to want to ram people in the legs with my pushchair when going through automatic doors?

[IWantAChickAndADuck]

Surely I am not the only one that gets seriously fucked off with hoards of fit healthy people cramming through automatic doors, meaning I have to squeeze though with buggy + child + shopping when there is a push door right next to it that no one uses?!!?!

When I have a buggy, people in lifts bug me. Doors are a piece of cake though. Really, it's not difficult at all. I suggest you learn the skill - it will come in very useful and reduce your blood pressure.

barak - glad it isn't just me

There was a group of about five adults gathered around one buggy and just having a chat blocking the whole penguin bit. DS loves penguins because of the whole Happy Feet thing so Dh got all gruff

I sometimes think that new parents do the zoo bit because they have this tiny thing and have absoloutely no notion what the fuck they should do with it. When you get back to work on monday you can say "we took bubbykins to the zoo" and sound like a great parent even though you just walked around and stopped every now and again whilst drinking lots of coffee. It is more acceptable than "we sat on the sofa, drank a lot and watched X-factor".
But bubbykins is just going to sit there and occasionally shit. She doesn't really care.

Costagirl - agree re tate Modern, it is a nightmare!

OP, YABU to expect any kind of common courtesy. It´s just out of fashion isn´t it.
I prefer the assertive comment to ramming people though, this definitely embarrasses some people, which is very satisfying..

Zazen - I'm not braving the outside today (bar the school run) lol @ klaxon

Dragon - push doors I do find difficult when I have pushchair with baby + buggy board with child + shopping. Especially when they're the really heavy ones.

pagwatch - clearly I am understanding of people who need to use automatic doors but not of the groups of teenage girls hogging the doorway/people hopping over the pushchair to get in front/people glued to their phone oblivious of anyone else so just steam on into you, then tutting as if we shouldn't be there And for the record, when we went to the zoo recently, we kept the buggy at a distance

invlanderen - sounds a good idea, although I don't think I'd be able to censor my language if I opened my mouth

Since I had DS I've discovered lifts in places I never knew they existed - I would never get the lift when I didn't have have to. But I'm astonished by the amount of lazy feckers obviously fit people who use them, eg. gaggles of teenagers etc. And there are escalators! You don't even have to climb stairs you bone idle wasters. And an escalator's gotta be faster than waiting for a lift??

And automatic doors - fair games for everyone to use, but when there are 6 sets of swing doors in our local shopping centre, and everyone's bottle-necking through the one set of automatic doors, it would be quicker to use a manual one, no?

YANBU by the way.

YABU. Lifts and automatic doors are for everyone.

Why does having a buggy mean that you can't possibly wait for the next lift or wait a minute for a door? Other people are in a hurry too.

That said I'll hold open doors for people pushing buggies and let them enter the lift first but I believe that anyone who cares to use lifts should be able to do so.

I use lifts and I suppose I am fit and healthy enough but I have a phobia of escalators so avoid them as much as possible,plus I have dyspraxia so my balance is pretty poor and I find it difficult and nervewracking to stand on a crowded escalator while being jostled by others.

I can use stairs but because I have problems with my perception if there are more than a few stairs then I find it difficult to distinguish the steps from the gaps and find myself missing steps and often tripping.

So I'll continue to use the lifts even if I do look fit and healthy. As Pagwatch said you can never tell who has a health issue that makes stairs,automatic doors etc difficult for them.

Lifts and automatic doors are for everyone who needs them. The rest of the rabble should politely give way to those people who are unable to use them. And don´t. This is why I sympathise with the OP.

They're for anyone who wants to use them as far as I'm concerned. I don't count them as equivalent to accessible toilets. Not that I want to start that debate again.

No, they are for everyone. They're not like a disabled parking space.

I've done my fair share of shopping with 1, 2 or 3 children and it's really not that difficult. Not worth getting overly het up about. As I said, lift user do irritate me but not to the point I want to ram them with a buggy.

ffs stop expecting the world to stop and look at you in awe and wonder and treat you like some celestial being because you managed to have a child.

"expecting the world to stop and look at you in awe and wonder and treat you like some celestial being because you managed to have a child."

Thats not what I'm expecting, that would be weird

I don't think lifts/automatic doors should only be used by those that need them, just that others that would find it much easier to use a pushdoor/staircase should give prioty to those that don't really have a choice.

I think you´re probving my point that common decency is out of fashion. If I´m out with DD1 (no buggy) I make it a point to teach her to be aware of people around her and that some people have greater needs than we do. I don´t like the 2 fingers up to the world approach personally or the "I´m alright Jack" idea. This is not about the legalities of who is entitled to step into a lift, it´s a question of common decency.

Where I live I don´t have real problems of access with the pram Dragon but that doesn´t mean I don´t have sympathy with others I have seen who do experience problems.

Agree Mayor Quimby.

I am still shocked that I didn't get a Distinguished Service Medal for managing to travel on a non-pram friendly bus with baby and pram back in the olden days. I also used to live in darkest Devon where they didn't have electic doors and managed the task of opening and closing doors without panic attacks and fits of vapours (top tip: turn around and open the door with your arse and back in).

So if you struggled, everybody else shouldn´t get any favours either, is that it?

No, I didn't struggle. I just got on with it.

No, but I think thoughts of ramming people with your buggy and Boudicca chariots suggestions are going a bit far, aren't they.

And to be honest, I don't think I said I suffered. The point I was trying to make is that opening doors with pram in tow is not a difficult thing to do.

And mayor, this is not about expecting people to look with awe and wonder, it´s about getting the public to ACKNOWLEDGE the presence of a person with a pram, instead of ignoring them entirely. Nothing to do with medals either.

But of course you want to champion your right to be selfish/inconsiderate. Wow, great parental role model!

YABU, but it's ok to think it if you are having a bad day, the buggy keeps getting heavier and everything you need is on a different floor (no matter which floor you are on)

The lifts and automatic doors are for everyone. Personally I go for the manual doors because it's quicker, but those in my local shopping center are so hard to push you have walk fast and throw your weight against them to get them open. If I have trouble then I bet a lot of less fit people do too.

Oh ok, I hadn't thought about that approach. I will 'back through' one of the 6 unused push doors with my pushchair, whilst everyone else piles through the automatic...

YABU. I use automatic doors without the pushchair a) cos I find them heavy to push and b) cos i usually have a load of shopping bags.

I personally wouldn't use the lift because the escalator is quicker as you don't have to wait for it. Even running down the stairs would probably be quicker than waiting for a lift. However some people have phobias/disabilities which mean they can only use the lift.

It's just common courtesy and manners to see if someone else has more need than you.

I often forget when I have the buggy that I need to be aware of other people so I try to make an effort.

Having said that, I appreciate other people can be weird. For example, I used to work in a bank that had a door that could be opened manually or automatically. There was one man who refused to use the automatic button (whilst moaning about how heavy the door was) because it had a disabled symbol on it... and what would people say if they saw him taking it away from disabled people.

Honestly it's not like there are a limited number of times you can use an automatic door. "Sorry lady in wheelchair, you can't use the automatic door button because Mr X has been in twice today and it's all finished now".

Arse first is the way to go. Push open with fat arse, swing buggy round and push through (trickier with a buggy board but still doable). Looks very impressive when you've got it sorted.

nappyaddict - I agree they are much easier, even without a pushchair, but would you step in front of someone with a buggy to use it?

Dragon - why can't the people piling through the automatic door use the push door (with their 2 free hands) when they see someone with a pushchair/wheelchair is trying to get through?