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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think these people were selfish and rude.

415 replies

cakeoclock · 28/11/2011 14:50

The push chair v wheelchair on a bus just reminded me what happened this weekend.

I was christmas shopping with friends (one in a wheelchair) in Harvey Nicks Leeds and it was pretty busy. We stood waiting for the lift, the doors opened and it was rammed full of people (no push chairs). Not one of the miserable gits got out to make space for the wheelchair just looked away until the doors shut and we had to wait ages for another lift. There were escalators less than a minute walk from the lift.

AIBU to think that this is lazy, selfish and awful and to hope if any of you are reading you feel ashamed.

OP posts:
StealthPenguin · 28/11/2011 16:31

I wonder how many people would make use of an adapted car because they need a vehicle? Even if there is a used-car showroom right next door with cheaper cars.

Pendeen · 28/11/2011 16:31

oh damn this keypad. 3 is the 'management plan' :)

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 28/11/2011 16:31

I use the lift because I have problems with my knees, and can't climb/descend lots of stairs. I don't think I have ever been in the situation where I've been in a full lift and someone in a wheelchair or with a buggy has needed to get in, and has been unable to do so, so I can't say with absolute certainty what I'd do, but I hope I'd offer to get out so they could get on.

BUT I don't think there is any need for the nasty comments about 'lazy' people that have been made on this thread. You'd all undoubtedly judge me as lazy - and tell me that my laziness is why I am so overweight and have such problems with stairs - but would you say it to my face??

kelly2000 · 28/11/2011 16:32

Pictish,
So in your opinion nearly all people who cannot manage stairs are wheelchair bound, and anyone who is not in a wheelchair and does not use the stairs is a lazy bastard. Now that is discrimination against the disabled.

There is no reason why someone in a wheelchair is less able to wait for two minutes than someone not in a wheelchair. Rushing around telling people in wheelchairs they are obviously incapable of waiting two minutes is just patronizing. If someone had severe dyslexia, and was unable to buy things online I would not expect them to get pushed to the front of the queue in a shop on the basis that I could have go online and did not need to use the shop. On the other hand if soemone was aving problems standing, or were very elderly then I woudl offer them to go in front of me in the queue.

StealthPenguin · 28/11/2011 16:33

Pictish hasn't said anything about "If you're this, then this, if not, then this". She's talking about the majority. And she's got it bang on, IMO.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 28/11/2011 16:34

But the lift is the wheelchair user's only way to get between floors, kelly - I struggle with stairs, but they are still an option for me, and so are the elevators, so I am not constrained in the same way that a wheelchair user is. It's not about the time they spend waiting, it's about the fact that people who could use the stairs or elevators, are using the lifts instead, so the person who has no choice, is stuck waiting.

RealityIsADistantMemory · 28/11/2011 16:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

pictish · 28/11/2011 16:36

Might do - but I'd make an arse of myself wouldn't I?

But for every one person with an invisable disability using a lift, there are 100 genuine lazy bastards....so given that fact, I'd make an arse of myself and swallow it.
Besides, if I have ever said anything about it it is to a lift FULL of people....never to an individual, so I never worry about it, as most, if not all of them are lazy tossbags.

pictish · 28/11/2011 16:38

Kelly no - my opinion is the opposite. I am speaking out for those with invisable disabilites as well!
THEY should be able to get in a lift too!

People who don't need lifts, shouldn't use lifts.

dancingmustard · 28/11/2011 16:38

Ahhh for the over polite society that pats me on the head and allows me to go first.
Way to go to make me feel great about myself.

Neuromantic · 28/11/2011 16:40

None of those things mean you can't use an escalator instead of a lift! If you've been up all night with your baby you could have stayed at home, if you had enough energy to go out I'm sure you can manage 5 more steps to the escalator than the lift. Is that so hard?

Its really simple. IF you can use another route and don't, and are happy to watch someone in a wheelchair wait for anything between 2mins and half an hour or more, you are more than a lazy bastard.

RumpleForeskin · 28/11/2011 16:40

So you expect people to get out of the lift to make space for a wheelchair? Why couldn't the person in the wheelchair wait for the next lift...were their needs any greater than anyone else in the lift? Did she/he suffer medically for having to wait an additional 2 minutes? No I didn't think so.

