Parking Law (Part I) – The Multi-Storey

Dads. The rule of thumb is this – ignore those easy spaces you see the moment you enter a multi-storey car park. Yes, they’re tempting, yes, there is loads of room for a forward or reverse park and it’s even well lit which probably means your motor is still going to be there when you return. Don’t do it. Walk on by. Or, more accurately, drive on by… it’s a false sense of security. What you absolutely must do is simply follow the signs for the exit. Once you’ve found that hallowed floor, and only then, should you be on the look out of a space.

You see, as you have already found out, shopping with a baby isn’t easy; you’ll avoid it if you can, but sometimes there’s no option. So the weekend comes around and you have decided to make a trip to the shops avec la famille as you’ve clearly established that the baby’s in a good mood – fed, watered, clean bum, everyone’s happy. The drive to the shops will be a pleasure and you’re both looking forward to the retail experience that beckons…

But with the best will in the world, something is very likely to go wrong within the first hour of shopping and that’s going to mean that your little angel is going to be kicking off about something or other, really soon. You’ll have hardly touched the list of things you were hoping to buy, but baby’s in a strop and there’s nothing you can do to make this experience any more pleasant, than to go home. It is at this point that you get to fight with the car park payment system, as your baby screams blue murder in her pushchair, and the challenge that is inserting a baby into a car seat when they most certainly do not want to be in the car seat is leaving you blue in the face - and then, to add insult to injury, you have to drive up a further fourteen floors, mostly stuck behind drivers trying to find a parking space themselves, before you can exit the car park and make your way home – do yourself a favour and have your car waiting as close to the exit barriers as humanly possible. This is the Zen of car parking.