Mums are quite simply amazing. We put up with so much on a daily basis; self-sacrifice is often our auto-pilot mode. We access depths of love and patience we didn’t know possible.
We put up with nappies, crying, teething, shouting, tantrums, fights, food being hurled at us and every day we take multi-tasking to an Olympic level.
But for the life of me, I don’t know why we just put up with supermarkets and retailers not enforcing the parent and child (P&C) car parking spaces on a daily basis!?
Why do we sit and watch as drivers with no kids or car seat, simply saunter into these precious spaces and go about their shopping without a care in the world? Why do we just grumble to ourselves and go off to park in a regular sized space and have to turn into a contortionist to try and get our babies and small children out of the car, as well as setting up prams, taking out changing bags and trying to get the shopping in and out, all in the tightest of spaces?
It’s lunacy!
But we (and I included myself in this) do it almost every day.
I’ve blogged before about how much this situation annoys me. How frustrating it is when people don’t respect the parent and child spaces. But what’s worse is the supermarkets do not enforce them. What is the point of providing these spaces if they don’t police them?
I’m sure most of you reading this have at some point tackled a person over parking in a P&C space, only to probably be met with verbal abuse. But until supermarkets start to roll out punitive measures to those not respecting these spaces, people will continue to do it.
I’ve also tried to raise the issue with these supermarkets and I get a standard cop out response, saying that these spaces are not a legal requirement there is nothing they can do to enforce them. In short, it is not a 'legal offence' to park there so they claim to be powerless to do anything constructive.
This is complete bullshit!
Many supermarkets have signs up to say the maximum stay is 3 hours and if you stay over that length of time you will be clamped. Presumably this is to stop people parking there all day and taking a bus or train into town. As far as I know a right to clamp someone for this offence is not enshrined in law. So if they can enforce that why can they not enforce the P&C spaces?
I’ll tell you why. It’s a lack of will on their part, because we just put up with it!
The parents and families of this country are these companies’ bread and butter. If we all voted with our feet and said we wouldn’t shop in these stores until they started taking the P&C spaces seriously you can bet your bottom dollar they’d do something about it.
So why are we putting up with it?
I’ve started a petition asking them to do something about this issue.
I’m not letting this go and if you feel like me then please sign it and get every other parent, grandparent, guardian, childminder and likeminded person you know, to do the same!
When we’ve enough signatures I’ll be contacting each of the stores and asking them to do something. The more signatures we have, the less they can ignore us.
It’s time for parent power!
Please Sign the Petition below