There may have been people in the lift who couldn't use the escalator and until lifts become "blue badge operated" I don't really think anyone has relied upon you to tell them otherwise.

Neuromantic · 28/11/2011 16:42

FFS, read the thread or don't bother. So you stay in the lift on your fine legs, and the person in a wheelchair can wait for the next one. Well fine. What if the next one is full of people too? And the next, and the next one after that?
Answer me that one, genius.

RumpleForeskin · 28/11/2011 16:42

I'm due next week and I get in the lift if it's closer than the escalator and unless I'm breaking a law I'll continue to do so. It's also tremendous fun having a 20 month old on an escalator while due to go into labour any minute. Next time I shall bown and walk backwards to make space for someone in a wheel chair.

Groovee · 28/11/2011 16:43

I have fibromyagia. It means you can't see what's wrong but some days I can barely move my legs to walk and I use lifts. I don't need a wheelchair yet but I still sometimes need to use a lift.

kelly2000 · 28/11/2011 16:43

stealth and pictish,
How can she you claim that the majority of people who uses lifts can use stairs, especially those people who did not get out of the lift. You have no idea, and are just making an ignorant assumption. And if you call people names Pictish, it serves you right if you have to wait. Someone like you called my friend lazy once for not getting the stairs. If they had been nice and asked, she might have shown them her false leg, but this person felt it was fine to make assumptions about people based on how they at first appeared. And why do you feel you can call other people lazy, do you work 24/7 doing manual labour by any chance?

Just because someone is in a wheelchair does not make them incapable of waiting, and expecting other people to get out of the lift to save them two minutes of waiting is just wrong.

RumpleForeskin · 28/11/2011 16:43

By the by, if there's a fire and the wheelchair person is at the top of the building and you cannot use lifts, how on Earth do they get down?

Neuromantic · 28/11/2011 16:46

They rely on other people to carry them, or die. Hmm

The next person who says "two minutes waiting" gets the award for dimwit of the week.

I'd love to know where some of you people live that every single person in every lift has an invisible disability. You'd think that would get into the Daily Hate.

michglas · 28/11/2011 16:47

I get dirty looks if I am in a lift when pushchairs or wheelchair users are waiting for a lift. I will always take the stairs if there are some available, but I cannot use esculators due to it causing severe vertigo attacks.

dancingmustard · 28/11/2011 16:48

What do you do if the stairs are broke Hmm

Original poster
cakeoclock · 28/11/2011 16:48

My friend was once ina building with a small fire and was helped out by an employee in an evac chair that bumps down stairs. She said she had a bruised arse for weeks.

OP posts:
Neuromantic · 28/11/2011 16:49

How do stairs break then? Hmm

RumpleForeskin · 28/11/2011 16:50

It has never crossed my mind to wonder why people have the audacity to use a lift.

They're for anyone to use, no one has "rights" it isn't a blue badge parking bay it's a fucking lift...and for once it's no mans' land. Everyone gets dibs on it. Neuro, what about people with prams? If there is no space, there's no space. I wouldn't demand someone get out so I could get in...and a wheelchair is no different...

kelly2000 · 28/11/2011 16:50

Pictish,
so when you shout abuse at peopel using lifts you want, you ask them all why they are in lifts do you, then call them names? Or do you just assume that "the majority are lazy bastards"

neuromantic,
So on the one hand you are claiming people less able to use stairs and esculators should be able to chuck other people out of them, then next minute you are claiming that those less able to use them should stay at home. Nice!!
If someone has been waiting and waitign and cannot use the lift, then what is the problem with asking "excuse me I have been waiting for ten minutes, but all the lifts are full so my chair will not fit and I cannot use the stairs, would a couple of people mind getting out". People should nto just assume that everyone in the lift is a patronizing so and so who sees a wheelchair and thinks the person is less capable of waiting. people making that assumption are right up there with telling everyone how wonderful you are because you asked the person in the wheelchair how they took their tea, not their friend.

RumpleForeskin · 28/11/2011 16:50

There's another thread on my question about a fire, I hadn't seen it, but someone had literally thought the same thing as me at about the same time! So I shan't divert this one.