Reborn dolls in the pram bay

[gezelligheid]

A couple of times now I've been unable to get on the bus with my baby in a pram because there are two local women who take their reborn dolls out in prams and take up the pram bays. I know they are reborn dolls as I've seen the dolls in their pram.

I understand people have reborn dolls for many different reasons but to take up a space meaning a real baby can't get on the bus surely isn't fair?

I've complained to the bus service and they've said they cannot monitor whether babies are real or not so if they get on the bus first I should ask them to put their pram down upon boarding.

I'm worried this will cause an altercation on the bus so I'm wondering AIBU to say something on the bus even though it may be embarrassing for the women?

What country do you live in ?
I have never heard of this

😂😂Bloody hilarious!!!!

😆😆😆

😂😆I'm having a great time tonight on here!!! Hilarious!!!

Haha thanks. He was pretty adorable. He's 19 now and baby lives in a drawer. His early promise at being a good dad didn't last

Am I the only one who thinks those reborn dolls look creepy AF

@inisisle hm, another option is to ask them if they can spare a diaper (because OP just ran out and baby had a diarhea explosion) 😅 see if they have any babystuff with them (of course not) and then call them out for fraud 🤷🏼‍♀️

Omg 😳 you're actually serious? And never drop your moon cup? Good grief wtf has happened to this world and the gross people in it? Is class a thing of the past? Now we make gross jokes about mooncups and women playing with dolls in prams on the bus has equal rights to a struggling mum and her real baby? You lot will eventually live in a prison of your own making. You'll be the authors of your own demise.......smfh

Omg 😳 you're actually serious? And never drop your moon cup? Good grief wtf has happened to this world and the gross people in it? Is class a thing of the past? Now we make gross jokes about mooncups and women playing with dolls in prams on the bus has equal rights to a struggling mum and her real baby? You lot will eventually live in a prison of your own making. You'll be the authors of your own demise.......smfh

And you'll live in a prison of your lack of comprehension since NO ONE has said they have equal rights.

😳. . . . . .😂

Lack of compassion? Wtaf are you on about? I live in the real world, in my day people didn't walk round pushing dolls in prams and making life hard for REAL mother's struggling on the bus with their REAL babies!! How bloody selfish to take up the space making mum wait for the next bus or struggle with bags, slings, folding a stroller so some bint can sit there with a doll's pram! And IM lacking compassion? Fk that!! Tollerence and appathy are the last "qualities" of a dying society. Yeah we each live in a prison of our own making thankfully I worked hard, brought up real children, tended to my garden, went abroad n my cell is really nice. Thankfully I wasn't a selfish person who played with rubber babies when I was fit enough to have a good life, not would I have been one who tollerated their bs!! The world has gone backwards, as has the general IQ.

Hi OP

could you maybe contact Arriva on social media to ask about their policy?

It would mean that they have to look at it once it’s public and act accordingly.

It does sound horrible for you. I always had anxiety taking a pushchair on any form of public transport so to add this possibility into the journey would make it worse. And you are 1 vs 2 with a vulnerable living baby. Regardless of mental health/ baby loss/ addiction, the bus company should have guidelines and not put it on you to deal with.

This is really on the bus company to sort out and you should make this more public via twitter etc.

Nothing wrong with my comprehension either, there's loads of comments here that are as weird as the doll ladies, people expecting op to have compassion for them by simply wearing a sling, whilst pushing a real baby in a chair laden with shopping bags, then, "popping" the baby in said sling, removing the bags, nappies, wipes etc, folding down the chair and squash up with bags n sling baby and folded chair whilst the doll ladies enjoy the pram space. You need to grasp the comprehension of how absolutely ridiculous this is and if people don't start standing up for themselves life is going to get really hard

Lack of compassion?

I think you read it wrong @Emz6103

It was lack of comprehension. ........

Lack of comprehension - as poster has said they are entitled to the same rights as a real mother and her actual child.

@Emz6103

as NO poster

I did this via twitter before making a complaint and they directed me to the form to do an investigation. Since their response to the investigation I've replied via email stating the health and safety aspects of this matter but haven't had anything back from them yet. Will send another tweet tomorrow and see if they get back to me with a proper answer!

(Attached their response on twitter but hidden my name and the area for obvious reasons!)

Hi Op, I had a similar situation when my daughter was newborn. I would always go to my bus-stop to find 1, 2, more mother's with prams, (often random mothers). Operating on first come, first served, I would never be able to get on the bus, and I would have to let 1 or 2 buses go before I was able to get on. Then one day it occurred to me to walk backwards to the bus stop before. It was a quieter stop, and most times, (but not always), I was able to get on with my pram. From that day onwards, if I was going somewhere busy, with a popular centralised bus stop, I would walk in the opposite direction of travel, one or two stops back, and catch the bus from there, where it was more likely I would be able to get oonthe bus with my pram.

A very close relative of mine has a newborn doll and takes it out and about with her and has a pram and accessories for it. She has autism and emotional/developmental delay. She believes she is ready to start a family of her own but for many reasons, this cannot happen for her. Her doll/her baby is her security in a world which she struggles to make sense of and anyone mis-handling her belongings - doll included - would cause her a great deal of distress and discomfort. This is just for those of you who think it is ok to even joke about doing things to people’s property like - ‘picking it up by the foot and hanging it upside down’.
Just for the record as well - whenever she has been -politely - asked on the bus to fold down her pram, she has happily obliged with no fuss (she pops her baby in its sling). Maybe decency in just asking respectfully would go further than you think.

So with you on this @Diffrent. The world has gone mad, what are we breeding.
OP I feel for you, I really do.

This aside, people should still offer, rather than OP having to ask and risk being told to go away and create a situation she obviously is trying to avoid.

If the OP doesn’t know these people they may not be in a position to just offer to do it, like my relative wouldn’t because she doesn’t process things the same way other people do. Just consider the other perspective. If you want or need something, sometimes you have to take the initiative. Just because someone is inconvenienced it doesn’t make them a victim.

Well if she's happy to pop her doll baby into a sling why don't you ask her to consider doing it all the time if she's traveling on public transport? If she's happy to pop it into a sling explain to her that the space is needed for real babieswho need to be in a pram and need that space. Maybe suggest that she leaves the pram at home as these mother's are likely to have bags full of food, bottles, nappies etc. The doll doesn't weigh much and she can carry the bag. Problem sorted. Teach her we can all use the bus if we are respectful of others as you so rightly implied that we should be respectful to her being responsible is also a valuable lessons.

I'm unsure if you've read all of my responses or not but as I've mentioned the reason I'm wary of asking at all is because I think it would cause an altercation. These women who are always on the bus together once pushed in front of me at the bus station so they could get on the bus together meaning I couldn't get on at all despite being there first. Asking 2 women who are so brazen to jump in the queue with their dolls in prams "respectfully" probably wouldn't get me anywhere, it would probably embarrass them and may cause an unsafe situation for me and my baby. I've also mentioned that I suspect they may be addicts from their appearance (perhaps judgemental and not really the point of the post but does highlight why I'm more cautious of an altercation)

I'd really just like the bus company to have a clearer policy or do more than their cop out response (which I've also posted screenshots of) and I'd prefer a bus driver to step in rather than me having to ask them to vacate the pram area. The bus drivers request would bear more weight than mine and I could be seen to be causing problems on the bus if I were to ask.

I know someone with a very similar situation and some of the replies on this thread are making me feel sick.