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AIBU?

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Original poster

Prams taking up the entire pavement

146 replies

giadak · 24/01/2018 23:37

Hi all.

I was wondering if I could possibly get some opinions advice. I was walking down the street the other day. Two ladies were walking with their prams (towards me). As they were walking side by side - and engrossed in their conversations - they didn't seem to notice me walking too. I then said: 'Excuse me, could I get past, please?' They refused to move and gestured that I was in the road. Granted, it wasn't overly busy on the streets, but there were cars coming and going as it was around the time of day that the school finishes.

I know that it is 'easier' for me to walk in the road, but it's also potentially dangerous. One of them could have stopped for a whole second - so as to free up space on the pavement - I could have walked past quickly - thanked them - and that would have been perfectly fine for everyone.

I've also had experienced instances where parents just stand and chat in the street and again - there is no choice, but to walk in the road.

Worst of all - on that occasion, one of their older kids (who wasn't the one in the prom obviously) sped off on his scooter - and they didn't even notice.

Is it unreasonable to be annoyed? I'm the first to help women with prams up the stairs at train stations, I'm the first to offer my seat to anyone that may want/need it - young or old - able bodied or not. I do try, I really really do - but I feel like some people now are just taking advantage. Yes, it might be easier for me to move/walk into the road since I don't have a prom etc.... but why should I have to - and every time...?!

Please help/advise! I'm not trying to start a war - I'm genuinely curious and not sure what to do and/or how to feel.

Thanks.

OP posts:

NewPapaGuinea · 25/01/2018 07:54

@TemptressofWaikiki I sometimes walk with the pram out to the side as it's easier on the back. The handles don't extend far enough out so I'm slumped over a bit.

ZoopDragon · 25/01/2018 07:55

They were very rude not to go single file to let you past. However I think it's quite normal to walk side by side with prams, the babies like it and you can chat. But I always keep an eye out for people trying to get past, and go single file in busy areas.

If the road was empty I'd probably just step in it to pass them. If there were cars I'd ask the pram ladies to make way for me.

I had the opposite problem when DD was younger and in a pram all a time- people don't like making way for prams! It's so annoying when you're rushing to a bus and the street is clogged with people drifting arm in arm down the middle, talking on phones, standing chatting with no awareness of others trying to pass. Sometimes I had to shout 'excuse me can I get past please?' about 5 times, then missed the bus because people are so slow to move! Or they shuffle sideways a bit but don't leave me enough room. I've accidentally bumped a few people who stop unexpectedly in the middle of a crowded pavement. If people were a bit more switched on to what's around them it would be easier for everyone!

I think all pavements should have a fast lane! I love London because everybody hurries (or goes slowly on one side only) so you can get from A to B quickly.

NewPapaGuinea · 25/01/2018 07:57

Of course I'd always go "single file" if someone was coming the other way. Just basic manners.

NewPapaGuinea · 25/01/2018 07:58

Get a pram bell, people soon move then lol

user789653241 · 25/01/2018 07:59

Nice people with common sense would move. Some won't. If I have a choice. I wouldn't get involved. They are not nice people if they don't even have courtesy for others.

lastnamefirstfirstnamelast · 25/01/2018 08:18

I Jog most nights and the other day i was jogging down a wide pavement. Three women stood talking right in the middle they looked at me coming toward them from around 10 meters away, one of them only had to step in ever so slightly ( towards the inside not roadside) and it would have been fine. No instead i had to run around a car in the middle of a busy main road. I genuinly think people like to make a point.

Yes dont worry pavement witches soon as its light again I'll be back on the canal!

Mountainpika · 25/01/2018 08:28

Someone once gave me the tip that if people are walking towards you and taking up all the space (very narrow pavements) don't make eye contact. Just keep walking and they'll move.

People side by side with buggies, people standing in the middle of the pavement talking - just plain bad manners.

And as a by-the-way - why do people queueing at cash machines queue at right angles to the wall across the pavement rather than alongside the wall?

To be fair, not everyone is inconsiderate but even if they are the majority, it's the ill-mannered ones we notice.

Spikeyblue · 25/01/2018 08:29

It's a rude people thing not a pram thing.

I sometimes take up a lot of the pavement if ds is out of his sn buggy on reins as it is easier to walk to the side of the buggy in that situation but I always move us in when someone is walking towards us

RadioGaGoo · 25/01/2018 08:31

I push a pram and that's never happened to me, with or without pram. Pram pushers have always been very courteous. I would never expect someone to walk around me into the road.

RadioGaGoo · 25/01/2018 08:35

I have had a number of joggers/runners come up silently behind me and brush past me when I'm not even taking up a pavement! Sometimes I don't think they want to break stride, so miscalculate the gap.

londonrach · 25/01/2018 08:38

Its this woman not normal behaviour op. Im a pushchair pusher at the moment and if with friends we walk behind each other. In my town everyone goes in single file if you see another person. Its common sense and to not do that its rude!

