Well, as I said in my very first post to this thread, I suspected that you just don’t give a shit.
Well guess what - for the first 8 months of my pregnancy I didn’t park in the preggo spot because I didn’t need it. In fact I parked further away just to get a bit more exercise.
However, if we’re going to go into hypothetical land, if I pulled up to an Irish dance shop that had a spot reserved for dancers with bad knees I wouldn’t park in it. Not because it’s illegal. Not because I resent this particular store electing to do something nice for one of it’s primary customer bases. Not because my mother is crippled from doing Irish dance for years. I wouldn’t park in it because I DO care about other people, even if I’ve never met them.
I give plenty of shits–about things that *deserve *to have a shit given about them.
Why not? That would be a stupid reason to reserve a spot.
My point is that there’s nothing about pregnancy itself that suddenly makes you unable to walk across a parking lot. Some complications with pregnancy may have this result–but in that case, the person can simply apply for regular disabled tags and park in regular disabled spots.
A woman gestating a baby deserves no more and no less consideration than people with a whole variety of other conditions that may make it a bit harder for them to walk. She doesn’t become magically in need of special reserved parking just by being pregnant.
Correct. But isn’t it nice that we live in a society where we make small considerations to others? I mean it is after all, just a parking spot. It’s kind of like giving your seat to a pregnant woman on the bus. It’s not like some big political statement that we have to rail and gnash our teeth against. At least, it isn’t for most of us.
I don’t think that you realize what “applying for disabled tags” entails in some cases. In fact, I’d be rather surprised if doctors were willing to fill out the forms if a woman suddenly develops toxemia/pre-eclampsia or something like that, as the doc is likely to say “COMPLETE bed rest, except for when you have to use the bathroom or bathe”, depending on how severe her symptoms are.
As for having parental parking, well, nobody will ever be able to rightfully accuse me of getting sentimental about the whole parenting gig, but my view is that small children are a hazard in parking lots, even if the parents are helicoptering, and it only makes sense to have parental parking near the store entrance, if possible. It’s not just a convenience for the parents, it’s a convenience for the other drivers as well.
You could have just written “I have no idea whether or not this would work or not.” Seeing as there’s already a mechanism in place for people who can’t walk distances to get preferential parking, I think it would behoove us to ensure that this *isn’t *actually possible for pregnant women who need it before we start complaining that they need special spots.
Sorry, I ride the bus all the time so I was just adapting it to my own experiences.
I could have, if I wanted to be inaccurate. I’m fairly sure that getting a temporary tag is more involved than that. And when I was pregnant and developed toxemia, my doctor was quite clear that I was to stay in bed, except to use the bathroom and to shower. However, I was pregnant over 30 years ago, and it’s possible that the treatment is different. I know, though, that had such things as handicapped tags been available, that my doctors would NOT have given me one. Because they wanted me to stay in bed, not go out shopping or wherever. I mostly DID stay in bed, but I needed an occasional mental health day out.
You fill out a form. A single-page form. With a handful of fields. That’s it. Damn, such an imposition.
If you make it clear to your doctor that you’ll be getting out of the house on occasion one way or the other, and the only difference is how far you’ll be walking, I don’t see why they wouldn’t sign the form for you. Maybe some of our resident MDs could weigh in.
No - it hasn’t changed Lynn - there are degrees of ‘bed rest’ from modified which is what I was on, to total which is what I suspect you would be on. Full on pre-eclampsia gets you a one way ticket to your bed for however long it takes for baby to arrive. Depending on how high the BP is you may be instructed to not sit up in bed, let alone toot around the mall. There would be no signature for that unless the doctor was a moron.
Based on my paperwork, I was allowed to leave the house for doctor’s appointments so I suppose I could have applied for a pass as in theory I could need it at the doctor’s office.
Again, this has nothing to do with if non-pregnant people parking in the ‘expectant mothers’ spot are douche-bags or not. I submit they are and even while pregnant I avoided the spot parking in it a total of twice in case someone else needed it more.
However, I suspect that none of this will have much impact on Ms. Guns because I think at this point she’s arguing just to hear herself speak (type?) as opposed to any actual interest in the subject.
That’s pretty much what I thought. Toxemia is pretty serious for both mother AND child. I was supposed to have someone drive me back and forth to the doctor’s office, and go NOWHERE else. And man, that bed rest sure does a number on one’s muscle tone.
Applying for a tag does not guarantee that the doctor will sign off on it. Most doctors take their responsibilities pretty seriously, and if a patient doesn’t need a tag, or if the patient shouldn’t even be out of bed, the doc isn’t going to fill out the paperwork.
Again, more speculation about what *you ***think **the doctor would do, versus any word from an *actual *doctor about what they would *actually *do. Right now, it’s your WAG against my WAG, so we’re both equally right (and wrong).
Actually, I’m basing my statements on my experience, and on conversations that I’ve had with various doctors and patients. One of my nephews is a doctor, I’m friends with a couple of doctors IRL, and I have to interact with my husband’s relatives. From the group of friends and relatives who are doctors, I hear about people who want tags for trivial reasons (no, they don’t break confidentiality), and from the other, I hear about doctors who won’t give them a temporary tag even though they broke their toe and it REALLY REALLY HURTS and docs are just big poopy heads.
I’m basing my statement on what doctors have told me what they do in given situations, in other words. YOU are speculating about how easy it is to get a temporary tag.
I fail to see how any of these trivial situations are remotely comparable to a woman who actually *can’t *and *shouldn’t *walk distances. You’re still WAGing. And you’re the one who was *also *WAGing about how terrible the forms must be until I actually got one to prove that they’re simple. (“I’m fairly sure that getting a temporary tag is more involved than that” were your exact words.)
I used to do OB and there are definitely circumstances where a pregnant woman should avoid walking distances and would merit a temporary tag, but is healthy enough to not be restricted to bedrest, or to the home.
So I would not hesitate to issue a temporary handicapped parking tag for a pregnant gal who met certain criteria.
Granted, I don’t fill out forms for temporary tags anymore, given that all my patients are incarcerated. But in prison, the “low bunk” designation is sort of the “handicapped parking tag” equivalent for the felon set. I order that designation, both permanently and temporarily, based on pretty strict criteria combined with my medical judgement. And piss a lot of folks off in the process.
