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?

Car maintenance PMSL- biggest car disaster we ever had (a decade ago tomorrow, i remeber this as DH turned up at hospital where I ws in labour on the back of an AA truck) was with a one year old car where a part simply came away with no warning. Can happen to anyone.

And taxi'sareallvery well depending on where you live- here I would face a call out charge before it even took me anywhere as there are none based in the village. Taxi to DS3's SNU (we priced it when we thought about running only one car, Dh can't get by without a car so it would have to be me) @ £40.

Iam wondering if none of you have never been running later for something important becuase of a situation outside your control- I have and all you think is about getting there, practicalities like pram suitability tend to crop up afterwards.

I think most sensible people would have considered the options (taxi too expensive etc etc) and just cancelled and rearranged the appointment for another day, no?

Depends on the journey obviously and how busy the things are. I find buses often easier to get on and off with buggies, especially the ones where there is not too much height between the pavement edge and the bus...

I fail to see what the problem is. I live on the south weat coast and this is the deal at pretty much every station. It's a pita, but you deal with it. At Dawlish they do escort you across the tracks, though this is the only station where I know they do that. Going to the papers was absolutely ridiculous, especially when the buggy has air tyres that could quite easily be bumped up the stairs. If I have the Mclaren with me I just pick the whole thing up, with ds strapped in.

Oh I've often done things without sufficient planning. It's just that when I have subsequent problems I a)get on with it somehow, and mostly that's fine or people are kind (which they generally are) and b) don't seek to blame other people if things are a bit of a struggle. Going to the papers about an every day issue is not something I would really consider doing. And I would never have bought such a strange contraption - buggies seem to have gone on steroids since I had babies!

"buggies seem to have gone on steroids since I had babies!"

You see, that kind of comment makes me laugh. FFS I had a Silver Cross horse drawn carriage thing when I was a baby in the early seventies. So to say buggies these days are big is just barmy. Now I will say all this one more time as this thread is really starting to annoy me now.

1. She obviously doesn't use public transport very much and therefore probably didn't buy her buggy with that in mind. Not a crime.

2. Not everyone can afford a second buggy, especially for a one off situation. Umbrella folds are not the greatest things for small babies. I wouldn't have put dd in one when she was that age.

3. Find me a proper lie flat pram that is 'small' because I don't know of any.

4. Not everyone has a sling.

5. Some of you have made me feel very depressed. If you are able to help someone who is struggling then do. No one gives a damn how you've struggled in the past. That's over now. Help your fellow (wo)man and stop being so bloody resentful and self centred.

6. Yes of course she is stupid to go to the press. But that's not really the bit I'm interested in. She has highlighted how damn selfish people are these days. Next time I see someone struggling with heavy bags or small children, remind me to laugh and walk past. I'm sure that'll make me feel really good about myself.

"FFS I had a Silver Cross horse drawn carriage thing when I was a baby in the early seventies."

I have one now! And guess what... people help me with it

Good points Rockbird

"I think most sensible people would have considered the options (taxi too expensive etc etc) and just cancelled and rearranged the appointment for another day, no?"

well I suppose that depends on what the appointment was for - hospital check-ups at 10 weeks aren't normal are they?? I don't think I'd have thought to ring up and cancel - not at that short notice.

I would have been

"oh shit, I'm already a bit later leaving than I wanted to - takes so much longer to get out of the house with a baby than on my own, oh damn car won't start, hang on! Train, dash down to the station - oh bugger these steps are a killer with a young baby in pram and me still getting over the birth"

This is an everyday occurrence - I am highly surprised it made it to the papers - really I am!

The station I live nearest has no lifts. I carry my baby (18 months) in a sling - or use a light buggy - but then I am restricted to only travelling when I have my own helper (friend or relative), as the crossing to the other side is over a bridge. I find it difficult to carry my 18 month old, the buggy and a changebag safely. I would not be able to hold the railing when doing this. I do have back issues though.

Our station is often unmanned.

Disabled persons wishing to use our station have to travel up the line a further stop - use the disabled facilities to cross the line - and get a train coming back down the line and then they can access the correct side of the station.

I as a mother with a buggy cannot do this without paying extra fares - because I am not disabled - I have a back issue (a suspected slipped disc), I am fine most of the time - but I do have to be careful about lifting/carrying things.

Of course none of this would happen had british rail not sold the land at the opposite side of the station off - (there's now an industrial estate there), in the olden days there was a gentle slope up to the main road - where people who were disabled or with buggies could have crossed over and returned to the opposite side of the station without the need to use any stairs!

I look forwards to the day they install a "disabled" lift at our station - I would use the trains all the time if I could - they're far cheaper than the busfares in my area - and the trains are more frequent and faster than the buses.

