yournamehere

I ask this because I went to the grocery store today, saw someone pulling out of a good parking stall, and pulled in after they left. As I was turning off my car, I noticed a sign in front of me. At first, I thought they had added more handicapped parking spaces (which would have been a good idea - there are only 4 now - for a very large shopping plaza), but on closer inspection, I saw a cartoon drawing of a stork carrying a baby in a diaper sling, and the words "Reserved for Our Expectant Mothers."

It seems the store (a national chain) has started a new program for pregnant women to sign up in the pharmacy, and get a special parking sticker to park in these new parking spaces, which are adjacent to the handicapped spaces.

My take on this - and I know it's probably going to be an unpopular one - is that pregnancy is a voluntary, nondebilitating (for the most part) condition, and certainly not deserving of "special", closer parking stalls. I think this is a slap in the face to genuinely disabled people - to make light of the situation with cutesy little signs and all.

While I can certainly have sympathy for a woman schlepping groceries during our hot summer while in her third trimester, I think that on any given day, there are probably other people who are fighting the flu, or have a bad back, or have a cast on a leg (all <i>involuntarily</i>) who are every bit as deserving of those spaces as a pregnant woman.

What do you think?

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