Station staff refused to help her carry buggy so she went to the papers. Has she got a point?

[Spidermama]

Here.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Part of me thinks there must be lifts for disabled people she could have used but maybe I'm being unsisterly. I kind of feel sorry for the staff who've been blamed and find themselves in the paper.

What do you think?

Pixel, that method of carrying is guaranteed to damage your back...

I say that whilst laying flat out from just such an injury... be warned!!!

At the end of the day, this is just a woman who has a relatively new baby, and as such has not yet gone beyond the stage of thinking she needs special treatment. I remember beinfg like that. Its just the next stage after needing help/not being able to do things because you're pregnant!

Once she realises in retrospect that small babies weigh nothing, and large wheeled buggies can withstand and absorb bumping down some steps, she will be supremely embarrassed about this story.

I fondly remember the days of taking a double buggy on the train, and 2 carseats for the other end of the journey, seats piled into the buggy, so making ds1 walk! And trying to balance the lot and hold his nand up and down the steps.

Just trying to work out what I'm precious about now, at tis stage of parenthood (kids are 3 and 6).

I'd have gotten a taxi or cancelled the appointment if my car broke.

But I've got three kids to manage and the 1-year-old is huge and heavy.

My children all love or loved being bumped upstairs as babies.

It's a nearly daily occurence in Edinburgh, city of steps, so got the hang of it right away.

They all giggled away whilst being bumped.

May not apply in this case, but when DS was 10 weeks I still had some post c-section pain, two wrists in splints because of preg-related tendonitis, and the strong likelihood of bursting into tears if anyone looked the wrong way at me! We could all do with helping eachother out a bit more.

"a lot of stations dont have lifts and disabled poeple are expected to catch a train in the wrong direction to a station that has a lift then swap sides."

Riven, that's so preposterous I'd like to not believe you. But sadly I have no reason to think you'd make it up.

How can that happen in this day and age?

Once more The Sun attempts to create news out of something which is neither news, nor interesting. Am astonished they gave it print space tbh. And really can't see why she went to the press: unless she fancied getting baby's face in as one for the album. Seems a non-event all round to me.

MMOC unfortunely what Riven said it true. Our local station has no lift and you are expected to go to the next station where there is a lift and swap side there and then travel back

OK, two points that might have been raised already (I've skimmed). These two really annoy me;

'Use a sling'
I had never contemplated a sling till I joined MN. Many many people don't use MN and slings aren't exactly common in the wider world these days. Great if you're aware of them, not so great if you're not.

'Get a smaller buggy'
So Mr and Mrs X have looked at their budget and have ££ to spend on a pushchair. They choose the best one for their needs. Maybe they don't have the £195 for a Techno on top of that, which is the smallest Mac that a 10 week old should be in.

Yes lots of people cope, but that's no excuse to be unhelpful. No one thinks about anyone else anymore but everyone is so quick to excuse it.

buy a pram appropriate to your circumstances,if you predominately travel independently you need to be able to manage said buggy alone.or if your usual station has stairs then you need to consider that, when purchasing your buggy.ability to bump it up/down independently

no point buying a gargantuan pram that you travel independently with.you shouldn't purchase a buggy that renders you dependent upon others

a bit like buying a hulking car you cannot park that is too big for allocated space. just because a big pram like buzz is available to purchase doesn't mean you should

or get a lightweight for travel and big cart for long park walks

As someone who has had mobility problems in the past I've been refused assistance in stations in the past even though I have asked. I'm not surprised that this woman was also refused. You get used to it and try to organise your journey so you can manage by yourself.

If someone does agree or offer help, then brilliant, but you can't EXPECT it nowadays.

but she was GOING to use the car - it wouldn't start - so presumably she didn't use the train very often - so therefore wouldn't have considered getting it over to the otherside of the train station???

But as someone already said, her car was out of action so presumably she usually drives?

Or just maybe your average parent wants a pram that will do the sprog from birth, which a lightweight buggy won't.

There are loads of stations without disabled access, including my local one. Where the footbridge is too high even for those bits of kit they I've seen at places like Clapham Junction to allow wheelchairs up the stairs.

