Stork Parking

[DougC]

- - - Recently a couple of area grocery stores put in "Stork Parking" nearest to the doors (aside from the handicapped spaces) for "expectant and new mothers". I saw these in a couple other big cities over the last 2 or 3 years or so, but this is the first time I've seen them right here in mah own town. Does your town have these things? Where & when did they start? I notice there's no towing notice on the sign, so can I park there anyway and tell Mrs. Newmom to bugger off? - MC

[Mr. Cynical]

But....you should be careful, cause you're liable to have Mr. Newmom come over and put a foot in your ass.

[Patty O'Furniture]

I recently sat idling in a small parking lot in a fashionable part of NW where parking is virtually non-existant. It's a small strip of stores, mostly trendy restaurants, bagel shops, video rentals & the requisite Starbucks on each end, and in front of almost every little shop was a handcapped parking space (sometimes two) and an "expectant mothers" parking space. The shops themselves are not that big, and can only fit 4-6 parking spaces in front of each to begin with.

So far, the signs don't carry the same $500 fine warning that the HC spaces do, but in my humble opinion (we have to say that in this forum, right?), it's only a matter of time before we have:

•Overweight customers parking
•Moms with infants parking
•Patrons with allergies parking
•People who sunburn easily so they have to park as close as possible to the store's canopy parking

Maybe if I were overweight, had kids, allergies or sun sensitivity I could relate.

[Brunetter]

I saw "expectant mother/mom with infant" parking either on TV or in a movie, and it made perfect sense at the time, because it was for a store that expectant mothers or moms with infants would frequent, and would expect to get higher priority than the average customer. For example, a baby clothes store or perhaps a medical clinic. This didn't seem odd to me at all.

However, I can't understand why these people should have any special reason to visit the trendy strip mall opus mentions. New before anyone starts chewing my ass about how em/mwi find it difficult to walk the extra 15 feet or whatever, let me point out that I am a woman, and will someday be in this position! Fine. That's the choice I make when I drive by a Starbucks and weigh the options: spend 20 mins getting myself and baby out of the car, walk ALL THAT WAY over to grab a frappuccino, wrestling with baby buggy/diaper bag/pregnant belly the whole time, then another 20 mins to get myself and baby back in? Or... skip it? After all, Starbucks (and the other items mentioned) are LUXURY items.

Handicapped parking spots are for people who have no choice about their condition and are trying to get by the best they can. No so for these spots. In fact, if I was a handicapped person, I think I would be insulted by having my permanent loss of mobility compared to some bouncy, glowing, little mother.

In conclusion - YES to special spots in places they make sense (clinics, baby stores, etc), NO in other places. Stick a fork in me, I'm done!