Parent and child parking
Never, not once, when I was not a parent, did it cross my mind to park in a parent and child parking bay.
You know, those ones with extra space for ease of access for children and prams. They're usually located near to the doors of shops, with large signs of children and parents painted within them, or signs showing the same thing.
For those of you who are adept at exiting your car through the sunroof and magically removing your children and perhaps even the car seat in the same manner, this post is not for you. However, for everyone else with children, I imagine you will feel my pain.
Take today for example. Like other swimming days, we made our way to the car park where there is parking allocated for parents or those transporting children.
My instinct, as you'd expect, is to find a spot where there is ample room to open my car door to remove my child, without the need to maintain a grip on the door so as not to clip the adjacent vehicle, while I get the little lady out.
Invariably, these spaces are taken and so I drive to a spot where no one else is parked close-by so that I have ample room.
Today, maybe through sheer luck, we managed to get ourselves a space. As my daughter was asleep, I decided to wait for a while.
I was at first struck by the number of cars already parked in the parent parking. My naivety suggested that it may be a surge of healthy parents already in the changing rooms set for a splash session with their child.
However, this was not the case, and I shouldn't have been surprised when the following happened and I could only watch on agog.
In the vacant space (parent parking I might remind you) came and parked a pool attendant. Out of his car, he sprung and made his jolly way to work. Now, this is not the only time I have seen this happen. Granted it's usually an office worker in her Jaguar avoiding the parking fees imposed by the council on town car parks, but today was different. Today it was an employee of the leisure centre. I was incensed!
I complained to the leisure centre in question and they have 'spoken with their employee'. I've no doubt he'll do it again, but I can rest a little easier tonight knowing that I stood up for all of us who can't shimmy out of the sunroof child in tow, and for those of us who do care about the parents who might just need that space.
I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences!