As a father of three, I perfectly understand how difficult it is for pregnant women (damn, what am I saying now - I don’t get anything, only another pregnant woman can fully understand a pregnant woman!), and how important various urban utilities really are for them, as well as for the new moms.
Special queues in supermarkets, separate, more convenient parking spots located closer to the entrance - all these little things make life much easier for expectant mothers... although, unfortunately, not all people can understand this, and not everyone can accept it either. And this story from the user u/QuailPuzzled1286 is more proof of that.
The author of the post is an expecting mom and she once went shopping at the local grocery store
Image credits: Nayuki (not the actual)
The author expected to park her car in one of the dedicated parking spots but things, alas, went another way
Image credits: QuailPuzzled1286
A posh Lexus was ahead of the author's car and it parked right in the mom-to-be's spot
Image credits: Rik Williams (not the actual photo)
Image credits: QuailPuzzled1286
To the woman's indignation, she saw that the Lexus driver was just an elderly woman - not pregnant at all
Image credits: Tony Alter (not the actual photo)
Image credits: QuailPuzzled1286
A quarrel arose and then the elderly woman lashed out at the author, not mincing words
Image credits: Blue moon in her eyes (not the actual photo)
Image credits: QuailPuzzled1286
However, the bystanders unanimously sided with the pregnant woman and the offender finally drove away
So, the Original Poster (OP) says that she lives in a small town in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, and one day she went to the local Loblaws store to do some shopping. The author of the post is in her seventh month of pregnancy, so she is very happy that there are special spots for pregnant women in the parking lot near the store - and she expected to take one of these spots. However, the woman's expectations were not destined to come true...
Already at the entrance to the parking lot, a lavish Lexus was ahead of the OP’s car, and it headed exactly to that parking spot, appropriately marked, which the author of the post had chosen for herself in advance. Well, perhaps another expectant mom was driving the Lexus, the author probably thought to herself, and parked a little further away, in a standard spot.
Both drivers got out of their cars almost at the same time - and the original poster was very surprised to see that the owner of the Lexus was a woman in her mid-60s, and most likely not an expecting mom at all. Seeing the OP, she laughed and said: "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize!" At that moment, the author, in her own words, could not restrain herself - on the one hand, resentment, on the other, hormones - so she coldly retorted: "You're obviously not that sorry, since you parked in a spot you shouldn't have!"
It would seem that the conflict is settled, wouldn't it? No way! As if by a wave of a hand, the owner of the Lexus had all her civility washed away, and she lashed out at the original poster, mincing no words at all, and the general meaning of her screams was that the original poster wasn't entitled to that spot either.
The author of the post sincerely admits that under the pressure of such aggression she simply burst into tears, however, almost all the bystanders unanimously stood up for her, stating to the offender that she definitely has no right to park there, and that she's way out of line. Moreover, one of the men called a spade a spade, dubbing the elderly woman "a Karen." Apparently, the offender, not expecting such a backlash, went back to her Lexus and drove away, and the original poster decided to share this story, admitting that at that moment it was just scary.
Image credits: yeskefo (not the actual photo)
"What can I say other than that the elderly woman in this situation has literally made every communication mistake she could possibly make?" rhetorically wonders Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment on this situation. "Yes, this expecting mom's remark was quite sarcastic - but, in the end, seeing her mistake, the Lexus driver could offer to swap parking spots. That would be appropriate."
"In any case, if you do not have the right to park in mom-to-be's spots, then it does not matter who is driving behind you - a pregnant woman, a mother of two, or even a man - all this does not matter, because you by default aren't entitled to this spot. Period. And all the other lines and further behavior from the elderly woman are pure entitlement as is. Let's hope this story serves as a lesson to her," Irina says.
As for the people in the comments, they burn with indignation at the behavior of the owner of the Lexus and, of course, fully support the original poster. “People don’t apologize when they are obviously in the wrong anymore, they double down and make it somehow your fault, people have no accountability anymore at all,” one of the commenters summarized.
Sadly, many commenters also brought up similar stories of their own, and not all of them ended with the same wave of popular support as this one. In any case, according to folks in the comments, the author of the post did exactly the right thing by venting her emotions. And what do you, our dear readers, think about this situation?
People in the comments massively supported the mom-to-be as well, also telling lots of similar stories
