Disabled parking peeve

[Mishi]

Hubby and I have his nan's placard in our glove box as she normally goes shopping with us. We have gotten a few glares but no one has said anything to us yet. We don't use the handicapped space unless she is with us, but I can understand people thinking that we're abusing the placard as it's easier to manouver the kids out of the car in those spots.
It still gets to me that random stangers glare at us even though I have a 17 month old in one arm, and am stabilising Nan's step up onto the curb while hoping that I don't 'crash' tomorrow. (Nan gets dizzy randomly, has bad balance, stable non-healing fractures in her spine as well as osteoporosis AND osteoarthritis. Which is confusing the doctors.)

[tollbaby]

Back when my sister-in-law was pregnant with her first baby, we went shopping at Canadian Tire with my mom. My mom and I are both disabled, she has a handicapped pass for her car, I don't (I so rarely need it, I just don't bother). Well, all the handicapped spaces were taken, but there was a "pregnant moms" spot right next to them that was free. My SIL was seven months pregnant at the time, and I had the brilliant idea of directing my mom to park in the "pink" spot since the blue ones were all full.

The three of us get out of the car, and this lovely woman and her husband walk up to their SUV (which was parked in one of the handicapped spaces) and the husband yells over, "You know, these parking spaces are very closely monitored. Only pregnant women are allowed to park in those." The three of us look at him as if he's grown a second head, and my mother said, "my daughter IS pregnant.".... The two of them snicker and I turned around and mouthed off, "So basically, you don't think overweight women can be pregnant, is that it? Only skinny people have that right?"

My sister-in-law offered to pee on a stick for them. They shut up and sheepishly left after that. Incidentally - their disabled parking pass? Expired two years ago. *sigh*

(bit of after-the-fact back story... my sister-in-law is 5' tall and pushing 300 lbs. Even now that she's 8 1/2 months pregnant with her second, she doesn't look pregnant at all - and yet, babies keep popping out of her!)

[Mr. Anubite]

Just as a warning, because I know someone who got caught for this in a crackdown, you can get in trouble if you drop your mother off at the door and then park in the disabled spot because you're not going to be picking her up at the door. So if you're driving her there and then leaving, she should stay in the car with you until you park.

Really? We do that occasionaly if its raining or something. She doesn't mind the rain to much, so we can just wheel her from the spot, though.

[ArcticChicken]

(tempted to get it so I'd have it for really bad days, or the next time a flare sneaks up behind me and fries another nerve)

Do it, my dad's ex has MS, and she has handicapped plates, she just doesn't bother to use a handicapped space if she's having a good day.

[Erin]

I go to see my neuro friday (kept having to cancel appointments last month because I couldnt feel my feet to drive safely) so I think I'll download the paperwork tonight and fill it out and see if he'll sign it for me.

Thinking about getting the permanent plate with the extra hang tag for when I'm not in my own car. Since the MS is permanent, why not get a permanent handicap plate?

I'm not happy with this. Two months ago I could walk heel to toe on a curb and not fall off. Today at PT, I couldnt walk heel to toe while holding someone's hand. Kept falling over. Hope I dont ever get stopped by the cops, they'll think I'm drunk.

[Captain Trips]

As to the "I don't write a ticket until I've looked everywhere a placard could be" poster (apologies for the paraphrase), good for you. My wife has polio, has always had a handicapped placard - yet still used to get tickets all the time even with the placard hanging from the mirror. She finally gave in and got "DP" plates, so that when the officer is writing the ticket and gets to the "license plate number" field, (s)he will start by writing "DP..." and then go "Oh, shit! I can't write this ticket!"

We still have the placard, for when she's in someone else's car. But she has not gotten one ticket since getting the plate.

Oh, and there was the one time we were leaving a blue-spot and got chewed out by some woman with a wheelchair who parked in the "blue-striped" spot next to us. My wife's only comment was, "I guess now there are different levels of 'disabled'!"

[chainedbarista]

I hate people that abuse the privilege too, but do keep in mind the non-disabled driver may just be the chauffeur of a disabled person.

this i know; i'm referring to when the kid is driving his/her non-disabled buddies to the mall and back.

as for the invisible diseases, those tend to be more frightening than those you can see; i've heard some things about ms-i'm so sorry that you're going through this, erin.

when i see the car there, i don't think much about it, only when i see someone that is questionable (mostly the kids w/o a parent or family member) do i get a bit miffed.

[Lots42]

what irritates me more is when the family members abuse the priviledge; teenaged kids driving the vehicle, then parking in the space, who i seriously doubt are the person it's intended for (or any other family member).

walk your lazy asses.

Teenaged kids can be disabled.

[Erin]

as for the invisible diseases, those tend to be more frightening than those you can see; i've heard some things about ms-i'm so sorry that you're going through this, erin.

I've got the flare from hell going on right now. (started at the end of April)

I am so close to asking for the placard. (forgot to ask on friday when I saw my doctor) During the worst part of this flare, I couldnt drive because my feet were so numb I couldnt feel the clutch or the gas pedal. I had a bunch of steroids (IV and oral) and the numbness pretty much went away...for about two weeks. It's back now and I'm ready to start screaming. This time it's also in my hands.

It's interfering with my ability to crochet, knit and drive. Three of my favorite things. I'm pretty peeved about this. I'm even having problems typing because of numbness in my fingers. When the numbness came back, it brought the fatigue from hell. Now I understand why people with MS who can still walk get the handicap placards. I have to rest for five minutes just climbing the stairs to get a bottle of pop before I can go back downstairs.

If I get a placard and someone gives me a lot of crap about not being disabled enough, I'm going to use all my energy killing the person. When the police ask why I killed the person, I'll tell them that the person didnt understand how placards work. So, I educated them. (if they survive, they'll need that temporary placard for awhile...maybe then they'd understand)