Myself and the Munchkin have had a busy few days. First off there was the Village Festival at the weekend, although we only went along for Saturday as we had friends visiting Sunday.
Monday was a special day for me – at least it would’ve been if I was younger – it was my birthday and for a special treat I took the Munchkin for a walk and a spot of geocaching. We’d not been out walking for a while so it was only going to be a short stroll, just 4 or so miles, along the Grand Union Canal south from Whilton.

We both enjoy walking along the canal; Me as it gives me a chance to look at boats and enjoy the peacefulness of everything: The Munchkin because it gives her a chance to shout ‘dggg’ at everything that moves – except ducks which she rightly shouts ‘du’ at.

The peacefulness that I enjoy so much isn’t always easy to find along the canal. This stretch just so happens to have the M1 on one side and a mainline railway the other side. Still it was a lovely walk.

There is another reason I choose this area to walk. We are making plans to move onto a boat to live and at Whilton there is a good boat brokerage and two chandleries that I could poke around. More about the change of lifestyle in a future post.

Yesterday was shopping day. This meant me and the Munchkin went off to the local Mothercare to get some supplies and then the supermarket to get the weeks shopping.
I truly despise shopping at the supermarket. Some of you may remember my parking rant and this is one of the reasons I hate shopping. This weeks episode saw no less than 3 cars parking in ‘parent and child spaces’ who clearly did not have children. Just had a thought, I’m going to email the supermarket and see what they have to say about it.

Last week whilst shopping I came out of the supermarket and watched a guy get out of his car, lock it, stand next to my car and then drop some litter. I helpfully pointed out that he had dropped something but he just sneered at me and walked off. He was parked in a parent and child space too!
Anyway, I digressed. Today we’ve been making jam. I say we but I actually mean me. I’ve been to the allotment a few times in the last week (update on that blog coming soon!) and we’ve had lots of rhubarb. Last week we had lots of rhubarb crumble at home and I thought I’d try my hand at making jam.

It turned out lovely, so lovely in fact that I had to collect some more rhubarb from the allotment last night and make some more jam today.

I must say, I’m looking forward to sampling this batch

I know some people that read this blog (and there's not many people reading it) are parents, in fact I'm sure that if I looked into it I'd find out that everyone who reads this blog is a parent, and this rant is not directed at parents.

In fact, scratch that, it is slightly directed at parents - all will become clear.

A typical parking spot

When I first started noticing parent and child parking spaces I had mixed feelings. Disabled spaces are a good idea as disabled people can't be expected to walk/wheel across a carpark, but could the same be said for parents with kids? I wasn't sure. As I got older and then had my own child I realised that these spaces were a great idea.

In our local shopping center and our local supermarket the spaces are designed so that you can open your doors fully without damaging the car in the next space, which is useful when you consider that our car is a three door and therefore the doors are excessively long.

The provided spaces are also close to the entrance to the shop/shops, also useful as little one doesn't need to be subjected to the wild British weather too much until she's older.

Here's the problem though. As these spaces are so close to the entrances they tend to get parked in by people that shouldn't park in them.

Disabled people for example. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that disabled people shouldn't be allowed to park close to the entrance. No, that would be wrong (though there are many many people that claim to be disabled that clearly are not, but this isn't the place to go into that!). There is probably a law that states how many disabled spaces there should be - a number that is disproportionate to the amount of disabled people driving no doubt - and the people that park in said spaces is controlled by the ownership of a blue badge. So, you know, park in a disabled space.

hkpp.org

The people that really get to me are the ones that are not disabled and have no child. Why do they feel the need to steal parking spaces meant for parents with young babies? Have they no conscience? I suspect they are the kind of people that would let pregnant women and the elderly stand on a crowded bus.

There of course are two other types of people that annoy me in this situation.

Parents who have a baby seat but no baby. Why do they feel they are entitled to use these spaces? When you don't have the baby you lose your right to park in that space.

Also, when that baby gets to about 8 years old, possibly younger, you really don't need that space either. Sometimes I see people parking in parent and child spaces with kids that are anything up to 15 or 16. That is just taking the proverbial.

So, if you have a small child or baby and you see someone using these spaces who probably shouldn't ... please say something to them so next time they reconsider.

Thanks for reading this disjointed rant, to reward you here's an image I stumbled across that I think is a good idea: