Baby on train etiquette?

[olivebean]

Possibly a silly question, sorry (!), but I've never taken a baby on a train before. It's a short journey (20 mins) by myself with my 13 month old. Can I leave her in her buggy when I get on or will I have to collapse it and sit her on my knee? Just wondering logistically how I'm going to collapse a buggy whilst holding a baby in one arm 🤦🏼‍♀️ so would prefer to leave her in it for the journey. What's the rules/etiquette with this? Thank you!

Good to hear…I think people will always try to help with prams if they’ve been a parent themselves.

The first people to help me was a group of young lads around late teens / early 20s. I was surprised actually how they were willing to as they were quite rowdy and I had sort of judged them before I'd spoken to them. Lesson learned for me!

The baby is 13 months old, sorry if I’m a bit dim but by that age my sons could walk( toddle) and most certainly support themselves standing holding onto a seat while I folded a lightweight buggy…they weren’t using heavier prams by then.
I came on to suggest for a bay to ditch the pram and use a sling instead, or even have pram but put baby into sling while waiting for train, collapse pram and be ready to get on and reverse coming off. But then realised baby too big at 13 months for sling….but really by then my 2 were perfectly capable of standing for a few minutes even clutching my leg for support whilst I collapsed a pram.

She can walk. But she obviously can't be trusted to "just stand and hold onto my leg" on a busy train platform. If your son at 13 months understood to stay still and hold onto your leg while you collapsed a buggy, then that's incredibly impressive. My DD would be off, potentially toddling towards a dangerous situation. With no second pair of hands I am understandably not prepared to take that risk.

Second part was supposed to be bold! @EmilyBolton

Besides all of which, it's resolved now!

Thanks everyone 😀

A 13 months definitely can still us a sling. My 2 year old is in a sling most weeks. They sell them from 0-3/4 years.
we have toddler Tula now, super handy for him walking half the way, then needing a carry the last mile or so back through the woods.

I used it when in London recently and it was handy to pop him in the sling so he was safe at tube stations, and fold the compact pram up and just carry it on tube. I then had the pram for walking around so I didn’t carry him all day.
if you plan on taking the train often, especially is to places with stairs and no lift, then a toddler sling is a great purchase

i would not trust my 2 year old at a train station to not walk off if I wasn’t hiking his hand, and he’s been running since 9months! He’d be off like a rocket

Get yourself a child carrier and save yourself the hassle

I'm pretty certain that poster has never had a 13 month old. At that age neither of my kids could walk but could stand holding onto something. If I had of let my kids do that on train platform they would have sat down and speed crawled away into danger as they where both very fast. Most people will help and I usually left it open near the train doors. Never leave a baby on the platform, that's just asking for trouble.

I think the etiquette is to just keep your baby happy so they aren't moaning. It's not just annoying, it's upsetting to see a baby in a chair where all the parents do to their squeaming is go 'sshhh, shh' the whole time while the poor baby suffers.

You can sit them in the buggy as there are usually areas big enough, and if they're free go there. I've taken mine out and sat on the floor by the door before and just played with her in a quiet way. People were looking on in approval and enjoyed seeing my baby happy.

I don't think it's okay to let a baby make lots of fuss or noise in a public place, if it can be helped.

Long distance or suburban train service? On the suburban ones we stood near the doors with the buggy if it's just a short journey. Long distance trains you'd have struggled to board with a buggy so I transferred baby into sling and collapsed buggy before boarding.

I’ve actually just got on the Norwich to London train and collapsed the buggy for the first time ever! Didn’t want to sit in the designated bit as was looking crowded and noisy. Went to quiet end of train, wheeled on, baby lay on big muslin square on floor for the seconds it took to collapse buggy and shove it in a bike rack. He’s currently asleep on me so obviously will have to do it all again when we need to get off, plus pack up all our stuff but worth it for a bit of peace and quiet.

*first time ever had to collapse in public transport, not literally first time ever collapsing the thing, that would have actually been stressful