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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

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

800 replies

MrsHelsBels74 · 23/11/2012 12:28

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?

OP posts:
Sirzy · 23/11/2012 22:19

What do you think disabled people do, hide away all day in the house or something?

People have to fight on sometimes but that doesn't mean that we can make it even harder than it already is for them.

GhostShip · 23/11/2012 22:22

No... but if it hurts to wait for a toilet (i'm not talking about continence issues) how has she managed to get to the toilet?

if you had experience of even 1% of the pain I endure in standing and waiting for a minute

SirBoobAlot · 23/11/2012 22:24

I can understand why people do it. Think the bigger issue is that the changing room / female / disabled loo is often the same one Confused

I'm disabled, and also have a buggy so can see both sides of this. As a disabled person (with bowel and bladder issues that are getting worse) I get very frustrated when people use disabled toilets because of buggies (though worse is the idiots using them as a changing room Angry). On the other hand, I have found very few toilets where you can get a buggy in, or even just near to, the toilet.

LilyRosa · 23/11/2012 22:25

not being unreasonable at all.

they are loos adapted so that people with disabilities can use them - doesnt mean they cant be used by other people as long as others are considerate.

GhostShip · 23/11/2012 22:25

There is absolutist no need for someone to use them as a sodding changing room, thats terrible.

Glitterknickaz · 23/11/2012 22:25

I can't speak for others, as people with disabilities are not a generic mass.
For example I know my hips which are showing signs of arthritis are far more painful when stationary - standing or sitting - than when in movement.

threesocksmorgan · 23/11/2012 22:27

really!!!
did someone really ask that??
really??

FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda · 23/11/2012 22:29

No... but if it hurts to wait for a toilet (i'm not talking about continence issues) how has she managed to get to the toilet?

Huh? I shuffle along with my walking frame. Confused

threesocksmorgan · 23/11/2012 22:30

are some people really that thick?

MrsDeVere · 23/11/2012 22:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ZebraOwl · 23/11/2012 22:32

Doubtless by the time this posts this will have crossed with 74 other people or Mumsnet will have had to delete for disablism. (Incidentally, epic win for that being in the guidelines...)

It can be tricky. I am a cardcarrying cripple disabled, but, like lots of other people with disabilities, have (hugenormous) variations in functional ability. If I am able to cope with using the ladies I will do so because I am only too well aware of how frustrating it is to have to wait for someone[s] who think it's fine to use the disabled loo because they don't fancy the queue for the ladies. I also once ended up having a rant (whilst waving my Blue Badge in a slightly Leninesque fashion, it must have looked awesome...) at two olderish (prolly in their 60s) women who were pass-agg-ing at me in the queue (yes, queue!) for the disabled loo at Sadler's Wells. I'd got to the loo at the same time as a guy in his chair (with his carer) who I sent in ahead of me as I knew I could hold & he was looking a bit desperate. He was in there a while & they were sniping away at me. Eventually one of them said "you do know this is the disabled toilet, don't you?" and I'm afraid I snapped; and, grabbing my Blue Badge from my rucksack to brandish at them, went into a bit of a tirade about how yes I DID know and I really DID need to use it because I needed the grab rails & easy to use taps & sorry but I was going to be a while because my dislocating fingers were going to make getting necessary clothing off/on tricky and I did hope that THEIR disabilities weren't going to cause them to become incontinent while they waited. I figured I was fairly safe given their queue-ramblings had revealed that one of them had "a poorly foot" & the other was with her for moral support. They looked a bit ashamed and muttered about how it wasn't OBVIOUS I was disabled and if they'd KNOWN (etc...)

Have only once been waved to the front of a queue for a disabled loo. It was at G.UK's Centenary Launch Party at Crystal Palace & several Guiders INSISTED I had to go in & use the (delightful) disabled portaloo first. I actually felt really guilty because the Brownie waiting was doing the Need A Wee dance & she got shouted at by a cross!Guider for even thinking of using the disabled loo. I was really rather Blush I have, however, had people attempt to shove in front of me to get into the disabled loo because there's a big queue in the ladies & their child(ren) can't wait. Uh-huh...

The biggest issue is the fact that in so many places the baby-change facilities are in the disabled loo. As (at least one) someone else has said, is the thing not for Mumsnet to use its powers for good & get a campaign going to improve toilet facilities for [people with] small children?

