I disagree. Having wide spaces available to make it possible to get young kids in and out makes a huge difference. Trying to get a baby into a car seat with cars parked right next to you can be nearly impossible - so you may end up having to pull out of the space and block the car park whilst getting the kids in. The parent & child spaces needn't be right next to the store though; ideally they would be at an edge of the carpark with a pavement adjacent to them and minimal numbers of roadways to cross (helpful in keeping the kids out of the way of other cars, to everyone's benefit).
If nothing else, having wide spaces will stop the family in the people carrier that just parked next to you smacking your car doors with theirs as they try to get the kids out. That could also be taken as an argument for generally increasing the size of parking spaces - many of them still seem to be designed for mini drivers. A good idea in one car park near me is that there are two white lines separating the spaces, with few inches between them. That way, as long as everyone parks within their lines you can open your doors; you don't tend to get the problem where some drivers park right against the edge of their space effectively causing the adjacent one to be unusable.
Matt
