To think that all the people who say "fold your buggy" are being a bit daft?

[Pyjamaramadrama]

I regularly read threads on here about buggies on buses and they get quite heated.

The consensus seems to be that buggies should be folded.

Before anyone says anything I absolutely think that wheelchair users and other disabilities need to take priority for obvious reasons.

However the type of prams for newborns would be nearly impossible for a parent on their own to fold while holding a baby and possibly shopping etc. it's much easier with a toddler who can stand and a stroller which can be easily folded. But you simply cannot put a newborn in a stroller. I'm pregnant with #2 and I've searched for the most compact, easy to fold pram, but I still wouldn't fancy trying to board a bus with a floppy newborn while trying to fold pram and negotiate my bags.

Lucky for me I drive but I can remember being in the predicament with my firstborn of having to get the bus on older style buses and I simply couldn't do it, I had a lie flat pram where the pram needed to be removed to fold the chassis, packs of nappies and formula and newborn ds, I had no Internet access at the time so no online shopping and I ended up in tears once trying to board a bus and dropping everything and the driver and passengers just staring at me.

Also perhaps it is just where I live but all the new buses now have buggy and wheelchair zones so there is room for everyone most of the time.

As I'll say again wheelchair users do come first as ultimately a parent could probably walk if necessary, but why do some people seem to be so against anything which makes new parents lives easier? Maybe they've forgotten what it's like or haven't had to manage the bus alone with newborn.

Oh and my parents and grandparents reckon it was a nightmare with the old buses before buggy zones as they simply couldn't board the bus with a pram.

It's all very well saying "it's not a disability". Of course that's correct, but what exactly is the lady with newborn twins and a toddler supposed to do then? She could be the fittest most able bodied person in the land and still unable to fold down a buggy in that situation, even with fifty tutters and eye rollers to motivate her. Should she ask strangers to hold her babies and mind her toddler? Lie them down on the seats and hope the driver has some patience? Or not use the bus at all?

I can't believe how heated this debate gets. Is there really that many circumstances where a pram and someone with a disability are fighting for the space.

I haelve a 14 week old and I get the bus multiple times a week. In laws bought the pram as a gift with no consultation and turns out my tiny arms and 4ft11 frame can't actually fold the pram! I have to bend down and use the breaks by hand! Lol. But if I could fold it down, it would take up just as much space and there would be the problem of finding somewhere to put my baby in the basket contained in the pram. BUT if someone did get on the bus and needed that space I would get off and wait for the next one because it isn't really my right to have that place. But so far not a problem. In fact in the beginning other people uses to help me on and off with the pram when I was going through an embarrassing learner driver phase! Lol

Pushchairs are another matter. They are generally compact and babies can be independent for a moment while you fold it.

There aren't many easily foldable double buggies, that's for sure.

I went shopping for one with someone recently, twentyish years after buying my own. They are worse if anything.

Not everybody with 'two under two' has butlers and coutts credit cards and fleets of land rovers

Another thing: can anyone recommend an easy-to-fold buggy that is a) comfortable for a baby and then a toddler b) has room for shopping etc c) is light d) is comfortable to push for miles on end if one also walks a lot e) doesn't cost a fucking bomb?

Because a lot of people, I note, end up with their first uppaboodonkeycandycrosspapa, a beautiful and enormous rolls royce of a thing, a joy to push with its glide-along suspension and easy to control, light as feather handlebar, and then also a fold up job that usually lives in the car boot, for when the enormopram won't fit in the boot on a day out, eg to the shops.

I agree it were harder in t'olden days, but 'just fold the buggy' is massively oversimplifying for a lot of us.

The thing is often those mums who want the "convenience" of not having to put a pram down are making things harder for other mothers who can't get on the bus whereas if more people folded then it would be easier for more people to get on

I always preferred to get OFF the bus with the buggy unfolded, and walk or wait for the next one, than to try and remove infant plus shopping and try and fold the fucking thing in half while everyone watched.

Some buggies can be folded swiftly, others cannot, and often people with babies need to do shopping which is why they are on the bus in the first place so it is a huge problem.

I feel so bloody lucky to have the use of a car. It literally changed my life completely...I walked everywhere with ds1. I was often too tired to play with him or do much else, really, it was such hard work.

Although I've never seen a bus driver wait for an OAP to sit down never mind a lady trying to fold a pram while keeping toddler still and safe

26point2miles, where I live we have, a wheelchair zone, a buggy zone, and a zone with foldable seats for elderly or those with heavy shopping. They are all clearly marked as such.

Thumb witch I was just using an example, of course you might be lucky and baby stays asleep, a kindly person helps, but I'm talking worst case scenario. Similar happened to me and I was pretty anxious as it was and I dreaded getting the bus.

It's all well saying to prepare better but when I was a first time mum I still had a lot to learn, my pram at the time wasn't huge but I still couldn't fold it on a bus holding a baby with shopping. I very quickly switched to a stroller once ds was old enough.

I'm older and more experienced now, I'd ignore tutters, I'd ask the driver to wait, I'd ask for help, I'd probably just use a sling, but isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?