Of course, there will also be wee people in buggies who are disabled & need to use the disabled loo, but you'd not be able to tell that Just By Looking. Like my niecelet, fr'example. And obviously there are parents with disabilities who'll need to use the disabled loo, too. I just have a sneaking suspicion that's not generally the case...

I think there's nothing wrong with diving into a disabled loo in an emergency (e.g. about to be sick & other loos Too Far To Make It) and if that's the only place there's a babychange of course you'll have to use it, but I think doing is As A Matter Of Course is Not On.

SirBoobAlot · 23/11/2012 22:33

Another one with pain that is worse when stationary here. And when stationary and needing the loo, agony.

Moving is painful too, but when I stand still my legs start to give, my joints start to sieze up, my hips start to go in to spasm almost.

Disabilities are not just purely mobility orientated.

GhostShip · 23/11/2012 22:33

I'm not even going to say what i was going to say, because obviously I'm not allowed to say anything to a disabled person or ask them questions. I would have thought waiting for the toilet would have been the same as getting to the toilet, if not for continence issues

No MrsDeVere as I'm sure you know that was an urban myth, was it not?

GhostShip · 23/11/2012 22:35

I do apologise if I've caused offence, but the way it was worded just made me think if it hurts that much..

f you had experience of even 1% of the pain I endure in standing and waiting for a minute

CheshireDing · 23/11/2012 22:36

YANBU

I have always wondered this. If DD is in her pram there is no way I would shut the cubicle door and leave her outside by the sinks and she cannot stand up on her own to come in to the cubicle with me.

whathasthecatdonenow · 23/11/2012 22:37

It is so depressing that people still see those with disabilities as an inconvenience to their busy lives. You want access to the disabled loo then live with the pain, indignity, hate crime, and condescension on a daily basis. Having a child is nothing like having a disability and to suggest it compares is just breath-taking ignorance.

GhostShip · 23/11/2012 22:39

No one is actually comparing it. They're just saying when the toilet is not in use, it would be nice if the woman with child would be able to use it so as not to leave her child outside or try to cling on to it for dear life.

SirBoobAlot · 23/11/2012 22:40

Ghost your question wouldn't have pissed people off as much if you had worded it better. You sound not only skeptical but patronizing.

DayShiftDoris · 23/11/2012 22:40

Couthy

In your local Tesco there is that facility but that does not mean that the facilities are equal across the UK!

And actually what I am saying if more thought was given to EVERYTHING then there would be no issues... It should be less about 'disabled' toilets and facilities being accessible to more.

After all I was in a wheelchair for 2 months but at no point did I have the label 'disabled' and as such should I have not used disabled toilets? When I was on my feet but still struggling was that lady right to tut at my use of a 'disabled' toilet?

Why did I need to advertise my medical issues by using a toilet with a picture of wheelchair on the front? Why the hell can't facilities and for the matter people just be a little bit more accessible and make adjustments that suit more of our society?

All that is needed is some thought for all... after all the local tesco probably rarely sees huge queues for the loos so why not bigger, spacier facilities with handrails on all the toilets and some cubicles with higher-ed loos? You could go from 3 cubicles that only able bodied people with no babies in buggies can use to 2 single loos that anyone can use - mobility issues or not

Glitterknickaz · 23/11/2012 22:41

don't forget ignorant and sneering

FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda · 23/11/2012 22:41

I do apologise if I've caused offence, but the way it was worded just made me think if it hurts that much..

if it hurts that much ... what? That I shouldn't go out and try to do things other people take for granted? That I should stay indoors until it isn't so painful, ie the 12th of never? That I should use a wheelchair and give up the tiny bit of independent mobility I have? What are you suggesting/implying?

CheshireDing · 23/11/2012 22:42

What is supposed to happen to Dad then though when he is on his own with a child? Surely the child in the pram does not have to sit watching men at the urinals?

Not having a go at anyone but genuine questions as I have been wondering since having pfb.

GhostShip · 23/11/2012 22:42

No flaming I never said that at all. Your words, not mine. But I assume you never go into a queue in a shop either?

GhostShip · 23/11/2012 22:43

sirboobalot point taken, I'm not sure how else I could have worded it though.

GhostShip · 23/11/2012 22:44

Glitter - imagining what you want to in my words it would seem.

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