My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

AIBU?

To think that all the people who say "fold your buggy" are being a bit daft?

317 replies

Pyjamaramadrama · 02/05/2015 16:56

I regularly read threads on here about buggies on buses and they get quite heated.

The consensus seems to be that buggies should be folded.

Before anyone says anything I absolutely think that wheelchair users and other disabilities need to take priority for obvious reasons.

However the type of prams for newborns would be nearly impossible for a parent on their own to fold while holding a baby and possibly shopping etc. it's much easier with a toddler who can stand and a stroller which can be easily folded. But you simply cannot put a newborn in a stroller. I'm pregnant with #2 and I've searched for the most compact, easy to fold pram, but I still wouldn't fancy trying to board a bus with a floppy newborn while trying to fold pram and negotiate my bags.

Lucky for me I drive but I can remember being in the predicament with my firstborn of having to get the bus on older style buses and I simply couldn't do it, I had a lie flat pram where the pram needed to be removed to fold the chassis, packs of nappies and formula and newborn ds, I had no Internet access at the time so no online shopping and I ended up in tears once trying to board a bus and dropping everything and the driver and passengers just staring at me.

Also perhaps it is just where I live but all the new buses now have buggy and wheelchair zones so there is room for everyone most of the time.

As I'll say again wheelchair users do come first as ultimately a parent could probably walk if necessary, but why do some people seem to be so against anything which makes new parents lives easier? Maybe they've forgotten what it's like or haven't had to manage the bus alone with newborn.

Oh and my parents and grandparents reckon it was a nightmare with the old buses before buggy zones as they simply couldn't board the bus with a pram.

OP posts:
Icimoi · 02/05/2015 17:00

If you're travelling by bus, the answer is to have a cheap and cheerful easily foldable buggy for bus journeys.

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/05/2015 17:01

Travelling on a bus with a pram and a newborn is shitty. I get that some people swan around breezily but I didn't; 9lb baby and a c-section and a bad back. 'Just use a sling' is great but I couldn't. Sympathy, compassion and patience is required.

Having said that, the needs of a person using a wheelchair come ahead of any inconvenience to me.

I think people lose sight of the first point arguing the second. Just because a person who needs the space more than me needs it, doesn't mean it's not crap for me to fold the bastard pram up.

WorraLiberty · 02/05/2015 17:02

How many of the endless threads on this subject, involve a newborn though?

Not many.

MyLonelyChestHair · 02/05/2015 17:02

Most bus companies have it in their small print that non folding prams shouldn't be on anyway. So these big beasts with two parts are already acknowledged as not bus friendly. Slings and folding buggies are the way forwards.

Sahkoora · 02/05/2015 17:03

YANBU. It takes me 25mins to get the pram, both DSes and bags into the back of my car. I have to park down the road from my house as there's a shop underneath us and their customers use our drive all the time so I often can't park outside my house.

There's no way a bus driver would wait while I farted around with all that, and no one would help. Before I could drive I walked everywhere. I've had loads of prams and buggies over the course of 3DSes and have yet to find one I could genuinely do with one hand while holding a baby.

Agree that wheelchairs should take priority, but "just fold" is way over simplifying what is involved.

catgirl1976 · 02/05/2015 17:03

YANBU

It would have been a major pain in the arse to have ever had to fold my buggy.

Of course I totally would if a wheelchair user needed the space, but I'm thankful I've never had to do it when DS was buggy age, even though we took quite a lot of buses.

Pyjamaramadrama · 02/05/2015 17:04

Icimoi, did you read my op?

I don't believe that there are really any easily foldable buggies that are suitable for newborns. They generally need lie flat prams for the first few months.

I simply cannot see how a parent alone could hold a small baby, fold a pram and negotiate shopping.

OP posts:
AtiaoftheJulii · 02/05/2015 17:04

Low buses with wheelchair/buggy areas only came in around 17 years ago (in my area anyway, I was pregnant with #2), so what do you think people did before then?

Sirzy · 02/05/2015 17:06

If you know you will be most likely using public transport then you pick a pram that can be folded. You ask people on the bus for help. Surely being prepared is the key?

BertieBotts · 02/05/2015 17:06

I had one I could fold from newborn. It was a one handed fold and I could do it while holding the baby in one arm, if I'd had to. It took up a fair bit of space when folded - I certainly couldn't have then carried it one handed - but it was alright.

littleducks · 02/05/2015 17:07

I had a McClaren techno xt (nearly 10 years old and going strong). It was one handed umbellas fold and lay flat so suitable from birth. Comfortable with a sheepskin liner.

