...to take pram inside children’s centre?

[Marigo]

My 7w old twins have been gaining weight slowly and I have to take them to be weighed at the children’s centre every week. I also have a 2y3m toddler with me. There’s no car park and no street parking so I walk with pushchair and DD on buggy board because she can’t walk for 25 minutes. There are signs up asking parents to leave pushchairs in sheds outside but I cannot manage to carry both babies and my bag and hold toddler’s hand so I have been bringing buggy in and parking it next to some cabinets in the corridor outside the weigh room.

Today a member of staff told me I couldn’t bring the pushchair in because it’s a fire hazard in the corridor. It’s about 6 inches wider than the cabinets it’s next to in a very wide corridor (children’s centre is an ex-primary school). She then went on to tell me that the fire service could carry out a check and they could shut the children’s centre down if there was a pram in the corridor. She said I should leave buggy in shed (unsecured) and make two trips inside. Not keen to do this - buggy cost more than a month’s SMP plus who do I take inside first etc.

I don’t know what to do! I don’t think the fire service are in the business of closing down children’s centres - would I BU to ignore member of staff and keep bringing pram?

Congratulations on your babies btw. Sounds like you're doing brilliantly to even get them all out of the house!

The rule makes perfect sense and should be followed really. It’s just one of those things that becomes really difficult when you have twins. Personally I’d take them in one at a time but as above I’m sure someone will
Give you a hand

I don't think I'd go to somewhere I couldn't take a buggy. Could you get scales and weigh them at home?

OP has stated she's on SMP and people are suggesting a twingo? Have you seen the price of them!?
They really should give you a hand getting in, can you ring ahead to let them know you're coming?

I think this is the case in all children’s centres. I remember when I had my first I wheeled him in in his oram to be told to leave it outside. I only had one then and it was awkward enough. There was an undercover buggy bay outside but there was only room for 3 and it was tipping down! was such a faff. I always drove after that!

Ask them to help? Surely at a children’s centre they would be More than willing to help?

Maybe speak to the Hv about it. Maybe she will visit you if it’s hard to get out with the little ones?

It always amazes me how many places are so badly designed for their service users. Seeing how hard it can be wit a buggy makes me really feel for wheelchair users who must have such a hard time.

Also I wouldn’t be leaving one baby outside in the car park while I ferried the children in. If they want you to park up, someone needs to come out and help you.

Is there one elsewhere with parking?

Bring the pram in with a buggy lock and if they make a fuss point at your vast collection of children, hand them the lock and say thank you.

It's more a case of them needing to think about how the facility is used and accommodating users

I think this is the case in all children’s centres

Not all, ours has a designated buggy park in the reception.

I took ds2 in to be weighed once only because of this. He was on the scales and ds1 who was 20 months just legged it out of the room. The woman said I couldn’t leave her with the baby so I had to pick him up and run round the bastard Children’s centre then try and carry a newborn and a struggling toddler back in. Never again!!

Ask the staff for help. I'm sure if you point out the difficulty they will help. It's clear twins plus a toddler are harder for one person to manage than just one or two children.
Perhaps you can come inside the hall to let a staff member know you have arrived. They could go with you to the shed and then help carry the twins or walk with your toddler.
I'm pretty sure though that securing the buggy will still be your responsibility. The children's centre won't take that responsibility nor will they allow you to breach fire regulations and bring it inside. If you do it then others may also want to and soon the corridor could be full of buggies blocking the exit.
A buggy lock or simple bike chain lock would however, solve that problem.

If that's the case then they need to be helping you with the toddler/babies. I don't see any other way as it's not safe to leave any child unattended outside whilst you go in, anything can happen which means you're not as quick getting back out, plus where will you leave the toddler when you make the first trip... are staff available to help when you get in, I don't think I ever saw staff helping any parent when I used to go... maybe they're 'not allowed'?

I can't imagine having 2 newborns and a 2 year old, it must be so difficult doing things like this and I'd certainly offer to help you if I was taking my son to the clinic but you need to know for sure that someone will be there to help and they should be reassuring you about that not just saying what you can't do but offering a solution that is safe.

The weigh drop in for DS2 was upstairs and the lift was always broken. I couldn't juggle newborn, bag and toddler so I only went once. The children's centre for DS1 had a very strict 'no pram' rule too. A lot of these places are designed around carrying one newborn only in my experience.

I think you’ve got two problems. The first is that you don’t really want to leave your pushchair unattended and the second one is that you can’t move everyone from the buggy shed to the building.

The first issue is not really up to the children’s centre to sort. You need to get some kind of lock for it and then it will be fine.

The second issue is definitely a problem for the staff to help you sort. If you let the staff know you are there, they should be able to come out and help you carry everyone in to the building and then continue to help you as you get the babies weighed. (It’s not just about moving everyone in to the building but trying to get anything done while you are in the building, when you have two babies to get from place to place, that is tricky).

“It's more a case of them needing to think about how the facility is used and accommodating users”

I don’t think any building like that is ever going to be able to accommodate the amount of buggies that will be present at a children’s centre session. The only ones I’ve seen are a separate buggy park room
In a purpose built children’s centre like you get in large museums

I remember this. I was told to wait outside the weighing room, where buggies were allowed, and they would call me in. 10 minutes later, "we're ready for twin A." What do you expect me to do with Twin B? Blank looks. Eventually one of the health visitors came to carry the other. The only other weighing clinic was upstairs, no lift, buggies to be left downstairs, staff refused to help. So I left.

Thankfully(?) Twin A was under a paediatrician and was weighed at those appointments. Twin B was putting on more weight so I figured if Twin A was Ok, Twin B would be too. So I stopped going.

I had the same thing with my DTs but at a baby group - after carrying both twins in and the massive changing bag one time, I never went back. The weigh in clinic is in the same room, but I just wheel the pram in and park it up and nobody has ever commented on it.

Hen "The woman said I couldn’t leave her with the baby"

Wtf. She wouldn't keep your baby safe whilst you ensured your other child was safe.?

No wonder people seem quite often to have negative things to say about HVs.

The sensible thing to do would be to allow twin buggies but not single buggies inside.

I'm so confused - which of your children are they proposing you leave in the pram shed? Or is it the car you're supposed to leave them in? Our children's centre asks everyone to leave prams outside but exceptions are made of your baby is asleep or there's some other mitigating factor - I think they include twin mums (let alone mums with 3!)

I think they mean park pram, pick up twin 1, hold toddler hand, take them in and park them on a play mat etc, go back out and pick up twin 2/ bags and join them.

It’s like that trying to get a fox chicken and bag of grain across the river problem 🤣

Hen"The woman said I couldn’t leave her with the baby"

I used to work for a children's centre. (until council budget cuts shut them all down in our area). We were not able to take responsibility for a child if a parent left the building. We were not insured for that as the parent or carer needed to supervise their own child at all times. We would however, have been able to help the parent by walking with them carrying one of the children or standing with them whilst the weighing was being done holding the other baby. We just couldn't hold one baby whilst the parent left the building and went outside.

I had the same problem at my children's centre. Same age twins, same age gap, same pram and equally unhelpful staff member.

I was told they needed to be weighed fortnightly and luckily one of the HV's offered to weigh them at home for me. Is that something you could ask about?

Absurd. I work in a similar environment and we have the same rule about no prams to be left in the corridor, but we use our judgement and discretion for this very reason. If there was no way the pram could be brought in, then we, the staff team, would absolutely help you.