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?

@QuiQuaiQuod Yes i chose to have children what's your point?

@churchandstate and you don't have to, but in life sometimes most of us accept we need a little help sometimes and make least worse choices based on necessity.

Personally I'm all up for celaring one side fo the bus of seats and putting in two wheelchair spaces and 3 buggy spaces with fold down chairs and making more people stand if it's busy for wheelchair and buggy users

1plus2equalstrouble

I’m well aware of that. I am saying it shouldn’t be a necessity.

I very much doubt I would ask someone to hold my baby but know the wheelchair has priority and would get off.

Churchandstate what is your solution? Pram gets to stay and person in wheelchair has to wait for empty space or..

@Samcro That's not the problem though I wasn't refusing to move I was being verbally attacked before the wheelchair user was even seen!

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

Better get practising with that folding buggy then. Or get a grip. One of those.

Churchandstate what is your solution? Pram gets to stay and person in wheelchair has to wait for empty space or..

No. I accept that a wheelchair user takes priority. But we need to redevelop public transport so that everyone is sensibly accommodated, not demonise mums for needing somewhere safe to put their babies.

Church you know what to do then, campaign for buggy specific spaces. I've let others help either my kids, I've helped others with their kids, this spans almost 40 years and in that time not one single child came to any harm.

C8H10N4O2

It’s not strange not to want to have to ask someone you don’t know to hold your baby, rather than have somewhere safe to put them. What an odd thought.

my2bundles

Lucky you.

Better get campaigning hadn't you church.

And your first step would be to Google the info suggested earlier you'll get nowhere without that.

Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet. 🤪🤪😁😁

my2bundles

Give up. I’m not googling anything.

Then your campaign has failed before it started.

@1plus2equalstrouble
The issue with clearing one side of the bus is, where do the walking disabled people sit? This discussion has happened so many times on here.

I was lucky enough to have my sister with me so she could sit with my two children while I could collapse both buggies.

I'm not asking who has priority as i already know it's disabled people hence why I was moving as fast as I could while being shouted at for NO reason but her own frustrations.

I just feel if she was calm and didn't do the whole drama thing the wheelchair user would have got on the bus with no problem but instead she made the situation 100 times worse for them both.

Tbf, just like in OPs case, people villainise parents who have children/babies in prams as soon as they see a wheelchair user try and board the bus, even when the parents begins to collapse down the pushchair, or heaven forbid the parent looks a bit gutted.
Often those who are judging or sneering at the parents are sitting in their little chair, not offering to help, or have filled the luggage rack with their shopping bags and refuse to move them, or Christ, even taking up an extra seat on the bus with their handbag.
Parents are just the easy target.
I've never seen a parent refuse to let a wheelchair user into the space. Ever. Yet half the bus will be sitting, tutting and shaking their heads at the parent who's trying to do the right thing.

I'm still rather amazed at the hypocrisy of someone who takes issue with being told tbat what she's said is bollocks but is quite happy to tell someone to stop making shit up.
If you have a buggy and aren't prepared to accept assistance with folding if you're struggling you get off if a wheelchair user or disabled child in a buggy needs the space. No ifs no buts. You should get an onward ticket though.

my2bundles

Well, sadly for you, I’m probably not the one who is going to suffer from this fundamental failure to provide basic services for new mothers. I’ll just get in my car and drive. It’s mums who struggle for money who will suffer most from your attitude. I hope your smugness about that makes you feel better.

I was quite surprised to see someone actually folding a “buggy” (last time I saw this we called them pushchairs) up on the bus a few months ago. They certainly don’t do it where I live. Gosh learn something new every day on here.

Oh and a woman was shouting to hurry up to co operate with the driver but the driver said to stay put (I was still moving anyway) That woman didn't offer to help though clearly seeing us struggle and being shouted at. Most people seem to turn away and enjoy watching others struggle!

I'm still rather amazed at the hypocrisy of someone who takes issue with being told tbat what she's said is bollocks but is quite happy to tell someone to stop making shit up.

That’s not hypocrisy. What I said was from my own experience (not “bollocks”), and the other person was trying to define my experience (and that was definitely making shit up). I don’t object to being told what I am saying is bollocks if someone is prepared to prove me wrong, but this invitation was declined, wasn’t it?

But I decided to have children so I suppose struggle is what I asked for

If you aren't capable of folding your buggy then buy a sling.

You have choices. You might not like them. But choices nonetheless.