...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?

PRAMS not Peaks! Ffs

I'm afraid to say it gets worse as buggies always seem to be excluded....at our other children's school plays buggies have to stay outside (even if childs asleep inside) so I had to carry a heavy sleeping 2 year old out of buggy only to cue 10mins inside! nobody seems to want to help anymore and when I go shopping with 7yr old,5yr old,2 yr old and pregnant I get looks of disgrace lol....my children hold doors open for me etc because they unlike some have manners! I would buy your own scales for home to keep check and save yourself the agro x

It was like this when my kids were babies (they're 7 now). I asked for help as well and was told no (and on one occasion I was told that everyone had things that they found difficult and that motherhood was about learning how to manage

I put the two of them in the one carricot top to toe for weighings but it was a nightmare, they have you sit in these rows of plastic chairs in a queue and I was supposed to be able to hold the carricot on my knees or what? I used to just rely that someone's mum or DH or whoever would be there and would hold a baby for me. Once the kids could stand it all got a bit easier, but from about 8m to 14m I just didn't do anything that involved the GPs or the children's centre.

Shouldn't your midwife or health visitor be coming to you not the other way round!

I have a baby a similar age and not once has it been suggested I travel to the GP (I'm not exactly sure what a children's centre is, assuming it's a GP surgery for babies?)

I struggle with my 11 week old and nearly 2 year old in our double pram, she’s a runner and will peg it the second I let go of her and I can’t manage them both alongside the bag and all the doors an buzzers etc. There’s the same rule at my children’s centre, however the staff must be far more reasonable as they always encourage me to bring the pram in an help me with all the doors and carrying etc. They must see you can’t manage and it’s completely unreasonable to expect you to leave a baby unattended outside so why haven’t they helped you? I would do what pp said and explain your predicament and wait for them to suggest a solution.

Don't go and when they ask tell them its too difficult and not accessible. Bloody good job you are not in a wheel chair - would that be expected to go in the shed

Get in touch with hv and tell them someone needs to weigh your baby at home if they still think it's necessary because of this ridiculous scenario.

I don't think bugy locks are a thing, but you can use a bicycle lock :) Make sure the lock prevents it from being folded or pushed if you can't lock it to anything.

www.boots.com/my-buggy-buddy-lock-10120176?cm_mmc=bmm-buk-google-ppc--PLAs--(GB:Whoop!)+My+Buggy+Buddy-_-(GB:Whoop!)+SummerClearance+-+Mobile&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=CjwKCAjw1_PqBRBIEiwA71rmteikjEQdaLovks4AakHmlBgQUo4vPbw27HQk2xmhhhs_wK0U6Tvu0BoC5m0QAvD_BwE

Buggy locks are a thing. But to be fair a bike lock would work just as well!

The rules should be relaxed for people with more (under school age) children than they have arms to carry them.

If you can't leave it in the corridor like you take the pram into the weighing room?

I'll bet there didn't suggest relaxing the rules because they know they'll get complaints from other parents who see it as unfair because they can't comprehend that some people have different needs to their own.

Inused to take ds in to places in his because his disability made him difficult to carry. I used to quote the Disability Discrimination Act (as it them was) to them.

I have 5 month old dts plus a 3yo and 7yo with additional needs. My health visitor comes out to me to weigh them so that I don't have to do this juggle. I never had to ask, she just told me that she would do this.

I'd advise you to call your HV and see if they will come out to you. If not, does your pram work as a travel system? If so, could you take the pram in, take the car seats off and ask a member of staff to watch your DT's whilst you take your DD out to park the pram frame (using a pram lock)? I would not leave any child unattended outside!

This is all a massive faff though and I stopped getting DS2 weighed for less than that!

Don’t go. If a fuss is kicked up tell them to send a HV to the house.

What a fucking ridiculous state of affairs in this day and age.

I fully understand not being allowed to take a pushchair/buggy etc inside and leaving it parked or folded up in a corridor. In the event of a fire (or other emergency) it is an object that can end up being knocked into the middle of the corridor and cause a trip hazard etc, the cabinet it is parked beside is unlikely to move if run into in a smoke filled corridor, the pushchair is more likely to move, even if the break is on.

As for the practicalities of transporting three children from the buggy parking area, if there is no help or a solution offered by the centre and you can't find one then suggest them coming out to you. Or is there another parent regularly at the weigh-ins you could get help from?

@Alltheprettyseahorses that's not true, we have a very busy clinic and it's just not possible to let people bring prams in with them. We used to at first and it was absolute chaos! We couldn't run the clinic that way. Now we have a buggy bay/shed outside and it runs perfectly. This lady just needs to ask for help as she is currently unable to access the service, somebody will come and help her, or somebody will be able to say 'we can see this isn't working for you, we'll just bend that rule for you so you can access the child health clinic'

Working inclusively and treating people equally doesn't mean treating everybody the same. It's about giving each person the tools they need to succeed. Or in this case, access baby clinic!!!

I asked the receptionist if she could help but she said she wasn’t allowed to leave reception unmanned

Yet they think it's okay to leave a baby unattended whilst you go and get/leave the other one.