I don't drive - sometimes it really gets me down that I cannot get out and about using public transport. I end up shopping online and not having very exciting outings walking on foot locally. I miss out on using leisure centers, going to the beach / forest, theatres, cinemas etc.
I have 4 children altogether - they miss out too.

I mainly don't use the buses because of the cost (twice the rail fare) and they are not particularly "buggy" friendly (despite the "joke" stickers on the windows saying they are)... the drivers do not wait until your young children or yourself even when carrying a baby have found a seat before setting off - so it is highly dangerous in my experience...strict timekeeping comes first to our drivers before customer service!!! Complaining does nothing.

I find I am usually offered help when out with dd in wheelchair. But then I tend to assume that the ones that don't offer have reasons of their own: living with a disabled child who doesn't look disabled, I am more aware that there could be all sorts of reasons.

The only slightly odd experience I have had lately was the bus driver who growled at me 'you'll have to move that thing if a buggy comes on', as I stepped onto his empty bus to stow dd's wheelchair into the designated wheelchair space. Takes all sorts, as they say.

I couldn't help feeling that there was probably a bloke who had been laid into by over-entitled mothers in the past.

She will have been paid a bit of money for the story by the Sun. That is probably why she chose to be in the paper.

There should be provision for disabled people, but the woman doesn't have a disability. Some train staff will be disabled, or have health problems that prevent them from carrying things up and down stairs. People cannot presume they will be helped with a buggy.

I don't have a car and bumped pushchairs up steps for years. Help is nice but not essential. There are now signs on all our local trains saying you can't have unfolded pushchairs on trains. So if she lived where I live she would have to fold it up and carry the baby anyway.

If that had been me I would have used the bus (if it was one with buggy access) rather than having to struggle with the stairs.

There are lie flat prams which are small (loola, pliko, luna, bugaboo bee, xlr, streety, trio for me all spring to mind but there are probably more) However if she does a lot of walking usually she perhaps thought one with air tyres would be more suitable.

Rockbird, I think the only thing she has highlighted is how self-centred SHE is.

She isn't aware of the personal circumstances of the members staff whom she expected to carry her buggy, and seems not to care.

If she was really that upset by her experience, she should have contacted the rail authority (?) and asked them clarify what the regulations were concerning rail travel with a buggy/pram, and complained to them directly if she felt it necessary.

I don't think anyone here has suggested that they wouldn't help someone in a similar situation; I would think that having struggled previously yourself would make you more inclined to help!

It is just that this story is lame and she should never have gone to the press with it...that is thing I find most irritating.

Yes but RockBird you would never have dreamed that you could take your large pram on a train would you?

We had a Silver Cross (second hand from the NCT, and way smaller than the ones my mother had, which as quite large children we enjoyed using as a go cart it was that big) which we used when walking to the park and very local stuff. I'm not sure it would have gone in the back of a car (we didn't have one), and as soon as ds was OK in an umbrella buggy that's where he went if he wasn't in a sling.

Apart from anything else modern monster buggies are incredibly expensive - we had a great all terrain three wheeler for my niece, but that was for going up mountains (and she didn't walk until she was five or six) when I see that sort of buggy in town I find it difficult to understand why, just seems like the equivalent of a Chelsea tractor really.

They're not expensive if you get one second hand, lent or given to you or if it is bought you as a present.

I always took my mutsy on the bus and the train until I got an umbrella one.

"Yes but RockBird you would never have dreamed that you could take your large pram on a train would you?"

I take my 70s Silver cross pram on the train all the time, nooka

I grinned to myself today when at the train station and noticed a sign which said "If you need any help at all just ask a member of station staff"

Here's a novel idea. Why don't we have porters to help people carry things? Like the olden days?

My grandma told me how she used to take a huge coach built pram on the train. The porters would carry it on for her. It was huge, even had a lift up compartment in the base where all your cloth Nappys were stored. The train staff would bring hot water for making up bottles and Nappy changes too! She said she didn't know how people managed without a proper pram these days. It was a different era. Grandma had her 1st baby in 1946.

Lullay, that's like travelling with your own house! LOL . I would love to be able to do that. DS3 is just about grown out of the modern pram we have for him, so perhaps I should be thinking of one of these next ...!

I had to put an elderly lady's suitcase onto a train for her as no staff would help.

On the other hand, at a main station, I did stop to help another woman put her pushchair on the train but she looked more interested in yapping away on her mobile phone than getting on so I assumed she was waiting for someone to get off.
She got on about a minute afterward, screaming and shouting "FFS, no-one helps do they?!"