Scandalous but no-one is prepared to put up the money. And the costs of doing anything on the railway have ballooned since privatisation - it costs 10 times to put up a footbridge now than it did under BR, even adjusting for inflation. So when Network Rail or whoever is spending £300k putting up a footbridge, they aren't going to fork out even more money for a lift. Unless it's a big station with very high passenger numbers.

Use a sling comments make me too - have used one, and they can be great, but you are stuck holding the baby in arms or sling for the duration of your trip. If going to someone's house no bother, you can put them down on the floor, but you can't do that in a cafe, library, at the hospital..

Like Thandeka, I got an ebay bargain on a Quinny Buzz. I normally drive, but when I had to get a train with my 7 week old DS, I didn't take the bloody thing (used the sling). By virtue of generally knowing what trains and train stations can be like, I knew instantly that my Buzz wasn't going to work! Sorry, but when you have a baby, you have to start thinking about these sorts of things in advance and not just assume you'll get help. I'm grateful for help with the pram when I receive it but I don't expect it, and always have a plan for how I'm going to do things.

And I agree with ilovemydogandmrobama, she could have taken it apart and carried the carseat in one hand and frame in the other. It's definitely possible, I can certainly do it.

I can understand why the station staff wouldn't want to help if the baby was still in the buggy, but I can't see why they couldn't help with the buggy if she carried the baby.

The way to use the sling would be to have the baby in it whilst bumping the buggy down the steps. Have done a lot of bumping in my day. Always used to take sling and buggy when I went out on my own. Not difficult. Wheelchairs otoh are a complete pain.

Yes, if slings are on your radar then great, good idea. DD is nearly 2 so I've been aware of babies out and about for about 2.5 years. I can safely say in that time I have seen about 6 slings in use. Which would suggest that most people don't use them and probably don't know about them. So it's not much of an argument that one, unless you're going to take out a huge ad in the paper to publicise them. Most people think baby = pushchair.

I have to say, OP, an absolute no to your original suggestion of using the disabled lift. I'm disabled, a woman with a child is not. While I believe she should have been helped, she can 't just use resources. This is similar to times when I've tried to get a disabled space at Sainsbury's and found able-bodied adults with toddlers using them as parent and child. I once had the audacity to point out to someone just parking 'oh sorry, this is disabled not parent and child, they're round the corner' to the response of 'it's the same thing'. No it bloody isn't!

I meant this woman with a child, not a woman with a child! Of course some women with children are disabled. Blah. Sorry...

Vivia well said

parking in a disabled bay without a badge is illegal and plain wrong because you are blocking the space.

Using a lift at a station isn't because anyone else only has to wait a few moments until the lift returns. And the lifts aren't labelled 'disabled only', they are for anyone with heavy luggage or buggies or whatever.

Unless you are talking about some special kind of lift I've never seen..?

I feel a bit sorry for her- sling is fine/ get a smaller buggy... it was a one off in an emergency to get to a hospital when the car broke down. I have had huge prams in the past becuase I never used PT, had needed to forsome reason I probably wouldnt have wantedto change buggy for the trip (andwould have needed to catch bus to the buggy shop...)

If this was regular then I'd be very . OTOH have no idea why she went tothe papers.

You can't use disabled spaces, heck I cant with my two disabled boys (technical crapery), although alllocal liftsare labelled disabled and buggieswhich imo is fair enough. I remember reading on MN about a lady with a toddler and buggy bumping down the staits rather ythan use the fulllifts who fell and lost her sixth month pregnancy. I would never, ever criticise somone for playing safe in those circs. Meand my buggy plus asd kids can wait a minute in that sort of circs.

There also has to be an element of kindness here- for circs like the PG a;dy, or indeed for people who have no disability but temporary issues: I trekked up 3floors at Uni in immense pain with SPD before someone yelled at me to use the disabled lift(rule issues). In retrospect that was stupid, of course.

Are lifts at train stations only for disabled people then?

lifts arent just for disabled people.

anyway, i have this buggy and its utterly fab for bouncing up and down stairs. its crap on public transport though, so i tend to use a sling more. and i dont put dd4 down unless she wants to go down. usually she falls asleep in the sling and stays there for 2+ hours. its utter bliss. i get to drink in a cafe in peace