To bemoan the lack of lift etiquette?

[Moulesfrites]

Just come back from a shopping trip with ds is push hair. Town was rammed and I must have spent over 20 mins in total either in lifts or waiting for them!

Why do people press all the buttons so the lift stops at every floor?

Why do people push in?

Why do people try to get in the lift before letting people out?

That is all.

[RainboweBrite]

Parents with pushchairs have the same right as anyone else to go shopping on Saturdays. That is all.

[StealthPenguin]

I wasn't trying to be ageist or sexist, but I honestly have not encountered a group of teenage boys, a group of middle-aged people or a group of men who, on having a buggy turn up wanting to go in the lift, wouldn't be nice and either step out or try desperately to make room whilst looking sheepish.

It really will be a group of teenage girls who will mutter, glare and generally be the most prickly and inconsiderate of people.

[Andrewofgg]

And without being ageist or sexist, it will ALWAYS be a gaggle of teenage girls!

My brain hurts . . .

[NoOnesGoingToEatYourEyes]

If you read all that and didn't lose the will to live, well done.

[NoOnesGoingToEatYourEyes]

"But why do people who don't have a pushchair, aren't elderly or disabled or carrying a heavy load need to use the lift anyway?
Answer: Because they are bone idle!"

Our local shopping centre has been designed with a multi storey car park on top which can only be accessed by certain lifts or some weird stairs that only go to certain levels.

The shops with lifts pay extra rent because they know people are forced to use them.

To get from the ground floor of the shopping centre to level four of the car park you need to use two or three different lifts in two or three different shops.

To get to the ground floor bus station from the ground floor of the shopping centre you have to go upstairs to the first floor and then back down to the ground floor in the only lift that goes to 'level 0' as they call it. This lift also goes up to level three of the car park if you want to use it to get to your car, then you have to get out and walk the length of the shopping centre to get the lift that goes one floor higher.

If you do find the stairs they take you to a part of the car park that is really far from the parking payment machine and then walk up or down the access ramp the cars are driving along.

In the shopping centre itself you do get more choice, but if you want to get back to your car you are held to ransom by Debenhams, who put Willie Wonka and his great glass elevator to shame.

So in our shopping centre, almost everyone has to use the lifts sooner or later because some stores are paying extra to make sure you have no choice (or face a long search for the stairs and a dicing with death moment on the car ramp).

[NinkyNonker]

[beachholiday]

The amusing part Ninky was that when the doors closed with them inside - still shouting- the lift must have gone the wrong direction for them both and as a couple of minutes later the lift returns, the doors opened again and there they both were again- still shouting. It certainly entertained the queue.

[LifeHope11]

I know it is a free country & there is no law against everyone using lifts but I DO WISH that able bodied people would avoid using them on Saturday afternoons and whenever it is busy, and leave them for disabled people, wheelchair and buggy users who absolutely rely on them. My DS is in a wheelchair & I regularly spend ages waiting for a lift to arrive (in a queue of other wheelchairs & buggies), when it finally arrives it is generally full of young fit people who flood out of it.

I think it is just considerate to use the escalators and stairs which we can't use, and to leave the lifts to us when it is busy And I have to shop on Saturdays as I have a job, disabled people & parents have rents/mortgages/bills just like everyone else.

[oldraver]

Two things that irritated me about lifts.. people with pushchairs that stand right up to the doors and in the middle then seem surprised when someone wants to come out and they have to move back. People who push pushchairs in forward then faff around trying to get out so that th doors almost close before anyone else can get out.... reverse in

[NinkyNonker]

I secretly love seeing that sort of thing, makes me snigger inside.

[beachholiday]

I witnessed the first incident of Lift Rage i had ever seen last week. 2 people collided getting in and both started yelling at the other. They obviously both felt it had to be "someone's fault" and a personal insult, there was no possibility, for them, of it just being an accident. It was aggressive enough and went on so long that those of us in the queue stayed well back and let them go off together still shouting.

