to use a disabled toilet if I've got the buggy?

[MrsHelsBels74]

Pretty much as the thread title says, if you're out in public & need to loo but can't fit the buggy into a normal cubicle is it acceptable to take the buggy into the disabled toilet? I'd never use a disabled parking space but did this today in desperation. So, is it ok or still a no-no?

There are parents on here who have said they've managed it, so I know it's not physically impossible to manage a baby and do a wee. Also, what do you think parents used to do before accessible toilets? Managed!

Why can't the Mother with twins do what countless mothers before her have done, and wedge the door of the cubicle open with the pram, where she can see the pram and babies so they are safe, and she can have a wee at the same time.

Meanwhile the disabled person is able to use the ONLY toilet they can access.

Problem solved.

This thread has made me so angry.Children are a lifestyle choice,nobody chooses to be disabled.

Couthy - as I've stated numerous times, most toilets I've been in you can not fit the pram down to the cubicle as there's cubicles facing not far away. There's no room. What do you suggest then?

he idea that having a baby is in ANY way comparable to being UNABLE or UNSAFE to use the ladies loo is staggeringly breathtakingly entitled, to me
No-one is saying thats comparable. But couldn't you wait? Couldn't you wait a minute, just as you would if a disabled person was already in, so that baby didn't have to go on the floor or left alone?

I have been in both places. I have had an nt able bodied baby/child was a dodlle.
I managed to bring him up without ever having to use a disabled toilet. it is nit hard unless you make it.
now dd, severely disabled. that is not so easy.
she needs a large WC as I have to fit me/her and adult sized wheelchair.
so can't use a normal toilet.
TBH i think some of the posters on here just make it hard on themselves.
they just want everything their way and sod the disabled person.
greet way to bring a child up............not

I think ghost must be using some very odd toilets. I can't think of many where you couldn't fit a pram outside the door.

and no why should my dd wait??
she already can't use buses because the one wheelchair space always has a buggy in it.
now you want her toilet....

do you want her disability as well??

GhostShip - once and for all, IT'S NOT 'putting her children at risk', or no more than turning away from the pram at a checkout to pay the cashier.

It's just having to use a solution to a problem that the mothers find inconvenient. It IS inconvenient having to do a wee with the door wedged open so you can see your pram. But it's a hell of a lot LESS inconvenient for the mother than it is if the disabled toilet is in use by somebody able bodied when there IS no other solution to that problem, inconvenient or not.

There IS no solution to mobility problems, or epilepsy.

There IS a solution for the Mother.

What do people who need to use a 'disabled' toilet do if another disabled person is using it?

Perhaps if all toilets were just sensibly accessible then there would be no disable versus abled

If you want the 'perks' of being disabled, then take the bloody disability too!

I've been on both sides too as I stated earlier.
It's perfectly do-able without using the disabled loo.

So what about the tesco I mentioned earlier then, which has 2 doors in to the ladies loo, really close together, inaccessible for either a buggy or the baby in the trolley. Nobody has given me a solution, and I don't consider trying to hold a wriggly baby and doing a wee to be a solution.

Not once when I've come out of the disabled loo has there been anyone waiting to go in, not once. I think a bit of common sense is in order here.

I've already mentioned a lot of public toilets not having room to get a pram down to the cubicle, what do you suggest then mouthy.

Every one Ive been in is lined up like this

-
-

with no room to be leaving a pram down.

I can't believe you wouldn't be willing to wait. Honestly I can't. You'd have to wait for another disabled person, so why not this woman who would have to leave her baby otherwise?

couthy strangely they never accept, they just want all the benefits...
ffs if a mother can't cope for a couple of years and work round this without using a disabled facility.......well ??

There's no common sense on this thread nightowl, just frothing because someone DARES to use a disabled toilet, which I might add isn't in use.

I might complain to the tesco though, I'd really rather there was another toilet. I'm always concious of being thought to be selfish using it by people who may not know that it's my only option in that store.

In my case, Doris, if the disabled toilet is already in use, chances are that I will wet myself.

Because there IS only that one option.

If there was only the option of the disabled toilet, then able-bodied Mothers would have a fair point. But they DO have other options.

(Unless the baby change is in the disabled loos, then they don't have a choice, but that isn't their fault. They can just change the baby and get out and use the Ladies for themselves though, thus freeing up the disabled loo quicker though.)

The problem is if every mother did this there would be massive issues for disabled people.

Those using the "what if someone else disabled is using it" then you have to wait, no choice in the matter. No just going to another cubicle or waiting the few seconds until the next cubicle comes free like most of us can do.

But if someone who doesn't need the disabled toilet is using it, one person is waiting another comes along it makes the wait even worse.

Surely its not hard to leave the disabled facilities for those who are disabled?

I agree about the common sense...
it is needed.
so if you or your child is disabled......use the disabled toilet.
if you or your child are not disabled don't use the disabled toilet.

easy
anything after that is for the parent to figure out.

No-one is saying thats comparable. But couldn't you wait? Couldn't you wait a minute, just as you would if a disabled person was already in, so that baby didn't have to go on the floor or left alone?

Which illustrates perfectly how people don't have the slightest clue about what it's like to live with a disability. If you had experience of even 1% of the pain I endure in standing and waiting for a minute, you wouldn't need to ask such an entitled question.

Waiting because another disabled person needs it is an unavoidable endurance. It is very different than being in pain because of someone else's selfishness.

My Tesco has a separate baby changing room, separate disabled loo, and 3 cubicles in the Ladies. With enough space to fit two double prams by the sinks. OK you can't see the prams, but strangely enough, never once has there been even an attempted child abduction from there in the 8 years I've lived here.

With reference to the dual purpose baby change/disabled loo thing, there's a pub near me - Head of the River in Oxford, for interested pee-ers - which has a fold down changing top in one of the ladies' standard sized cubicles. Folds down sort of perpendicular to the toilet. Is pretty cool, although I am informed no such thing exists in the men's.

flaminNora to be honest I was talking about Couthy, who's disability she said was epilepsy.
Also, if you can't stand and wait for the public toilet, how did you get there? Sorry I really don't mean to be rude there, it's a genuine question.

couthy someone tried to abduct a child at my local asda, 3 years ago.

And has anybody noticed the trend with entrances to the loos, theres a door, then another door at a different angle, making it impossible to even get a pram to the outside of the sinks, never mind the cubicles.

Also, if you can't stand and wait for the public toilet, how did you get there? Sorry I really don't mean to be rude there, it's a genuine question.

Breathtaking ignorance there. Really.
Some responses on this thread show just how woefully ignorant too many people are of disability issues and hence why we will never get equality.

Also explains hostility to objections to Welfare Reform. You just don't get it. You never will.

I told you it was a genuine question.