DOING the weekly shopping can often be a stressful experience, but throw a few children into the mix when you're pounding the aisles and things automatically get a lot worse.
For many parents, even arriving at the supermarket and getting parked can be taxing.
Something as simple as getting a space can be the source of an astonishing level of fury especially from some drivers who think they are more entitled to a prime spot than others.
Just last week I witnessed an angry exchange between two women who had tried to capture the same parent and child parking space almost simultaneously in a supermarket car park.
While it may seem like a trivial matter for those without children, the availability and use of the coveted parent and child spaces is often a sore subject for many.
Designed with extra room around the car, the spaces offer shoppers with small children the chance to load both their offspring and shopping into the car with ease.
However, thanks to the generous room on offer and the fact they are usually located close to the store entrance - these particular spaces are often abused by lone shoppers looking to get in and out as quickly as possible.
One woman, so angered by the issue, has taken her rage to Westminster.
Aisling Surguy from Buckinghamshire is calling on her MP to support her campaign to introduce disabled-badge style parking permits for parents with children aged up to five years.
She is using a petition website, GoPetition, to ask Conservative MP David Lidington to raise the issue in the Commons and has listed the petition in the 'Children's Rights' category of the site.
Her view is that, ``when a baby is born, you should send their birth certificate off and receive a permit that expires when the child is five years old, to be able to park in a baby parking space, just like a disabled badge.''
Ms Surguy says it is ``extremely hard for parents with small children to often get in and out of normal parking spaces, and it's frustrating when people use the baby spaces when they have no children on board.''
I have to say I fully understand her concerns. I have faced the drama of negotiating a screaming baby on one hip and keeping hold of a runaway toddler while dragging a bored older sibling along and balancing half a dozen shopping bags as I walked back to my non-priority parking space past non-parents hogging the coveted spots.
Yes, I have had that anger, I've given those glaring looks and I've ranted that it's just not fair.
But is she not taking taking the need for these spaces just a little too far? She sounds like she actually believes that having a child in your car is akin to being a disabled motorist.
In my experience, the abuse of these particular parking spaces is based on a few factors, with the weather being the most common excuse for non-parents hijacking the spots.
As soon as the heavens open, the number of people without kids in tow using spaces reserved for parents and their little ones shoots up.
Then there's the Top Gear-types who don't want a car door jammed into their shiny new vehicles and feel it's ok to park in a parent and child space.
And what about those people often with no children at all, who simply don't want to have to walk those few extra feet with their shopping bags.
While I still question what gives certain individuals the right to think they can take a parent and child space, at the end of the day - it's only a spot to park the car.
People need to realise that just because they gave birth doesn't mean they are entitled to a space and accept it's not that tough to walk across the supermarket car park juggling the kids and the shopping.
And for those non-parents out there, while I don't believe it's a legal issue for Westminster to debate, just spare a thought for others the next time you are parking up.
