Parking Space for 'Female Only'

Going through the newspapers, I came across an article in the News Straits Times titled, ‘Parking it safe’. Usually I wouldn’t be interested in reading something like that; however the picture on the page caught my eyes.

We’ve seen common painted parking lots for ‘reserved’, ‘handicapped’ or ‘no parking’. When Ikano and Ikea came up, that was the first time I saw the ‘cars with children only’ painted bays. But this is different. The picture that caught my eyes was the parking bays at Cineleisure, Mutiara Damansara. There are parking bays painted, ‘Female Single Driver Only’. I raised both eyebrows. Now that’s something really good. I’ve not been to Cineleisure myself but I would assume that these bays are at the most conspicuously safe place for a single woman to park.

The short review also mentions about asking the security personnel to escort you to your car. Kudos! to shopping malls like 1 Utama and Mid Valley Megamall for these considerations made to protect women from certain weird predators prowling around.

Now I’m wondering. I’m not single but I’m a female driver. I have a kid who follows me around 24 hours, literally. At times I do have my doubts about going grocery shopping or to any shopping mall alone with my 1 and half year old kid; being that when I park my car, I have to bring our the stroller, arrange the bags in it and then take my kid out. It’s the same thing when I leave. Put the kid in the car, put the bags in, fold the stroller and put it back in the car. During moments like these, I wished I had eyes behind my head. Someone could easily come up behind me, shove me in the car or something and drive off. I’m usually not paranoid about things like that but I consider myself a pretty particular person when it comes to safety and the consequences; more so now that I have a kid with me.

So, I’m thinking, if the ‘Female Single Driver Only’ also applies to me when I have my kid with me? Or should there be ‘Single parent with kids’ painted bays at the malls.