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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to want lifts all to myself

135 replies

onemiddlefinger · 06/08/2014 10:57

I commute to central London with my DS in a pushchair, thankfully the stations I use have lifts (several of them to take each time), and those lifts are slow. So if you miss it, it's another 5 min wait (which is not that bad, but when going home after a long day every minute seems like forever)
AIBU to be annoyed at people who take up space in the lifts when they could be taking the escalator, obviously I'm not talking about the disabled, the ones with young kids (even if walking), the ones with luggage etc, it's the ones that don't have anything wrong with them other than usually being overweight.
Why, oh why do you prefer to queue up for the lift that takes forever rather than stand on the escalator - you don't even have to walk more, if anything it's probably less walking! Is there such thing as fear of escalators and is it very common?
I just don't get it, before DS I had never used a lift in the underground.
AIBU?

OP posts:

Selks · 06/08/2014 14:29

OP I have balance problems (Menieres disease) so that is why you will find me in a lift. Escalators can be terrifying if I am experiencing balance issues.

But, I am overweight also. Nice to know you would judge me on that, rather than think I might have a genuine other reason for using the lift. I suggest you consider doing something about your ignorance.

CombineBananaFister · 06/08/2014 14:30

Actually don't mean to come across as harsh op because, on a similar note, I often wish I had the supermarkets to myself when I do a shop and that they weren't full of other people getting in my way - but I hate shopping
Probably wouldn't ever voice it though...oops

LadyLemongrab · 06/08/2014 14:31

The overweight jibe was a bit pointless really, you say yourself that if anything the lift means more walking.

So maybe all those fatties are trying to up there physical activity every little opportunity they get?

And if it helps put things into perspective for you, just remember all those rush hour travellers who are secretly pissed off at you carting around your kid in a pram, getting in their way. Not right of course, but then you don't have a monopoly on unreasonableness.

Sirzy · 06/08/2014 14:33

Ice, the fact her toddler is too heavy to carry doesn't mean he is overweight.

Not overweight but 18kg is very big for a 20 month old. DS is 4.5 and still doesn't weigh that much

IceBeing · 06/08/2014 14:38

imperial if the kids is 18kg at 20 months then yes...it is massively overweight. the 99.6th centile for 20 month olds is 15kg!

My DD is just under 18kg at 3.2 yo and is technically overweight.... he would have to be well over 1 metre tall to be getting close to being in proportion....so wearing age 4-5 clothing then...

tbh I think 18kg is a crock. I think maybe as many as 1:100 million babies would be that far from the average?

OP of course you don't have to justify using the lift because your toddler is too heavy to carry...thats the fecking point! noone else who find themselves otherwise incapable of using the escalators has to justify themselves either....

you had a go at people having to use the lift because they were too overweight to do otherwise...then stated that you had to use the lift for the same reason (that your child was too heavy to do otherwise). That is what I am pointing out and that I found pretty funny!

Original poster

onemiddlefinger · 06/08/2014 14:38

I bet she's one of those mums who think they shouldn't have to wait their turn to get into the lift because they have a child in a pushchair with them
Actually, no, i'm not.

I do kind of wish i hadn't posted, it wasn't meant to be a nasty post neither a fat people bashing as some have made it sound. Yes, it was judgemental, and i accepted i was BU. I guess i'm done here.

OP posts:

WafflesandWhippedCream · 06/08/2014 14:39

Where I used to live, the front of the train would stop close by the doors of the lift, and you would have to walk halfway back down the platform to get to the escalator.

When you got off the train, there would be a rush of (young, fit-looking) people from the front half of the train towards the lift.

I would be bringing up the rear with a pram and another toddler walking, usually accompanied by an old woman with a walking frame, or someone using a wheelchair, or on crutches. We would arrive at the lift and it would already be full, and we would have to wait for the next one. Every single time. I did find it frustrating, particularly when it meant we missed our bus.

I think most of the people were just a bit thoughtless, and wanting to save themselves the effort of walking back to the escalator - I refuse to believe they could all have had phobias, or some sort of disability, though obviously some of them may well have done, and I wouldn't necessarily know which ones.

I hate lifts, now we don't have the buggy I love being able to just hop onto the escalator with no waiting.

dexter73 · 06/08/2014 14:40

Love that you assume you have to be overweight to be offended by your comment. I'm not overweight and neither am I a man, as you referred to me as 'he' earlier!

Imo the scoring out of the overweight comment implies that you knew it was rude. You could have just written it, or left it out altogether but by making the extra tiny effort to score it out looks to me like you knew.

GwenStacy · 06/08/2014 14:46

I use the underground frequently and if there's no lift, or too much of a wait, I fold the buggy and carry my daughter down the stairs, or take it on the escalator - I don't see that it's dangerous as long as you hold on to it.

I stupidly didn't choose a very light buggy - will know for next time! - but can manage my ~10kg baby in the seat, the chassis and my rucksack quite easily up or down a couple of flights of stairs when I have to.

ikeaismylocal · 06/08/2014 16:03

An 18kg 20 month old my ds is 19 months and fairly tall and quite chubby and he isn't yet 13kg but he does walk as often as possible, maybe it's time to get rid of your pushchair op?

