Following a mum who wrote into us calling for retailers to enforce parent and child car parking spaces, another mum has gone a step further and started up a petition to try to make this a reality.
Niamh O'Reilly who is a new mum, wrote on change.org her reasoning behind the petition, saying that she relies on the spaces but feels that the general public doesn't respect that they are intended for mothers.
The petition currently has almost 3,000 signatures.
"These spaces are not a mere convenience for most parents or guardians, they are a necessity when getting a baby or small children in and out of car seats, as well as prams, changing bags and of course shopping. All of this is practically impossible to do in a regular sized space, which is why the larger parent & child spaces are so invaluable," she explained.
These spaces are not respected by the general public. On a daily basis, drivers with no children on board thoughtlessly park in these spaces often leaving a parent or guardian with a baby or small children in the car left with no option but to park in a regular sized space further away from the door," she continued.
Niamh went onto explain that despite many retailers being unable to enforce the use of these spaces - they are not a legal requirement - she feels more needs to be done on the retailers' behalf to ensure that mums get preference when it comes to these spaces.
"[The retailers say] there is nothing they can do. In short, it is not a 'legal offence' to park there so they claim to be powerless to do anything constructive. I believe this is a cop-out. Many of these same stores would happily clamp a car that flagrantly parked on its premise all day while the owner took the bus into town for example. So why can they not start to police the parent and child spaces? All it would take is for a few notices to be issued for people to start to get the message."
"It's a lack of will on their part, but as parents, we need to stand up and demand action. If every parent voted with their feet and told retailers they would not shop in their stores until they started taking this issue seriously, you can bet they would take note," she added.
You can view the full petition HERE.
What are your thoughts on this mums?
