ahh, monday

[mamajoan]

Nothing like getting into a nice little flamewar to liven up your Monday-morning-before-caffeine experience. sigh.

Comments

[maggiesox.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. GOD.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you get this kind of shit a lot once you become a parent. Maybe someday I'll learn not to engage with these people. Probably not though.

[frightened.livejournal.com]

Gotta love the "I do something obnoxious - isn't that funny and justified?" approach.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

"It's okay because I'm a bigot! That excuses everything!"

[sihaya09.livejournal.com]

What a bunch of bitches!

You know, I completely respect the right of people to be childfree, and for certain environments to be childfree. That said?

These people make my face burn with fury.

You don't want kids? Fine. Don't have them.

But stop assuming that every person who does got themselves knocked up out of carelessness, and that they'll be a terrible parent. Go to a psychiatrist and work out your daddy and mommy issues, please.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's my feeling EXACTLY. I have nothing but respect for people who have the guts to stand up to society and say, "I don't want kids, and dammit, I'm not gonna have them." But some people feel the need to turn that into "...and anyone who does have kids is an idiot deserving of my contempt." I guess you could say it's an interesting facet of human psychology blah blah, but right now, it's actually just really fucking annoying.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

Bleah.

On the other hand, I do think that it's wrong for women who in early pregnancy to get the special parking spaces, when someone who's say, old, or ill, or whatever, but who doesn't have a handicapped sticker, will have to walk further. Rather than "expectant mother parking" I would rather have special spaces for parents with children. If you were pregnant but didn't have another kid already, walking a little further wouldn't be such a big deal, right?

Regardless, I totally support your point that people who disagree with the policy should write to the owner of the parking lot, not take it upon themselves to violate the policy.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, actually at some places (e.g. the Stop-N-Shop in Somerville), they have "parent with infant" parking spaces. I personally wouldn't have a problem with someone who was hugely pregnant using those spaces -- with or without another kid -- because walking can be difficult. (And I'll admit that I've used those spaces when my kid passed beyond the "infant" stage and was technically a toddler, but those terms are so loosely defined anyway).

And yes, I've yelled at people who parked in those spaces without a child. It may be obnoxious of me, but too bad; the store put up the sign for a reason, dammit.

[munoz.livejournal.com]

The annoying problem is that it's so hard to enforce the expecting mothers spaces - there's no special tag or license plate, and until the 3rd trimester it's hard for a security guy to distinguish between cheaters and expecters, unless it happens to be a man by himself in that car.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

True. But in my experience, I've only ever seen expectant-mother parking spaces at Babies-R-Us and similar stores, so I think the feeling is that those shoppers can be trusted to respect the signage and not park there unless it's legit. Unlike at a grocery store where, obviously, it's pretty much a free-for-all.

[munoz.livejournal.com]

I've seen them around here in Atlanta, mostly at places like Whole Foods.

[kneidlach.livejournal.com]

that's what temporary handicap placards are for! every state, i believe, issues temporary handicap placards that are *very* easy to get (just a doctor's signature on the form is all you need, basically, and they cost like $6 here in CA). temporary handicap placards are for people who are temporarily disabled (or, in my case, people who are permanently disabled but whose doctors are asswipes). this can include having a broken leg, arthritis, chronic back pain, etc. there ARE special spaces for temporarily disabled people - it's called disabled parking places!

[kenboy.livejournal.com]

God, that's all sorts of annoying. I was going to comment to the last one there, but arguing with the militantly childfree generally isn't worth the energy, since they are Adamantly Always Right.

I do like the idea that pregnant women should just get a temporary handicapped parking hang-tag at the same time they have their first ultrasound or so, rather than having yet more parking spots blocked off -- how annoying is it to see the same ten COMPLETELY EMPTY handicapped spots in front of freaking Home Depot every weekend -- but this whole "horray for me screw everybody else" attitude makes me want to kick people.

[munoz.livejournal.com]

Special needs drivers should be able to get special tires to put on their cars, and then they should put spikes in all the special needs parking spaces.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I love it! Now that's thinking outside the box. Heh.

[woobiewoobster.livejournal.com]

Holy cow!! That person really needs some help!!

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Which one? ;)

[woobiewoobster.livejournal.com]

Mainly the first one who even brought it up, she seems a bit...angry??!! hahaha. I didn't read the whole thread because I could see it was going nowhere fast. Whew.

[kneidlach.livejournal.com]

That is the stupidest bullshit ever.

And reminds me of the stupid battles I have to get into with people for using handicap spaces (I have a temporary handicap placard) due to the fact that they think they get to tell me "You don't look like you have a disability" (I like to say "and you don't look like my doctor, dickwad!")

[conorchu.livejournal.com]

Hey sorry I mosied over here but I want to make an apology for how angry I got, i'm just a tad pissy somedays. You aren't the rightful target of my anger and I apologize for being so rude.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I appreciate that.