Stan Horwitz wrote:

> In article
> >,
> Bobo Bonobo® > wrote:
>
>
>>On Mar 29, 8:20 pm, Sqwertz > wrote:
>>
>>>"Jean B." > wrote:
>>>
>>>>And her excuse: "I have
>>>>children in the car!" I was thinking of the wonderful
>>>>example she set for those children....
>>>
>>>And going even farther away from the OP:
>>>
>>>Our grocery chain has not only handicap parking spots (required by
>>>law, of course), but about 8 spaces near the front of the store for
>>>"Customers With Children".
>>>
>>>Those spaces should be a free for all, IMO. It's discriminatory,
>>>for one. OTOH, it's nice to have right at th thoroughfare to the
>>>store so that kids can open up their cars doors and bolt right into
>>>traffic before their parents can walk around to the other side of
>>>thew store to grab their hands.
>>>
>>>Second of all, my mother has children. What's to keep her from
>>>parking there? They may be 40+ years old and live in other states,
>>>but she is a customer with children.
>>>
>>>Third: It's a waste of 8 perfectly prime parking spaces weekdays
>>>from 8AM to 3PM.
>>>
>>>And for some reason, even the parents with children don't park
>>>there. Weird.
>>
>>Babies R Us always had spots near the door for expectant mothers.
>>That was nice. The children thing at the grocer is stupid.
>>
>>Now that my wife reads this NG, I'm going to have to start behaving
>>better. Fat chance.
>
>
> Why would an expectant mother need preferential parking? Most expectant
> mothers I have known were perfectly capable of walking to a store from
> any location in a parking lot and that includes a colleague of mine who
> is due next month who walks a few blocks to her car at work every day
> without a problem.

And that's great. But not every pregnancy is easy. I had horrible
sciatica in the third trimester with both of my pregnancies. Walking
more than a few steps felt like having lightning run to ground through
my right leg. I mostly tried not to shop at all - my husband really
stepped up - but when I absolutely had to, I was incredibly grateful for
things like preferential parking, and the option of having the bagger at
the grocery store help me load my purchases into the van.

Given that it's only a very few reserved slots, I prefer to err on the
side of compassion.