Londoners are great

[kerala]

Know there is lots of negative stuff posted about how awful Londoners are especially when you're travelling around the capital. I have found the opposite - have been travelling by tube/train quite alot lately with dd aged 1 in her buggy. I have never had to carry the buggy up steps alone. Somebody always offers/insists on helping. Men, women, old, young. Most people are friendly and dd makes the most interesting friends. I always got offered a seat when obviously pregnant.

(nb made sure I NEVER travelled with buggy in rush hour.)

Last month I stayed with a SAHM friend with 2 under 4's in Paris. We took dd in her buggy on the Metro and it was awful. Nobody helps, ever. If you want to get your buggy through a ticket barrier you have to queue up as if to buy a ticket rather than there being someone there to let you through as in the Underground. People were rude and bolshy about letting us on trains, one woman shoved me out of the way. My friend assured me it is always like this for her, and she has lived in Paris for a while.

So vowed never to moan about the tube again!

I have never once had a problem in getting the children up and down on the mainline stations (all got steps round here) - someone has always offered to help.
My mother is TBH much braver than me in taking my 2 into central london, but then she used to take my brothers (then aged 18 months and 3) to the first day of the John Lewis sales, on her own. Hats off to her.

I think it can be a vicious circle in London - you expect people to be unfriendly, so you practise pre-emptive unfriendly-ness, so people react to the fact that you're not being friendly... I have been amazed sometimes, when I've been in a good mood and not afraid to make eye contact with people, at how good-natured Londoners can be.

FWIW, I was in London yesterday and ended up carrying two prams up the stairs in two seperate cases. Having kids myslf makes me aware how difficult it is getting around the underground.
Mind you, so much for Karma, when I got to where I was going my appointment blew me out!

Whenever I took a chlld in a buggy onto the tube, there were always plenty of eager helpers.

Londoners can be lovely helping people with small children. I had a woman hoik me onto a tube at Bank station in August, as I teetered, somewhat precariously between the platform and the train with my dd(7) in my arms plus a picnic bag on one shoulder. She shamed the other people in the carriage into budging up and letting us on. My dd isn't disabled but she was nervous of stepping over the gap. It was quite a big stretch, even for an adult.

I LOVE LONDONERS!! I'm as Northern as they come and used to be irrationally scared of Southerners (I have a sizeable inferiority complex ) but then I met my gorgeous Hackney born and bred DH almost 10 years ago and have, since then, met many people from London. They are great IMHO. I think many Northerners who slag Londoners off have never actually met one, they are just continuing to support an unfounded stereotype.