RECENTLY I was accosted in a local shopping centre car park when I chose to park in the spaces designated ‘Parents with Prams’, the person (self-appointed car park police) wanted to check I did in fact have a child and pram.
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I decided it wasn’t any of their business, and allowed the sight of six children tumbling out of my car to be my visual explanation, and yes, I’m too busy to answer to you right now thank you very much.
When I thought about it later, I realised that maybe people do occasionally need to be accosted about what may be a breach of common courtesy.
We’ve all witnessed somebody parking in places they probably shouldn’t, some of us may even be guilty of it, but are we entitled to be affronted by the misuse of these spaces?
The laws about these parking spaces is fuzzy. Some shopping centres in South Australia police their pram parking spots by making it necessary to have a permit to park there, issuing fines to those using the spaces without one.
Is this a result of the idea of common courtesy being given up on? More likely a revenue raiser.
Joondalup (WA) changed their local parking laws to make it so that tickets can be given to people parking in the spaces without a child and pram.
Legally in NSW I believe anyone can park there, don’t quote me on this, but I haven’t found any legislation, local or state, that says you can’t. Not enforceable just a courtesy.
There are worse things we could complain about. I think it comes down to the planning of the car parks. These slightly wider spaces are great for getting your baby gear around the sides of the car, without having to squeeze by and potentially damaging nearby vehicles.
Why not make all the spaces wider? I know that it is not a parents’ right to expect special treatment simply because they have children, and some people do feel a strong sense of entitlement towards these perks provided by shopping centres.
And that is just it - they are a perk, placed there to encourage parents to spend their money at the centre because they can park there easily. Only a short time ago these parking spaces for parents did not exist, and there was no call for them either, our parents did fine without them and prams were even bigger then!
If I wasn’t a pram toting parent, the biggest deterrent to parking in these designated spaces would be this; small sticky children.
My swarm of sticky fingered minions seem to feel their way out of our car, and all over the cars next to it. One glorious day I will have a car that is not sticky. That day will only come when I am pramless.
So I can only surmise that those with unsullied vehicles would not want to risk it by deliberately placing it within sticky toddler reach in a parents-with-pram parking space.
Getting back to my point, I believe the misuse of these parking spaces (despite what I think of them) reflects an increased level of selfishness in society. Nobody has good manners anymore.
Rarely will you see a young person stand up on a bus and offer their seat to someone who needs it more, chivalry is lost it seems.
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