When I take ds out in his pushchair I used to use the escalator, as long as the child is strapped in I don't think it's dangerous, I'm pregnant and experiencing dizzy spells so now I use the lift, I also used the lift when pregnant with ds despite having no pushchair, in early pregnancy I probably looked like I was using the lift to be lazy.

ImperialBlether · 06/08/2014 16:43

Have to say if someone criticised my baby's weight on here without setting eyes on him, I would be very, very upset.

usualnamechanger · 06/08/2014 23:43

Whisk I wasn't talking about people with kids being entitled, and I am sure they exist, but about arseholes who make people who are in a wheelchair wait when they are healthy, you might think they don't exist, but they do. Same as the ones who do not give up their seats for older people on the bus, the ones who park on the disabled space, etc.

Matildasmam22 · 09/08/2014 00:22

Just read this thread, bit disgusted. Calling the op's child you have never met overweight is a hell of a lot worse then a little dig about none specific peoples laziness.

I know who I think sounds more unreasonable tbh.

FloppyRagdoll · 09/08/2014 07:05

I have balance issues. I once fell on a escalator (nobody was hurt but it was scary for me and for the people round about) and, although I frequently do use escalators, it is always with some level of anxiety. On a bad day, I wouldn't even try and would use the lift or the stairs. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at me that there was anything wrong. OTOH, I also have visual issues and it can take me ages to find where the lift is, so I'd be unlikely to be the person holding up the OP and her baby.

ithoughtofitfirst · 09/08/2014 07:56

This thread is horrendous.

maddening · 09/08/2014 08:19

It was you suggestion that a person who is overweight is therefore lazy hence them taking the lift that was offensive - they like any slim person has the right to take the lift - it is not for then sole use of you and the disabled - judging them for using the lift because they are overweight is plain nasty.

londonrach · 09/08/2014 08:24

Friend of family saw an old man fall to his death on an escalator so can't ride them. Personally I hate them but I hate lifts more. Give me good old stairs but having climbed them from covent garden you do have to see the lift occasionally. Yabu but you know that as you don't know reasons behind someone using the lift.

hiccupgirl · 09/08/2014 08:25

IME do travelling on the tube the lifts are usually miles away and tricky to find. So if someone has made the effort to find the lift rather than jump on the escalator in front of them it's going to be for a good reason rather than just being lazy.

And while not saying her toddler is overweight, it is just a teeny bit ironic to moan about overweight people taking up the lift while telling us her own child is too heavy to put in a sling at under 2.

Icelollycraving · 09/08/2014 08:56

Lifts are not just for disabled (visibly or not) & buggies. They are for anyone who chooses to use them. Your overweight comment was unnecessary. I also thought there was an element of pot calling the kettle black re your child's weight & you pretty much set yourself up for that.

CarbeDiem · 09/08/2014 10:53

OP yanbu for thinking you'd like the lift to yourself but yabvu to expect it's ever going to happen.
It may be annoying but you can't know why people are using them even if they look fit and healthy.
I have a disability, you wouldn't know unless I was having a really bad day and if you seen me in a lift you might think I was a lazy mare but sometimes I physically can't stand on the escalator or climb the steps, being overweight has nothing to do with it, I've a healthy bmi

Lunastarfish · 09/08/2014 11:07

The problem is that you don't know if anything is wrong with your other lift 'guests'. Last year I broke several ribs and injured my back in a fall, I was in an incredible amount of pain for nearly 3 months. I had to regularly visit the GP but he was a bus ride away as I was unable to walk the 15 minutes to get there. The dirty looks I got on the bus for sitting in the priority seats when old/pregnant people got on and I didn't immediately vacate my seat were astonishing. I had to sit down, I could barely breath and every jolt of the bus caused me pain. Everyone just assumed that I was a fit and healthy person because of how I looked on the outside. I am sure some of your guests are just being lazy, but some others, may not be.

Icelollycraving · 09/08/2014 11:10

No one thinks it's lazy to use an escalator though rather than stairs,why is using a lift so lazy?

Lauren83 · 09/08/2014 11:13

Yanbu

I don't use lifts as I don't need too but whenever I see lifts open and a load of able bodied people stood in there and people with buggies and wheelchairs can't get in it really winds me up

There's usually a sign saying let people in need take priority but people ignore it

CarbeDiem · 09/08/2014 12:09

Lauren - To look at me you would assume that I was able bodied, there wouldn't appear to be anything wrong with me. What you couldn't know about me is that - on a day I'm using the lift, my spine and nerves are playing up making it not only difficult and uncomfortable to stand while trying to balance on the escalator but also dangerous if my leg gives way.
Of course people with no disabilty/injury will use them, they're allowed to.

IsChippyMintonExDirectory · 09/08/2014 12:11

YANBU I always thought lifts were for people who can't use stairs or escalators. Sends me potty

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