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?

Yes some people do have selective reading skills. Those suggestions have been met with answers as to why its not safe to do so, so it looks like it is you who has selective reading.

What is unsafe about putting a carseat on the floor or a non-mobile baby on the floor? Why can some mothers manage it but some entitled ones cannot?

Like I said, I'd personally have detached DS' car seat thingy off the pram body and taken it into a normal cubicle with me if I'd have been in the situation. But I never have been.

I don't think it's the right thing to do, but neither is leaving your baby outside whilst you wee. It's going to take 30 seconds to wee, wipe and 10 seconds to wash your hands. You'd be in and out in a minute or less, surely.

It's not a 'fuck everyone else' attitude I don't personally think, it's giving a new mother a bit of leeway. On the scale of 'naughty things', I don't think it's up there, really.

crashdoll I said I would do that, but not everyone has a carseat thing that attaches onto the pram. Or what if you'd just had a c section, and couldn't manage the weight?

Not everyone has a car seat on their pram. It would be very hard to push a buggy and carry a car seat on the off chance that you needed a wee.

Parents with buggies could always look for the larger cubicle?

It is a fuck everyone else attitude. At the end of the day the facility isn't there for new mothers who can't be arsed finding a way around small issues its there for disabled people who have NO CHOICE.

(anyone else starting to feel like they are banging their head against a brick wall?)

It's not about being 'naughty'. It could cause another human being discomfort. I would hate to that!

x post with slatternlymother.

manic, your story (and the fucking selfish people on this thread) make me weep.
Where does this 'I'm a mummy, I can do what the fuck I like and everyone else can fuck off attitude' come from?
Frigging baby snatchers in the Ladies toilets who remove buggies without their owners hearing from behind 2 inches if plywood which has a large gap at the bottom?
What a pile of shite! It's just a pathetic excuse to be lazy and entitled.

You could say the same about the disabled seats on the bus. I take ds to school, he can't walk very far and certainly can't stand on the bus. We struggle to find a seat though as there's always people in the disabled seats. If we sit in the wheelchair/buggy space then he has to move to make way for a buggy. How is this any different?

Why does someone who is disabled (I assume from reading your post) need to move for a buggy on the bus?

I'm not trying to be ignorant, I just honestly never saw it that way.

I have never seen a mum with a buggy coming out of a disabled loo, but I think I'd have thought it a bit of a non event tbh. I certainly wouldn't have thought of it as a selfish act, and I'm sure the mother with the buggy wouldn't be trying to be selfish either.

But then again, I've been lucky enough to not have been affected by disability in my life, and I think until you are; you're genuinely not going to think of thing like this because you don't come across them.

We were told to move by the bus driver. Buggy tops a disabled 13 year old, apparently.

I didn't think disabled people had to make way for pushchairs because they can be folded and the baby carried, surely?

I would have told the bus driver to fuck off, or to make someone else stand so he could sit. I certainly wouldn't have moved! I hope you complained to the bus company.

A buggy trumps everything according to some posters on this thread.

Where is the wheelchair supposed to go then?

You'd think so, wouldn't you, Slatterly. I've started to ask people to move for him if there's no other seats, Sirzy. I do feel bad, I shouldn't because they shouldn't be sitting there anyway if they are able bodied. Like many, he doesn't 'look' disabled. It's the same principle as the disabled toilets; while they are empty, people won't think not to use them. I can see both sides.

I was once on a bus with three buggies (mine included) when a wheelchair wanted to get on. The bus driver was excellent, turned off the engine and refused to turn move until there was room for the wheelchair. The other two mums, with easy to fold buggies and wide awake toddlers, refused to collapse their buggies. I was so angry. I ended up getting off. The poor woman in the wheelchair was very apologetic. Told her not to be ridiculous, she shouldn't have been the one apologising, I know how hard it is to get around in a wheelchair full stop, and the wheelchair spaces on buses are always ridiculously sized anyway. GRRRR.

/end rant.

I don't really get what is particularly unsafe about having to put the baby on the floor, sorry! I have done it when there are no changing facilities available, and I have done it when I can't fit ds's buggy into the toilet. He was on a mat on the floor, which was then put in a carrier bag (mat not ds!)

They were probably in a rush to get to a disabled toilet before a person with a disability got there.

It's the same on the buses here, MrsDeVere. 1 buggy takes up three spaces, so 2 will take up 5 spaces, including the wheelchair spot (there's one space of three, one of two). If the parents don't sit down and put them straight it's possible to get 4 on there at a push. One woman last week couldn't get on (three other buggies) so she practically threw the buggy off the bus! A wheelchair would have no chance. Would these mothers have moved? I doubt it. One told three elderly people to move last week so that she could get a buggy on the bus, taking up 2 seats for the buggy and 1 seat herself! I moved to let someone sit down. I didn't have ds with me, he has the seat and I stand.