I think you'll find it's more to do with car seat laws requiring we all use these huge car seats and cars in general have become wider over the years to accommodate child seats etc

quote from Gnasher - 'My pet hate is those dang Parent & Child parking spaces ... I glean a lot of pleasure from parking in them with my 25 year old daughter '

Had better not say what I think of this otherwise I would be banned. Moron springs to mind though.

tee hee

Have you got young children I wonder?

Am I being thick but what have child seats got to do with anything? surely you keep them in the car.

I'm long past the years of getting little ones out of their car seats, but yes, when you have a babe and toddler or two AND a stroller to get out space is needed. We don't have M&C spaces so that often meant parking at the far end of the lot and finding a double space. Didn't do that once too often and my 34 month old bruiser opened the door on his own and dinted the car beside.

I think it only considerate to have spaces for moms with toddlers . . . and having cared for my own disabled mom and getting her out (with wheelchair) for shopping over the last five years of her life, I wouldn't resent at all the spaces being similarly located. I found the work of it all similar to having a couple of toddlers.

For infants often the seat is taken out with the child in it and fitted into a stroller that is meant for this very thing . . . thus the infant isn't fussed around too much. You can see one here - http://www.squidoo.com/BabyCarSeatStrollers

Ruby

Apart from basic consideration for others and agreeing to the supermarkets rules (their land their rules). It isn't easy to sort out more than one child to get anywhere.

I love the viewpoint that because someone had one child they know how difficult or otherwise it is for mothers generally!

Empathy lacking in a big way.

rune

The ones for the real littlies you tend to lift out these days, and clip onto your pushchair base, or your supermarket trolley whereby you can no longer see where you're going and have the fun sport of pushing a fully laden trolley of groceries, bawling baby and half a tonne of carseat blind around the obstacle course of Tescos on a Friday evening.

Most people seem to do this - I don't because the thing weighs a tonne and is such an annoying shape to manouver around that I ended up with permanently bruised legs doing it - I leave ours clipped in and use the second clippy bit of the seatbelt (our car's one that can fully remove seats so where the bottom fixed point would normally be in a seatbelt is another seatbelty clip bit so you can wind the seatbelt right back with the seat out) to just make it easier to pop her in and out of the carseat... cos the wretched thing's a pain in the rear and roll on when she's bigger for a less irritating seat!

I could quite easily manage without P+C spaces if I had to - I'd just park further away from the doors so I could grab an aisle end space where possible. But they're there - so I'll use one if one's free.

Am I the only weirdo who parks as far away from the shops as possible?

In terms of the original point of the thread, I really think people should start controlling their bloody weans! I had one run over and attempt to RIDE one of my dogs the other day?!

Regarding the original post .... many pages ago ... it is understandable that the parents of this toddler feel immense guilt, anger and upset at what happened to their little boy. It is however, totally inappropriate to blame the dog and it's owners in these circumsta nces. The dog paid with it's life and their son is scarred for life, for the mistakes these parents made.

As for the "other" matter, has no-one heard of internet grocery shopping You don't have to worry about any parking places at all then