Pushchair fight on bus

[Partygal]

After picking my child up from her child minder today, I arrived the bus stop to find two women with buggies waiting.

Knowing that the driver wouldn’t let three of us on, I walked round the corner to the previous stop and got on there.

When it arrived at the next stop, sure enough only mum was allowed on - the other was told to wait 30 minutes for the next bus. I was screamed at and called a cunt and a queue jumper by one mum who tried to shove me off the bus.

I don’t think I did anything wrong, nor did the police when they turned up after being called by the driver.

What the fuck is wrong with people?

That’s different. A train takes many more passengers per stop and there are lots of doors on a train.

If you had any intention of folding, wouldn’t you have been better to use the time between the stops to do so, rather than justify not, based on the woman’s reaction to you?

if you have a pram with a carrycot and a small baby it's physically impossible. I'd need 2 hands just to take the pram apart, it doesn't fold small and add bags I'm not sure how you'd do this?

If you know you’re going to be using buses, you buy a suitable buggy/pram. You don’t expect that your choice means others can’t use the bus. It’s simple really.

And you’d have to fold down or get off if a person with disabilities such as a wheelchair user were to board.

I have seen many a wheelchair user have to sit for HOURS in the cold/rain at the hospital station because busses where 'full' (filled at the standard station down the road) but where actually just packed with lazy mothers who won't mildly inconvenience themselves to fold their prams down and hold their child so the person who has no other choice about the matter can board.

I’ve seen this (crammed standing right at the back of the bus so I couldn’t do anything). It was horrible. The lazy arse parents taking up the wheelchair space just laughed.

I’ll never forget the utter selfishness.

Britain needs more and better public transport. Really, nobody should have to fold up a pram. And yes, parents need prams. I wouldn't want to carry shopping, a newborn and a nappy bag all day long, would you?

Frankly the other two could have literally walked to the other stop as well. lol So that’s on them.

@ExpensiveOops hmmm, really, how would that work? We have 2 people who are together, waiting for the bus. OP sees them and walks to the previous stop. Even if they'd noticed her, and even if they knew what she was doing, then what? They both also walk to the previous stop, but then they're now numbers 2 and 3 in the queue right? They still lose out. And where does it stop, do they continue leap frogging each other until the 2 that were waiting first get to a stop before OP? 🙄

I have done just what the OP did minus the buggy, walked to an earlier, quieter stop as it looked like the number of people waiting would fill the bus and I wouldn't get on.

Anyone else at the stop had that option.

There are a gazillion rules and regulations regarding buggies and wheelchairs, none of which the driver is empowered to enforce. Small part of the reason they can't get bus drivers.

No one should have to work with the public.

I've seen a woman refuse to move an EMPTY buggy from the wheelchair space for a wheelchair user.

If I were in charge, no unfolded buggies would be allowed on buses.

Yanbu. Ffs what's wrong with people they could have done the same.

It is a bit sneaky and then not to fold your buggy because one of the other mums shoved you is petty too. I don’t advocate shoving but the other mum was probably just wanting to get home like you.

It's happened to me so many times in the past (mine are out of buggies now) where I have been left at the bus stop with a fractious baby, rocking the pram and singing "The Wheels on the Bus go round and round" to pass the time while we waited for the next one.
I even invented a few more verses "The mummies on the bus say I was here first".
Seriously though I feel for anyone who is left stranded.
I now have a son in a wheelchair and that can be a nightmare too.

I'm old enough to have always had to fold the buggy, so I find it hard to understand why people don't these days.

I agree. I think it should be mandatory on public transport as it leaves more room for standing passengers. I've been on trains where it was near impossible to get down the aisle because of buggies in the gangway.

It may not be a big deal if you live somewhere where you get a bus every 10 minutes, but we only get 10 buses a day, so it can be a long wait if you have to let one go because it's full of buggies.

Some of these messages 😂😂

OP, YANBU. Think smarter not harder and all that jazz!

Surprised the OP is getting a hard time, she was not being sneaky, just more switched on. The moralising and hand wringing here is astonishing.

My local tube stop gets incredibly busy in the mornings, instead of waiting forever I would jump on the outbound train one stop cross the platform and get a seat on the nearly empty inbound train. Never saw it as queue jumping.

Surprised the OP is getting a hard time, she was not being sneaky, just more switched on.

Agree!

It really isn't always possible to easily deal with a baby/toddler (or several), shopping bags and folding up a buggy on a busy bus though, particularly without help! Have many of the people suggesting it, every tried to do it, often when the bus is already moving (which is often the case) and lurching standing passengers all over the place?

I do get that many buggies/prams really aren't suitable for use on a bus (as a rule of thumb if it doesn't easily wheel on board from the front entrance it shouldn't be allowed on).

Surprised the OP is getting a hard time, she was not being sneaky, just more switched on. The moralising and hand wringing here is astonishing.

People are conflating two separate issues: 1) walking to another stop, which is 100% fine and 2) not folding up her buggy, which is more dubious.

When my eldest was a baby (now 11yo so not too long ago!) I lived somewhere where the buses were 3 times a day, not including Wednesdays or Sundays. We all had folding pushchairs, as otherwise we all couldn't get on and there was no pavements on the 5 miles of country lanes into town. Its amazing what you could do when you needed too...

I passed my driving test the day before her first birthday. Think it was the best birthday present I could have got her!

I think no 1 is more dubious than no 2

The other women recognised you from the other bus stop, while you were on the bus. Then proceeded to shove you, even though she was not allowed on the bus. I have not read through the thread mind, so I may have got that wrong. Either way, it all sounds a bit much.

Well done, you used your brain. I always do the same as the bus stop outside my house gets so packed. What if there has already been two peaks on the bus when it got the previous stop. Would Op have been in the wrong then.

Why is travelling in a car better for the kid, it isn't

And what would you be expected to do with a tiny baby in a lie flat bassinet that doesn't easily fold. Or a newborn in an expensive folding pram, who needs to be held with two hands, and a toddler?

It's a nightmare getting a bus with a small baby and a toddler who falls when the bus stops if you don't hold them in the seat. I don't drive so I have no other option. I agree wheelchairs are the priority but it's pretty nasty to insist mothers are housebound.

It really isn't always possible to easily deal with a baby/toddler (or several), shopping bags and folding up a buggy on a busy bus though, particularly without help!

Totally agree!!

This story makes no sense. Do you know the woman? How did she recognise you? How did she get on to push you if there was no room? How long did the bus sit there waiting for the police? I call BS

I never realised the only options available were either a very specific pram/bus combination or housebound.