Why does having children give you special privileges?

From Monica Conlan.

IN response to the letter and article entitled ‘People parking in the Parent and child places’ I quite agree that parents need extra wide spaces to open their car doors to enable them to deal with a child seat etc. Heaven knows, I get infuriated when I return to my parked car, to find another dent or scratch made by careless, inconsiderate drivers or their passengers.

But, why, oh, why, must these spaces be next to the disabled spaces right outside the shop door? Can’t they walk? I have witnessed young mums parking in disabled spaces, and when I have plucked up enough courage to ask why, I have been met with a mouthful of abuse, and one young mum even went on to tell me that she parked in a disabled space because she was pregnant.

I have seen elderly people struggle with their shopping to the back of the car parks. Surely, as these mums are usually the younger and fitter variety, it should be them parking at the back of the car parks.

Why is it that just because they have children they expect to be given special privileges, and want special parking permits, and other drivers to be fined if they park in ‘their spaces’, while the rest of us just get on with it, and walk through car parks.

What these parents need to remember is, a lot of the roads and car parks in Jersey are a lot narrower than the norm, and everybody that uses them needs to be considerate of other users, and stop this ‘me-me-me-greed’ that is sweeping the Island.

Perhaps, if they got a smaller vehicle instead of these huge ‘containers on wheels’ they would be able to park in any space, or even better, as we live on a beautiful Island, with beautiful weather, get out and walk to the shops.