[NinkyNonker]

Well, I don't think it is unreasonable to expect a little courtesy in circumstances such as this. When I am buggy free, which is most of the time, I have no issue using escalators instead, squeezing to make room for a buggy without tutting and eye rolling or waiting for the next one, holding doors etc. It is just common courtesy, why is it becoming so uncommon? When did we become so intolerant? Mothers/fathers are people too, as are babies. My sister sees my daughter once every 5 months in average, why should she not be able to to avoid a squeeze in a lift?

I often shop with my mother who is in a wheelchair, so I am well aware of the issues involved.

[Kladdkaka]

If there were no lifts, people who use buggies would find a way to manage. They'd use other means of transporting babies, they'd take the prams up the steps (very difficult I know, but not impossible), or they'd leave their babies with someone and go alone, or some other way of managing. It may not be an easy choice, but it is a choice.

[NinkyNonker]

But what choice Klad? I mean, I usually use a sling but pretty hard core morning sickness meant I couldn't hack the tying of something around my stomach. So I had to use the buggy, she is too young to walk everywhere. I was meeting someone for lunch who could only meet that day, the only restaurants were on the top floor, no ramps, just lifts or escalators. I could possibly have balanced her on the escalator, but I'm not hugely into huge unnecessary risks. So was my only other choice not to go at all?

[Moulesfrites]

Northerngirl it is my ds, he is 9mo so cannot stand. He weighs 23lb so cannot be carried everywhere all afternoon. As it happens I am still on mat leave but dh and I had to do some present shopping together and it is his day off. Anyway, not sure why I am justifying myself to you, but my point was about etiquette, and people showing some consideration for others in these situations.

I am not opposed to people using the lift who don't need to, but don't see why people would want to when it is much easier and quicker to use the stairs or escalator.

[bamboobutton]

my bit of bad lift etiquette witnessed in chapelfield mall yesterday: rough looking/baseball-cap-pointed-at-the-sky bloke arguing with a woman in a wheelchair before pushing in front of her and taking all the room in the lift with his ginormo buggy leaving her looking and her friend/carer stunned.

fucking wanker.

[ramblinrose]

I'm sorry that you had such a bad experience with lifts today.

[Kladdkaka]

But if you use a buggy, you do have a choice. Just like everyone else who doesn't have a disability.

[NinkyNonker]

It isn't, it just surprises me when people begrudge lift space to a buggy. Esp when right next door to an escalator that requires no more exertion and has a sign outside stating that priority is to be given to buggies and wheelchairs that have no other choice.

Thank fuck for slings and internet shopping.

[TidyDancer]

You will find idiots everywhere unfortunately, who will barge and push (etc).

Completely agree that anyone should be entitled to use a lift though. It's not an exclusive 'need' thing.

[troisgarcons]

I'll up your lift thing to the Tube .... just dont travel if you arent a regular commuter .... you get in everyones way and take up space!

[Kladdkaka]

I'm disabled (often invisibly so) and always use the lifts. It would never occur to me to begrudge ANYONE else using it. If it's full, I just wait the few nano-seconds for the next one. It's come as surprise to me on joining mumsnet that able bodied pram pushers look at me and label me a lazy fuckwit.

[StealthPenguin]

So you will happily say that to someone in a wheelchair who can't fit in because of the lazy fuckwits who don't want to take the stairs?

[Towndon]

I disagree. Lifts are for anyone who prefers to use them.

[StealthPenguin]

Apparently. Which is a shame, as it's my "family" time with DP. We walk around town, grab a coffee, check out GAME, pop into Ann Summers to have a giggle, get some lunch, check out GAME some more... It's great fun and it's our time together. And you can sod off if you think that I'm carrying my 4m-old DS everywhere - he weighs a frickin' tonne!

Lifts were put there for a reason. To help people who have buggies and who are in wheelchairs and who have mobility problems get around. It is not there so that lazyarse people can stand in a corner and glare.