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?

She was p[robably given the buggy by a wellemaning MIL 9aren;t all crap buggies?)

Or had the easier to move bit in the attic stowed away for later when the car wouldn't start

Who knows?

But RB is right, loads of reasons why someone would accidentally land themselves in an awkward sit- and unless you really cannot (bad back,lots of small kids with you, etc) then its decent to offer.

But another woman did, bird. very quickly, she asked staff, they sadi no, no surprse. health and safety nonsense doesn't allow you to have a laff and a cup of tea with a colleague these days.
then a lady quickly helped. like we , would all do./ i would.
great. job doen. but she went to the paepers? why exacly . silly woman. needs to wake up and smelle the coffee !!

In fairness, RockBird, it's not as if stairs are such a rare thing nowadays that she could be forgiven for forgetting they exist...

I do admit that it is a lot of years since I last used a buggy, but I could fold the McClaren superdreamer one handed, and the little umbrella folding one onehanded too. But I am definitely not au fait with buggies today, and maybe it just isn't possible to fold many of them one handed.

Rockbird, not one poster has said they wouldn't have helped her if they saw her

in fact I bet every one of us would help a struggling pushchair-toter if we had the capacity to do so

but you can't venture forth on a journey and just expect the world to come to a standstill to help you

Actually, Preston station is very much like this. There is a disabled lift but you have to walk a long way round to it, it's very often broken and is set aside from the rest of the station in a very lonely and secluded corner that stinks of piss.

To get to the other platform you are faced with stairs such as those in the picture.

I had to carry my buggy up the steps, but usually a passenger would help me up. I never asked the station staff, I would just normally wait until someone good looking kind came along and I'd ask them. No-one ever refused.

If I was a staff member I'd help regardless of the health and safety rules. I couldn't watch a mum struggle on her own.

I think it's good to flag these things up as health and safety legislation is stupid and crazy at times.

I wouldn't have gone to The Sun though, perhaps all the other newspapers turned her down.

Laquitar would only offer to help if she was silently struggling though...

OK, fair point MrsB. I just didn't like the feeling I was getting that someone was in need of help and there would be some who would resent giving them help because 'I managed so why shouldn't you?'. Be nice, help people

I think she will be very embarrassed about this in a year or so.

I travel fairly frequently on the train with my 2 boys and my P&T, which I can happily bump up and down steps to get over a bridge - even with the boys in....

BUT, I do remember a time when DS1 was a few months old (pre-P&T) and we got off at B'ham New Street; the lifts were all out of order, and no bugger would help me up millions of steps.... until I started weeping

Anyway, if you ask the staff will normally escort you across the tracks when it is safe, to save the effort of going up/down steps and crossing bridges

Too right, RockBird.

I am put in mind of hikers. When you're hiking somewhere where the terrain is a bit tricky and there are fewer people around, everyone says hello when they come across each other.

Do they think, "I won't talk to that person or make eye contact because I don't know them?" No.

Do they think, "What are they doing on my mountain?" No.

They think, "Here is a like minded person, oh yes, and by the way, we may need each others' help if there is a weather disaster, so we ought to be pleasant and acknowledge we are all here".

We are all on this planet together, and it's not a competition to see who can be the most independent or the most resilient, when a communal effort can make it easier for all, and make life more pleasurable and sociable to boot.

Anyway, in her shoes I think I'd have called a taxi .

In the hiking scenario it would be more like seeing someone up a mountain and them expecting you to carry their heavy rucksack because they had packed too much stuff

ffs, you lot! this is why women never get anywhere and have to struggle along as second class citizens and all round workhorses...

as soon as one sticks her head over the parapet and shouts "oi! this ain't fair!" the rest go "ooh, 'ark at madam over there!who does she think she is, I managed without maternity leave/equal pay/shared parental responsibilities/ adequate toilet facilities [insert other privilege here as required]and I had five kids/ ten bob a week/ a section performed in a failing hospital by a drunk surgeon with a broken milk bottle etc etc...and I still had tea on the table at half five"

You were lucky

Oh please don't start on the Four Yorkshiremen. I've got work to do and I can't access Youtube on this computer!

Washersaurus You are joking about being escorted across the tracks aren't you?

' a section performed in a failing hospital by a drunk surgeon with a broken milk bottle etc etc'

I once had minor surgery performed by a Dr who ahd the sdhakes and was telling me about how only caffeine addiction was keeping him going after three days with no break, does that counts?

(OK so it was a tiny growth removal,and a long time ago, but can't waste a good story and all..... )

I think plenty of people on this thread would have offered her a hand if they saw her struggling - that's not the point.
It's the sense of entitlement - she has a baby and a MAHOOSIVE buggy therefore the staff should help her?!

Er, no! They not obliged to assist her. Yes it is annoying but to go pouting to the papers is ridiculous. It's a learning curve for her.

hardly think a harrumphing mum with gargantuan pram is representative snapshot of feminism and all malaise wimmin have

sisterhood isnt merely agreeing with every woman with a gripe. she has overstated her case somewhat

PS: wonder who carried pram down station stairs for the photo opportunity? and given it was one off as car wouldn't start call a cab

Nappy - I doubt she's joking - that's what happens at our station for people in wheelchairs (and I have seen buggies being escorted across as well). It's the only to get to the Southbound platform.

"and given it was one off as car wouldn't start call a cab"

yes - of course I'm sure that was very pratical when she lives in the sticks and presumably the hospital is in a town - taxi would probably have cost a fortune

well a gargantuan pram and stairs wasn't practical either was it?we don't know she is/was too skint for a cab. maybe if she received a fee from the sun she can put it toward car maintenance or a smaller buggy

I honestly think stories like this do women who have children no favours at all....and no, I wasn't joking about being escorted across the tracks. They have designated crossing points at a lot of stations - at my local station, if you ask, the station master (or trusty assistant) calls the people in the signal box to check if it is safe to cross, and then escorts us over to the other platform.

I think it is the sense of entitlement in this story that gets me. Someone DID help her anyway!

Actually, I don't know if someone did help her, I may have made that up

How do you get down the massive drop and back up again?

Those stairs don't look terribly high to me, although the buggy looks frankly rather strange and unwieldy. There are loads of London stations with a similar set up, and I'm sure the same is true nation wide. I think in principle making all stations wheelchair accessible is a good one, but the cost of adapting all of the bridges to be long enough to install lifts at both ends, plus putting a lift in would be huge, and there may be logistical reasons as to why ramps or road level access isn't possible I suspect if disabled access were compulsory at all stations it might well result in many stations closing. There has been a lot of investment at more heavily used/bigger stations, and obviously any new stations for any form of public transport should have disabled access. I found this about the rail strategy, stating that £42m is spent every year: www.dft.gov.uk/transportforyou/access/rail/rfa/railwaysforallstrategy3?page=6 although whether that money is still there to be spent is another matter.

As for this mum, well I guess she has learned that that buggy and public transport are probably not a good combination. But most parents who use public transport do figure out ways to make it work, because you can't expect there to be help all the time (many stations aren't manned to start with).

Oh, and it wasn't a H&S issue in any case - the train rep said that there were no rules about helping mothers with buggies, just that it wasn't their priority.