Disabled Parking

There's a new TV show called "What Would You Do?" that turns Candid Camera on its ear. The premise is to create an awkward/uncomfortable social situation (with actors, natch) and then film the innocent passersby as they respond (or don't). One blurb I saw when the show first came out was of a pair of friends having lunch in a restaurant and 'catching' another friend's boyfriend having lunch with and kissing another woman. Does she confront? Does she tell? Her solution was to text the boyfriend that she saw him cheating, which I thought was a masterful stroke. Dude, there are eyes everywhere.

I don't watch the show, but briefly saw another ad a few days ago whilst fumbling for the TiVo remote. The ad was a blurblet about one of the "bits": obnoxious woman parks her BMW in a handicapped spot and then takes on a passerby who chastizes her for it. The ad has stayed with me, and here's why: *Every day* as I pull into the parking area at The Toddler's preschool, there is a person retrieving a (her?) child who parks in the one clearly marked disabled parking spot. Every day I get to watch her walk/jog/bounce down the pathway and scoop up the child into a big hug, then ambulate her non-disabled self back to her minivan and go.

The first time I saw it, there were no available non-disabled spaces, so I thought well, okay, for the 5 minutes you're inside... but that quickly faded as I watched this woman, day after day, pull into this spot when every single other space was open. I even check out her van for a disabled placard or license plate in the hopes I'm missing something.

Now I'm not a crusader or anything, but this really irks me. Never mind the fact that she's not disabled (unless insensitivity has been classed a disability). I was recently an uncomfortable pregnant person and could, many times, have really used the shorter walking distance of a disabled spot. In fact, I think that pregnant people should get a temporary placard. The monumental - and rapid - changes to the body during pregnancy certainly incapacitated me a few times. But, I never park in disabled spots because I'm not an asshole I have functioning legs and can walk unaided.

So every day, I think about how I can confront the issue. There's Confused: Just go up and say "really? you're disabled?" Or In-Your-Face: "Don't park there, beyotch!" Or Instructive: "Now I don't know if you know this but that's a DISABLED spot, you can't park there." Or Passive-Aggressive: leave a note on her car/ stick a "THIS MEANS YOU" note to the bottom of the sign/call the school and complain.

In the show blurb, the passerby confronts the BMW driver. I wish I had the chutzpah to do that.