Today I went to the supermarket. It was raining and the parking lot was packed, except for the three handicapped spaces and two other spaces right next to the front door. However, those two other spaces were reserved with a big red sign for customers with infants.
I deserve to park here
Wait a second, I thought. I used to shop at this store all the time when I had infants. I was lousy with infants and there was never reserved parking or shopping carts with built-in baby seats or candy-free check-out lines.
I felt like I had a right to park there. I felt like I had already paid for the privilege of using that space fifteen years ago when I would schlep across that parking lot with a screaming baby in the 50-pound Rock ‘n Ride infant seat and a toddler in a backpack. Yeah, I deserve to park in that space.
But I didn’t.
1 Comment
June 18, 2009 at 4:39 am
Thanks for NOT parking there, Carol. I can’t tell you the amount of times I went to the store with my son in his heavy-and-bulky car seat, only to see able-bodied folks, with nary a indication that they had ever reproduced visible in their cars (yes, I peeked), zip into that oh-so-convenient space because “they were just running in for a few things”. And they couldn’t understand why I was maybe a little irked. *sigh*