I can’t be the only one who gets angry with the arrogant individuals out there who park in parent and child parking spaces when they have no right or need to be there. There will be plenty of people out there who aren’t bothered in the slightest and who would tell me to just let it go and move on with my life, and sure, tomorrow I’ll wake up and not think about it again until the next time I’m trying to park and watching people get out of cars in said spaces, sans mini-human, or worse, am left with nowhere to park because of these apparently Very Important Pricks except for a tiny cramped spot where I almost throw my back out trying to contort my body into both a toddler extractor and car protector so I don’t dent the ever living crap out of the poor sod’s car parked next to me.

I have no problem with blue badge holders taking these spaces, (although I have seen some parking in child spaces when there are clearly plenty of blue badge spaces left, that one baffles me) but if you just feel like your precious twat-mobile is worthy of one of the very few spaces we’re actually given enough room to manoeuvre in, then I hope you fall on something very sharp and rusty.

What happened to these people to make them think they’re special, or that the rules don’t apply to them? Are they a special breed of arsehole who don’t care about other people? You know the kind, play loud music at all hours, litterers, orange presidents etc. Do they think they’ve parked in a regular space? Or do they have an imaginary child in the backseat? Who knows. All I know is while there are more important things to get angry about, this is something I see every single time I get in the car, and it’s not likely to change as it’s one of the few things people can actually get away with because nowhere that provides these spaces actually makes sure they’re used correctly!

I politely asked an elderly couple who pulled into a space next to me (no, really, very politely asked) if they’d consider not doing that again as it isn’t very fair to other people and they just launched into a torrent of abuse at me.  Nice one.

This topic has been brought up a few times with news articles suggesting that people parking in child spaces without children will be fined etc (I honestly don’t ever see it happening, who wants to pay for a parking attendant when they could just… not?) and against my mantra – “don’t read the comments” (a good mantra to follow in most situations, because people are the worst) I’ve dipped in a few times and seen the VIPs countering with ridiculous statements; “Don’t be so lazy and walk from the back of the car park!” – Gladly, put me a wide enough space as far away from the doors as you like, ass-hat, don’t assume we’re lazy because they painted the spaces at the front, Tesco did that, not me! Or, “we managed fine 30 years ago blah blah mums these days etc” yes, well done you for being so capable when there were a fraction of the cars about that there are today, cars which were also a hell of a lot smaller in most cases, or no pesky safe car seats to wrestle children out of, so yeah, aren’t you just so superior.

In a nutshell, don’t be a dick. Don’t park somewhere you’re not allowed to, don’t go out of your way to make life more difficult for others, and if you’re the guy below, don’t park your van not only in the wrong space but also NOT EVEN IN the space properly so the people next to you have lost the room their space allows!

Goodnight, fellow decent humans!