ExtraSpecial1 · 25/01/2018 08:40

The try hard 'Cath Kidston' yummy mummies at my youngest a school do this. ( Narrow path, but defo wide enough for two adults to easily pass ) They walk towards you planning PTA interfering shit before they go about their 'so busy lives'....does one of them move in slightly, turn side on for a second...no, do they fuck, they make you walk on the sports field which is as muddy as fuck at the mo and slippy and squelchy to boot. I just pick the hedge and fence side now, head down walk forward and they have to move. Get quite a sick satisfaction from their ' oh, oops's' when they realise they have to fucking shift and not me. Or the ones that just stop in a gaggle mid path, taking up the whole thing, same again...excuse me, can I get through, I'm not stepping in the mud. The look of shock from them all is worth getting up in the morning for!

Should have nutted the cunts and pushed their prams into the road. Cunts like that rile me. They were probably just waiting for their benefits 😜

Helllllooooooo · 25/01/2018 08:44

Should have nutted the cunts and pushed their prams into the road. Cunts like that rile me. They were probably just waiting for their benefits
Wow... going by standards suggested are yours by your comment I would question if you too claim benefits then, with that language?

I find this Pram pavement hogs are the Cath Kidston types and PTA types also.

Fluffyears · 25/01/2018 08:49

I refuse to move. It’s a battle of wills and they usually lose unless they want to use their precious offspring as a battering ram.

Commuterface · 25/01/2018 08:49

Some people are just arrogant twats and will probably never change - pram or not. They probably also stand and chat in doorways/bottom of escalators/stairs/park in disabled bays at supermarkets. In other words they are selfish.

In future, when faced it one of these types, refuse to move/keep walking.

Hopinthescotch · 25/01/2018 08:54

If you asked someone to move and they didn't make space than yes they were rude but it's not an exclusive domain of pram pushing women. I do try to give roams a wide berth only because I know all to well how exhausted the pram pusher might be. Once when DD was tiny and in the middle of having reflux I was rocking the pram back in forth in the school collection queue and the woman in front of me exploded at me in a rage. I'd been gently bumping her leg repeatedly with the pram and hadn't noticed. I truly wasn't trying to be rude and would never bump anyone with the pram. I was purely exhausted and hadn't noticed.

YetAnotherSpartacus · 25/01/2018 08:56

No, those feckers take up half the pavement with their body, puffed up by paternal pride and the other half with the bloody pram because they insist on pushing it with one hand extended out to their side. Seems another part of fecking manspreading

I've seen this too, with the proud Dadda on a skateboard.

OP - they were rude and should have moved for you.

PocketCoffeeEspresso · 25/01/2018 08:59

It's a rude people thing not a pram thing

Definitely. I took to just stopping and letting people go around me when I was out walking with DS1 and adults were cycling on the pavement/coming out of the train station/having a chat with a coffee/the sunday paper - they took up the whole pavement, or didn't look where they were going and whacked him/me with their briefcases etc. To the extent that we had a word which mean 'squeeze together, something's about to hit you'!

Dulra · 25/01/2018 09:02

They were extremely rude but I think the prams have nothing to do with it. I have come across a group of people walking en masse and not one seems capable of hanging back to let me pass them. I was out jogging the other evening and there was a group of older ladies chatting outside a community centre taking up the whole path. They saw me coming but not one moved to let me pass I had to jog out on the bus lane to get past them. Some people are just rude and entitled no getting round it.

SaturnUranus · 25/01/2018 09:05

And a special mention too for the man who rides his bike at the side of the pram that he's pushing with one hand. What could possibly go wrong?

I think it's more a case of "selfish people" rather than "selfish pram-pushers". They would still be pavement-hoggers even without prams.

Nikephorus · 25/01/2018 09:06

And as a by-the-way - why do people queueing at cash machines queue at right angles to the wall across the pavement rather than alongside the wall?
It's because if you're standing along the wall it might seem that you're trying to sneak a glimpse of the person entering their pin number - by standing a couple of metres away behind them and looking the other way it's obvious you're not It's probably a terribly British custom!!

Queeniebed · 25/01/2018 09:10

Agree with you OP. Its the same with cyclists who ride two abreast so you cant overtake them safely

YetAnotherSpartacus · 25/01/2018 09:11

And a special mention too for the man who rides his bike at the side of the pram that he's pushing with one hand. What could possibly go wrong

Was he also walking at least one dog and also chatting on his phone? :)

JamieFrasersArse · 25/01/2018 09:13

YANBU OP, and it's usually the parents with tank-like prams who do this. I know one rather entitled woman who thinks nothing of pushing her Uppababy through an entire crowd of people when there's enough space for her to go around the outside. And don't get me started on the mother I saw trying to manoeuvre her Balmoral through a busy cafe without as much as an "excuse me". If you live in a big city and aren't Kate Middleton then what's the point of such a giant pram?

ArcheryAnnie · 25/01/2018 09:17

Good luck to any pram-pushers around here who want to walk two abreast - people park such huge cars on their tiny paved-over front gardens that the pavement is already half-blocked by the back-end of those cars.

(But yes, OP, I agree - you shouldn't have been directed into the road!)

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