Wheelchair / buggy on bus

[MoonlightMistletoe]

Today I had got the bus with my sister we both have children I had my toddler who was walking and my one year old who's only just started to walk who is still in a buggy, my sister has a 12week old baby who was also in a buggy.

We had got on the bus as you do and the next stop another parent got on with their buggy, a few stops later we stop and straight away a woman is screaming/shouting at the rear doors with her phone in our faces demanding we collapse our buggies, very angry , shouting at us with buggies and also at the driver. The driver is telling us to stay put due to her being aggressive and recording us. Someone on the bus was telling us to co operate with the woman who wanted to get a person on the bus who was in a wheelchair. We know disabled people are a priority and had absolutely not said we wouldn't put the buggies down, I was taking my sleeping one year out the buggy while this woman was still swearing and being nasty and recording us, I had given my baby to my sister to sit with my toddler and herself while I was about to take her baby out the pram then all of a sudden everyone made a "ohhhhhhh" gasp and the disabled man has fallen down the side of the curb and bus sideways in his wheelchair.

She then looses her absolute shit at us for her own mistakes being so caught up in recording us to make sure we move that the man is now probably injured.

AIBU to think all she had to do was say excuse me can we move the buggies so I can get the wheelchair on?

my2bundles

Clearly I wasn’t living in an alternate reality, though. It didn’t happen.

The asking people to hold babies thing strikes me as a bit like when people used to leave prams outside shops, perfectly normal at one time and maybe not so much now.

SnuggyBuggy

Absolutely bizarre now. Can you imagine getting on a bus and looking round for someone to hold your 3 week old kid while you fold your buggy? And the choices that might be available?

And this is MN, where people ask their own mums to wash their hands and change their clothes before they touch their kids. 😂

@SinkGirl, they are scarce but you can get a connector to join two McClaren Major buggies together. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s cheaper than some of the alternatives. This one is available through the NHS wheelchair service and looks amazing if you are entitled.

I have been asked to hold a woman's baby while she used the loo in a store, she wouldn't have coped otherwise. It is normal .

@churchandstate most would probably want to confirm their smoking and vaccination status before even contemplating it.

Not saying this or the outside pram thing is right or wrong just different norms

Somanysocks

Has it ever occurred to you to hand over your baby to a stranger and then go behind a locked door?

churchandstate most would probably want to confirm their smoking and vaccination status before even contemplating it.

And often with a new baby, where are you going to on the bus? The GP, the hospital, the Family Centre etc. So the people you meet might well be ill. And yet we are actually hearing people defend the idea of passing your unvaccinated newborn over to a stranger, rather than admit that parents as well as disabled people have a need here, not just a selfish and self-indulgent desire for somewhere safe to transport their babies.

I think it's rather ignorant for assume everyone using tbe same bus is also travelling to the same hospital, clinic etc 😂 Wheelchair users have priority, no matter which way you try to twist it.

my2bundles

I would tend to agree. I didn’t, so we’re lucky there.

You should not be forced to rely on strangers holding your children or property to manoeuvre them safely onto public transport

What utter tosh. Its common practice then and now. Its called human social behaviour and good manners.

I have lived all over London, in the Home Counties, Midlands and in the north-west, and I have never seen it

Then you have had your eyes shut in the SE at least. I raised my kids in London and surroundsand it was common practice. I still see the same behaviour now.

I don't live in the North West but I've worked around most of the country and seeing people help each other in this was is normal, despite the obession sometimes seen here with "weird old crone wants to touch PFB" most people will help if asked any many offer.

But you keep on digging that hole.

"way" not "was"

C8H10N4O2

We simply disagree on the normality of it. We can’t disagree on whether I saw it or not unless you are calling me a liar.

@churchandstate don't be silly, mums only take their babies on the bus to go shopping.

Well being totally aware of possible problems here I did make sure to stand near the cubicle while i chatted to the baby so the mother could hear.

And I am sorry to say that I am childless so I cannot comment but maybe I don't look like the child snatcher.

And she was very quick.

Somanysocks

Okay, but would you do it? Do you think it’s a reasonable standard that any mum boarding a bus should have to hand their baby to a stranger?

It's not that simple is it? You have to weigh up each situation as it happens but I would like to think there would be a friendly helping hand should it be needed, in any situation.

Somanysocks

It is that simple. It’s exactly what is being suggested here.

I am a helpful person and would never refuse my help to someone struggling, but they shouldn’t have to struggle.

We simply disagree on the normality of it. We can’t disagree on whether I saw it or not unless you are calling me a liar

You stated you have never seen it. I'm telling you that in my experience raising children and observing as a passenger now I'm not raising children it is entirely normal and maybe you need to look a bit harder.

Would u hand baby over to the drink looking smelly guy lolling across two seats and belching loudly or the teenager at the back the bus throwing school bags around? Probably not. But another parent who looks clean, the older lady sat at the front? What you think they're going to do? Lick them or bite them?

You stated you have never seen it. I'm telling you that in my experience raising children and observing as a passenger now I'm not raising children it is entirely normal and maybe you need to look a bit harder.

I don’t need to look harder. I have never seen it and I have eyes like everyone else.

Ive never been asked or asked or witness someone asking a stranger on a bus to hold a baby. Ever. I'm 30 and have used buses nearly daily since starting high school so not an infrequent user.

But another parent who looks clean, the older lady sat at the front? What you think they're going to do? Lick them or bite them?

I have no desire to hand my baby over to people I don’t know, who may or may not be ill, or using drugs, or wash their hands after a poo, or have a hidden disability and be discomforted by having to say no, or have just suffered a miscarriage and be devastated by being asked to hold a newborn, or be psychotic.

They are STRANGERS. I don’t know enough about them to hand over the most precious person in my life just because they look like they changed their clothes this morning.

And nobody should have to do so for lack of a pushchair seat on a bus.

Jeez.

It doesn't matter where you are going, how old your baby is, if its awake or asleep.
The wheelchair space is a wheelchair space.
Don't fold, get off then, that is yiur choice.
Being a wheelchair user is not a choice.