Park Right

Posted under About town..., Admin's Logs, Being a mom...., Ggggrrrrrr, Issues, Meluat, Pondering..., Stupidomundo!

Image taken from Leo Reynolds via flickr

Earlier during the day, I took Tia shopping over at Tesco’s over in Seberang Jaya. They just opened up a new Tesco there, occupying the space of what used to be Makro. I had been to Makro like twice, once in 1995 and another time late last year, or earlier this year. And you can see how much improvement of the space! The same building, the same location, but boy, a lick of paint could really spruce up things. OK, so they did do more than just paint the building, I give them that. It is a nice place to shop, with nice food court, though they don’t have carrot cake over there. Darn it.

OK, so back to Tesco. Since the opening of this new Tesco, I have yet to cross over to the island to or to the ones in Sungai Petani. That saved me some pretty pennies, I tell ya. You gotta save much considering the price of fuel, you know. OK, I’ll stop.

But anyway, whenever I go to Tesco’s, I would try to park over at Parents and Child/Baby/Toddler parking because it would be easier because I am minding a very rowdy child aka Tia on my own. It would be a challenge trying to find a parking over at these designated bays, especially if I were to go there during the weekends, or during late afternoon, because one would presume that those bays would be taken by parents with tots or young kids during those hours.

One thought wrong. Yes, I know, our mom’s had to cope without designated bays for parents when they raised us, and they had no problems whatsoever. That is not my main concern. My main concern is that the bays were used by thoughtless people. Oh, you know those kind.

Few instances like today. While I strapped Tia in her car seat, a man of undetermined age between 30-40, alone, driving a sedan, probably one of those Japanese models, slowly drive in the parking area, waiting for this car to pull out. Of course, he would have to park inside the parents and children parking bay. Was it raining, that he would want to park closer? It was bright and shiny. Did the parents and child/ren parking bays covered? Yes, so does the other 100 parking bays. Was he handicapped? Of course he was not. He was balding, but I doubt that could be considered a handicap, no?

Another instance of this thoughtlessness couple of weeks ago. A car parked right beside us, at the same location in Seberang Jaya. I was helping Tia out from her car seat, and did not pay them no mind. While walking with Tia to the entrance, the people parked beside me walked out from their car, and rushed inside. I was quite surprised, because not only there were no young kids around, they were not even pregnant, to boot. I would think that pregnant mothers would be entitled to these parking bays, since they would be having some difficulties moving around, etc etc. These two females ( I would not call these two ladies) looks to be around my age or younger, and I doubt that they could not understand English, if they did have any problem understanding Bahasa Malaysia, so what is it so hard for them to understand that those were not parking bays for them? They could be handicapped, as well as the guy that I mentioned before. Mentally handicapped, I would believe.

All was due to the fact that those designated parking bays were closer to the entrance than not. Of course nobody would expect Tesco’s management to police the parking bay, but why even bother when all Tom, Dick and Harry (not forgetting Jane!) could just drive in, no tots in sight, and just park right in? Why can’t Tesco Malaysia make do like what Tesco UK is doing-issuing a sticker for parents with young tots? Young kids under eight would be ok, I would believe. Some took their ten year old and park over at the bay, which I feel would be quite preposterous, don’t you think?

Tesco should do what ASDA is doing. ASDA had, starting this year, fining people who had parked over at these parking bays, and those money were channeled to charities, and not going back to ASDA. Though some question the legality, I think that is such an awesome idea. Read the story here .

Does it make me sound like I feel like I deserved special treatment? I don’t think so. But, I do feel that some people, young or old, should use their head before parking at some areas. They wouldn’t, after all, park at disable bay, now would they?

Do I feel that I am entitled to park there? Well, compared to those two instances, yes, I am definitely entitled for the space. And, I believe those spaces were for parents with tots, so heck yeah, I am entitled for it. Me and other parents with young kids, that is.