I have also used a Phil and teds double when I had two. This was trickier to fold but had a handled soft carrycot thing so you could lift baby out without disturbing then to fold. I could do that with baby and toddler. I think you soon get a routine and used to it if you need to

MissBattleaxe · 02/05/2015 17:07

I totally agree. I do not for a minute dispute the right of people with disabilities to have priority, but I often think that mothers get overlooked. They count as passengers too. Ideally there would be provision for disabled people that is always kept free for them, and some sort of helpful room or space or facility for stressy mothers with bags and babies. Never the twain shall meet.

Sadly though, its not usually possible. Disabled people get fewer choices and provision should always be made for them, no argument there at all, but that doesn't mean that a stressed out mum with bags of shopping couldn't do with a helping hand now and then.

ThingummyJigg · 02/05/2015 17:09

Where do you put the buggy though, when it's folded? There's a crappy shelf it would likely fly out of, if the shelf isn't full of someone's shopping (on the buses here, anyway) or you have to hang on to it, and the baby/toddler so it doesn't get nicked (ditto).

yyy wheelchair users have priority etc., but I agree, "just fold the buggy" isn't always that simple, and also not everyone can afford 2 buggies, or to sell their bigger, more comfortable buggy with a big tray, for a ditsy little umbrella of a thing with enough storage underneath for a nappy and a single bumwipe

I think most of the time, if a wheelchair user came onto the bus, I would wheel off it and catch the next one, rather than wrestle with shopping/toddler/bags etc. Folding it would be more of a PITA.

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/05/2015 17:09

But a lot of the good, folding, lie flat prams costs hundreds. You could buy a car for that and not need one. Not everyone can afford that.

Pyjamaramadrama · 02/05/2015 17:09

I don't know Worra but I know with ds1 I switched to a stroller at my earliest opportunity. People can call the prams monstrosities but what is the alternative for small babies?

I don't get all the arguments over the space being for a wheelchair either. In this city we have buses at the front there is a clearly marked wheelchair zone, a clearly marked buggy zone, and foldable seats clearly marked as 'for elderly or parents with heavy shopping'. Is there only one space on buses in other cities?

I just think people really lack empathy.

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 02/05/2015 17:10

I used to wedge it in between the seats.

expatinscotland · 02/05/2015 17:10

I think the fucking things should be banned entirely on buses if they are not folded. It's not a disability.

tethersend · 02/05/2015 17:11

Agree, OP.

I'm not sure why some people seem actively against having designated buggy spaces on buses. I don't see how they're anything but A Very Good Thing.

ThingummyJigg · 02/05/2015 17:12

tbh, the biggest problem in the folding down scenario on my local buses, is that there isn't room to swing a hamster after everyone has got on and stood there like a lemon, unaware there is a fUCKING UPSTAIRS! [separate rant]

MarvellousMarbles · 02/05/2015 17:12

Never the twain shall meet.

Plenty of disabled mothers (and fathers) out there, you know. Disabled people don't fit neatly into a single category.

Pyjamaramadrama · 02/05/2015 17:13

Atia, as I said in my op, they bloody well struggled. My mum simply wouldn't have been able to get on the bus with small babies, she also wouldn't have had the option of picking which pram she wanted as she was skint and was given a pram.

But just because people struggled years ago I fail to see why some people are so against things that make people's lives easier.

OP posts:
DrankSangriaInThePark · 02/05/2015 17:13

Any poster on this topic who says 'I absolutely agree that wheelchairs etc etc BUT.. ..' is being U.
And what expat said.

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

HagOtheNorth · 02/05/2015 17:14

'I just think people really lack empathy.'

You are right. If there wasn't a significant number of parents with young children who lacked empathy for others, folding or not wouldn't be an issue.
Because the buggies would be folded when necessary.

Sahkoora · 02/05/2015 17:15

That's a good point about where you put it once it's folded. I haven't owned a pushchair or a pram that you can manhandle onto a rack with one hand either. I am not strong and quite small, but a bus driver waits for no one in my experience. On the rare occasions I had to use buses I dreaded the buggy bit being full.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 02/05/2015 17:15

YABU - they're not being a bit daft at all.

Depends on what you have of course but my pram for DS1 was part of a travel system, so I could quite easily (not one handedly, but still quite easily) remove him in his carseat part, place him on the floor/seat in that and then fold down the pram part. It's not the smallest thing in the world, but certainly do-able.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.