seeing this so many times, I’ve asked myself if these spaces should be specifically supervised by someone or a camera. Or even a machine that only allows parents to park there, maybe have some sort of proof or sign to display in the car and if it’s not the case have the car removed/clamped just like you would when someone parked in a prohibited area on the street.
This is more of a discussion post for all mums out there. What do you think? Please comment in the box below, I’d love to hear your opinions and if you have been in the same situation before and what did you do?
Definitely should be supervised! So frustrating that people take advantage of them. Blue badge is supervised so I don’t see it would require much effort to patrol the parent bays too.
Yes some sort of supervision is definitely needed. Same story in our local Dunnes, it drives me mad. I had a chat with one of the security lads and he said they try but get awful abuse if they say anything!!
I have this discussion all of the time. There’s just no easy way to enforce parent parking bays.
Maybe having them at the back of the car park rather than nearest the store would deter use by non-parents.
I just live in hope that one day karma will balance the world out. When they park next to me while I have to use a regular parking space because someone else has taken the parent parking bay, and my car door accidently dings theirs as I’m strugglig to drag my 3yo out through the tiny space available. 😉
There should definitely be some form of a system in place – they’re necessary as they’re wider to get the kids out of carseats and lots of people who don’t need them use them, necessitating a rather dangerous attempt at getting kids out of the car at times! Great post.
It makes my blood boil so much! People with posh cars are the worst; they think they are more important than the safety of children. Until today, despite wanting to, I’ve never said/done anything about it but I was soaking wet with a 3 and a 1 year old and a woman without a child was parked in the very nearest save to the shop. I shouted ‘where’s your child??!’ Before hastily leaping into my car!