I agree . When DS was a newborn, 12 years ago it was back in the days when a lot of buses had steps up to the bus If I was on my own and had a lot of shopping, often my only choice was to give DS to the driver or another passenger to hold whilst I folded up the buggy and took the shopping onboard. I hated doing it but there was no other way.

Nowadays, I suppose I'd use online delivery. Or get my partner to do the megashop.

There are people who don't have partners hag. Or cars. Or even computers.

In fact, I wouldn't mind carless (and low income) households being given priority passes for off-peak public transport. It would be a very green policy if it could be done.

How could I complain when I have a massive boot and a tank full of petrol?

"Another thing: can anyone recommend an easy-to-fold buggy that is a) comfortable for a baby and then a toddler b) has room for shopping etc c) is light d) is comfortable to push for miles on end if one also walks a lot e) doesn't cost a fucking bomb?"

More or less anything by MacLaren or Graco (though the latter are a bit narrow for wide-framed toddlers).

Tbf, the people who post threads on here moaning about it do have Internet access...

But that makes sense to me Scrambled, getting help and folding the buggy when you have to. I had a lot of help from complete strangers so many times, and they seemed pleased to do so.
Mind you, my last newborn was 20 years ago.
I remember being amazed the first time I saw a bus with one of those hydraulic platform thingies that went up and down.

Agree with Mrs DV. Buggies definitely bigger these days, and much less expectation on the part of parents that they'll have to fold them.

I used buses very frequently when DC1 was a baby, as I didn't have a car. I had a great buggy - called a CitySport, no idea if still made, this was in 2003 - that was narrow and lightweight with a fold-down handle, and went flat so was suitable for a newborn. It could be folded with one hand, and had a shoulder strap for carrying once folded. Shopping - I used a backpack rather than loading the buggy basket or hanging bags off it. It felt good to be able to manage!

There are plenty of strollers available that are suitable from birth. You don't have to buy a massive pram if you use public transport a lot.

I wouldn't expect someone with baby twins or a young toddler and baby to fold though.

The people without it (and hence no possibility of online grocery shopping) will never be (by definition) on an MN thread to state their need for buggies on buses, will they ChestHair?

Most people with megabuggies that can't fold tend to have an internet connection though. Or so I've observed. They juggle the baby the shopping and the smartphone with dexterity.

There are lots folding compact buggies that are suitable from birth. I had a Nuna Pepp. I think my Cybex folded flat, as well, and at least some McLaren's do.. Easy to find with doing a basic search.

CitySport was made by Graco, have just remembered. Ticks all your boxes, Thingummy.

Sah - i am that mom - have been asked to fold with new twins toddler and shopping - Im not super human - once DD was getting off first I stood pushing buggy down the isle and saw DD go to step off and the driver pulls off - Im screaming stuck behind the buggy and cant see if DD is in the bus or under the wheels- A passenger who missedthe bus managed to grab her out of harms way - that was the last bus I caught.

And folding is a pain in the bum, but I would ask for help from other passangers (who looked approachable - there were always some). They were all happy to help.

I think yabu. It's hard yes but it's a short lived experience. I get multiple buses a day. Have done since dd2 was small. my buggy choice reflected that. I got a maclaren and used that as soon as the baby was old enough (3 months for the one I had) befire that I had a travel system so just unclipped the car seat part placed on ground and collapsed the rest of it.

I realise in the case of multiples or parental capabilities this isn't always possible. but I do think many people are also just idiots who buy massive tanks with no thought as to the weight or ease of collapsing and carrying. what's with three feet of nothing behind the seats. is the cup and phone holder really worth having a buggy that barely fits through doors? I've seen single buggies bigger than double buggies and I can't fir the life of me imagine why, when someone uses the bus often, they would get a pram the size of Jupiter they can't collapse. It's ridiculous

as far as Shopping goes I'd take a back pack or hold all.

I folded a few times with both my DCs sometimes to let wheelchaiirs on and sometimes so people with larger prams could get in. It was a pain but it had to be done.

Its never hard to find someone to hold a baby. The vast majority of people will help if asked and it seemed to me some of them even enjoyed it One elderly lady was in fact quite reluctant to give DS back when he was about 3 months old and asked if she could hold him until we got off which I agreed to as he'd gone to sleep in her arms and looked so peaceful.

Are prams really bigger these days though? Those old fashioned huge wheeled prams were huge surely? Maybe people switched to buggies sooner.

Of course people managed years ago but lots of things have changed now for the convenience of everyone. Sure that can be good and bad, with convenience does at times come entitlement and higher expectations. Common sense would say to me if you've got one toddler and a mclaren then fold it and stick the toddler on your lap, but I'd also sympathise with the mum with twins or a newborn and a big pram and want her life to be easier.

In rl I've never met anyone who thinks this but on MN there seems to be real hostility towards people on buses with prams, whether there is a wheelchair user or not.

Buxhoe I have excellent Internet access but no possibility whatsoeverof iInternet grocery shopping - being on the Internet doesn't mean you're not in one of the places where supermarkets still don't deliver.

admittedly I am also unlikely to catch a bus to the shops as the nearest public bus stop is 6 miles away - opposite the nearest supermarket