Sign up to our newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Sign up here! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A Bedfordshire mum's Facebook post making fun of workers painting over the parent and child parking bays to make them 'gender neutral' has gone viral.

Ema Taylor, 29, claimed that when she visited the Dunstable Aldi, she found two workers painting over the dress on the stick figure woman because they claimed it had offended non-binary people and dads.

The mum-of-three said she was initially concerned that they were removing the wide parent and child bays, which she relies on to get her children in and out of the car without damaging other vehicles.

(Image: Ema Taylor)

The worker reassured her that the parking spaces were there to stay but that the shop had gotten complaints about the stick figure sign.

Ema explained to Cambridgeshire Live: "He said, 'no, no we just have to alter the signs because there’s been some complaints that the stick people are wearing dresses, and it’s offending gender neutral people and also offending dads.

"I genuinely thought he was joking at first.

"I didn’t know anyone who would have the time to make a complaint about a stick person wearing a dress, but I saw that he wasn’t joking and thought it was hilarious. I took a picture of it and posted it on my Facebook."

(Image: Ema Taylor)

Aldi later explained that the sign was first painted incorrectly.

An Aldi spokesman said: "All parent and child car parking spaces at Aldi stores are gender-neutral. This sign was painted incorrectly and will be changed.”

Ema said she found the situation so funny because she couldn't imagine people wouldn't be able to understand that anyone with a child can park in the spot and not just women with children.

She said: "Without trying to be offensive to anyone, most people with half a brain cell would know that it doesn’t just mean that mothers can park there with children.

"It’s mothers, dads, grandparents, caregivers, guardians. Whoever you are, if you have a child you can park there because they’re there to make your life that little bit easier."

She added: "The people who complained about it not being gender neutral I wonder if they will complain about it looking like a superhero?"

Ema said she thinks people should remember that there are bigger problems in the world.

She said: "I don’t understand why the fact that it had a dress on really makes any difference.

"As I’ve said before the fact that there are people out there, children out there, stabbing each other to death daily, people dying on the streets, and then you’ve got people raising concerns to a shop about this, in fact making the shop paint over the sign, it’s just a waste of time and money to me to be honest with you."

The Facebook post, which she said was meant to be a joke with her friends, has gone viral.

It read: "The world has literally gone MAD!! So went to the shop today to be told I couldn't park in the parent space as they were painting it........painting the dress off the stick person because they need to be 'Gender neutral' as the dress is offending dads with children and people who do not identify as male or female?!

"REALLLYYYYYY!!

"If you are a dad and you don't park in the parent parking because they have a dress on unfriend me pleasseeeeee!! It's a joke!

"Second to that if you look at the new and 'improved' sign you will see that it now looks like a stick man with a cape on so if you don't identify as Superman you can't park there."

At the time of writing, the post had more than 10,000 reactions and had been shared more than 7,450 times.

One woman also laughed at the stick figure's superhero makeover, writing on the post: "Superhero and sidekick parking only apparently! Better than people that park there with invisible children I guess."

Another commenter agreed that people were being too sensitive.

She posted: "All this cr*p has just gone too far its actually ridiculous our future generations are going to be so god damm confused its a bloody sign on the floor get over yrselves bloody snowflakes xx."

(Image: Ema Taylor)

Another woman suggested that they should just mark the parking bay with a pushchair to avoid any confusion.

She said: "So really we can't win male or female they should just use a pushchair sign like they do with a wheel chair did they not think of that xx."

Ema summed up her take on the situation, saying: "At the end of the day we go around life too serious. What is life? Everyone’s got to have a laugh now and again, and I thought it was hilarious."