Parking in the Handicap Spot

[Anonymous]

People suck. I remember reading a story about a woman with MS who purposely brings her cane so people don't give her grief about parking in a handicapped spot. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Not all disabilities are visible. I wish I/we didn't have to park here. Thank you for your concern." *Smile* then get on with your day.

(Unfortunately, I have to use this often, but it seems to disarm people.)

This is a PERFECT response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Not all disabilities are visible. I wish I/we didn't have to park here. Thank you for your concern." *Smile* then get on with your day.

(Unfortunately, I have to use this often, but it seems to disarm people.)

This is a PERFECT response.

I agree. This is a perfect response.

You have to understand, OP, that there is a good deal of misuse of handicapped placards. Police definitely crack down on it when they know it is happening, but it is a problem. There have been several “investigative reports” on this in recent years.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Thousands-of-Drivers-in-DC-Suburbs-Caught-Misusing-Handicapped-Parking-Placards-286035961.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't engage these people.

+1! Strangers who think they can comment to you are nuts at best and at worst potentially dangerous. Just drive away and put them out of your mind. Focus on SN child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I totally agree that it is not worth engaging with these type of people. And FWIW being in a wheelchair doesn't always stop them. Last summer we took my daughter who has severe disabilities and uses a wheelchair to her first movie. We were in a partially covered lot that had maybe 15 handicapped spots and we took the last one available. It also happened to be the farthest from the entrance to the retail/movie area. As I was unloading my daughter's chair, a car pulled alongside me and the passenger rudely asked if I knew I was in a handicapped spot. I indicated that I did and pointed to our hanging tag. They sped off in a huff. Then as we were walking through the breezeway to the theater, the passenger, who happened to be an old morbidly obese woman, was standing there smoking a cigarette with her walker. She then proceeded to make all sorts of rude comments about how able bodied people shouldn't be allowed to use handicapped spots and a bunch of stuff about the entitlement of younger generations. I just bit my tongue and walked on by (while pushing my daughter in her wheelchair surrounded by all sorts of medical equipment such as a feeding pump and suction machine). I'm still bitter that what should have been a happy family experience started off with so much negativity. And trust me all sorts of retorts including my daughter was born this way and didn't make a bunch of shitty lifestyle choices that led to her disability you old hag! Even now, I'm glad that I took the high road because there wasn't any good to come of engaging with such people. OP - I hope something great happens for you today to balance out a crappy start!

This individual sounds as though she could be mentally unstable. I am sorry that you and OP have to deal with that sort of negative reaction. I think pps ave offered several great responses, including no response at all; the latter might be my favorite.

[Anonymous]

Why is this guy always sitting on the bench outside?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to answer questions, just say "Have a nice day!"

This or thank you for your concern.

[Anonymous]

So sorry OP. This used to happen to my friend with cystic fibrosis. It made me furious!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Not all disabilities are visible. I wish I/we didn't have to park here. Thank you for your concern." *Smile* then get on with your day.

(Unfortunately, I have to use this often, but it seems to disarm people.)

This is better. Unfortunately I think your explanation is interpretable in many ways...like I have this placard so I can do it, not necessarily we need it because one one in this car had a perhaps invisible disability. I say this because misuse of such placards is absolutely rampant in DC. For example, I broke my foot and they gave me a placard for HC Parking good for 5 years. I didn't use it once I was better but many people might. So if you are charitable about his inte soon (trying to protect the spot for those who need it), educating him that not all disabilities are visible makes more sense to me. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

I saw this on the Yahoo news feed and thought of OP http://news.yahoo.com/see-disabled-army-vets-perfect-response-after-113340501.html . In short, an asshole, like the one that accosted OP, left a nasty note for a disabled vet that he didn't look handicapped, a placard wasn't displayed indicating he was authorized to use a HC spot and that he'd taken a photo of the vet's license plate and sent it to the police. The license plate had imprinted on it "Disabled Veteran US Armed Forces". When that's on your plate, you don't have to have a placard. Asshole.

[Anonymous]

I've actually had disabled vets (from their bumper stickerage) make nasty cracks about me getting my disabled child out of our car and our handicapped placard. I can understand that they are mad at the world but targeting and frightening a child is unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

My sister with a down's syndrome kid gets rude comments all the time about why she wasn't aborted and didn't she do pre-natal screenings? People are just rude OP. I am sorry. I would just say to the person..."oh I hope you don't ever need a handicap spot because you'll find you will have to deal with rude people such as yourself"...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've actually had disabled vets (from their bumper stickerage) make nasty cracks about me getting my disabled child out of our car and our handicapped placard. I can understand that they are mad at the world but targeting and frightening a child is unacceptable.

I assume they're mentally ill. No other way to explain it. Hugs.