Why do people with babies think it's OK to use disabled toilets?

[Bonny 10]

Hi there Dozy and everyone else who can't understand why a parent with a baby would use the 'disabled access loo'.

 

I use them - regularly. I use them because I need to go to the loo. The baby changing room doesn't have an adult loo. I use that if I need to change the baby - but generally don't need to. I can't/don't use the ladies loo's because

 

a) the pushchair, taking almost as much room as a wheelchair, is extremely difficult to get through the door to access the public area of the ladies loo's and once inside there is certainly no room to fit pushchair in the cubicle.

 

b) what about leaving baby & pushchair outside the cubicle? - I don't let my baby out of my sight, for ANYONE! Also, the pushchair would be in the way of several people using the loo's.

 

c) I have a disability, not immediately apparant to anyone, which makes life a lot easier by using the 'disabled' loo.

 

If your relative in the wheelchair had to wait for the toilet to become vacant, and it was someone in a wheelchair who was using it, does that make the wait any less difficult?

 

On the days when I can't get out and about and would benefit from using a wheelchair I'm unable to go out, how would I manage in a wheelchair with a baby in a pushchair???? Things aren't often as they seem, a little consideration all round wouldn't go amiss.

[suzan 10]

i put exactly the same post on a few months ago, i take my disabled uncle to meadowhall once a week, and quite often we have waited outside the disabled toilet to find that an abled bodied person come out of it (not always with a pram when the baby room was next door). the replys i got was its not safe to leave a pram outside the toilet. like someone said there is a loo in the baby rooms. i think these people need to learn to read and understand that disabled toilets are for disabled people not mother and babies.

[Bonny 10]

With all due respect, the vast majority of 'baby changing rooms' and 'baby feeding rooms' do not have toilets in them. If they did, it would certainly make life a lot easier.

[Chipmunk 10]

i put exactly the same post on a few months ago, i take my disabled uncle to meadowhall once a week, and quite often we have waited outside the disabled toilet to find that an abled bodied person come out of it (not always with a pram when the baby room was next door). the replys i got was its not safe to leave a pram outside the toilet. like someone said there is a loo in the baby rooms. i think these people need to learn to read and understand that disabled toilets are for disabled people not mother and babies.

 

 

No, I think disabled people need to learn that these toilets are suitable for disabled people and NOT exclusively for their use!

[Mommatron 10]

At meadowhall most of the baby changing rooms are poorly designed so you have to jostle past everybody using the tables. Often they take friends, husbands and mothers to 'help' and its a sweaty smelly hellhole. Nobody with babies is going to sit languishing in disabled facilities for fun - bet most are in there 30 seconds to minimise opportunities for toddlers to mess with sinks etc. Would always give disabled person priority though

[scoop 10]

No, I think disabled people need to learn that these toilets are suitable for disabled people and NOT exclusively for their use!

 

Quite right. I thought wheelchair users wanted to be considered equal to others.

 

That includes queuing for a wee with the rest of us I'm afraid.

 

Can't have it all ways.

[Daven 10]

Disabled toilets are ones designed with disabled people in mind but are not for the sole use of disabled people. If there is a queue for public toilets and the disabled toilet is free and there are no disabled people waiting to use it, then there is no reason why an able bodied person shouldn't use it.

[Blade1983 10]

Thankfully I don't know what it's like to be disabled, and hopefully I never will. But, I'm afraid to say that some disabled people (and their helpers) have the "Chip on Shoulder" syndrome. A lot think that the world is conspiring against them.

 

I sometimes have to wait for a toilet to come free when i'm out and about.

 

When I was recovering from Bladder Cancer I had to wait for toilets to come free (holding it at that point was very painfull) - but I accepted that sometimes you have to wait for a toilet. I also used Disabled toilets whenever possible at that point because sometimes it was painfull to pee and didn't fancy screeming in the male toilets.

 

Personally can't see the problem.

[whitewitch 10]

well personally, when my daughter was in the pram and i needed the toilet bad, i would use the disabled loo, as i refuse to leave my child outside the toilet door where i cannot see her to use the loo, toilet cubicles are not made for pram, shopping bags, nappy changing bags. Baby changing rooms are just that, its very rare you get a toilet in their for the mother

[Plain Talker 11]

Quite right. I thought wheelchair users wanted to be considered equal to others.

 

That includes queuing for a wee with the rest of us I'm afraid.

 

Can't have it all ways.

 

fine, scoop... when I can get my chair into an ordinary loo, I'll stop complaining when I find non-disabled people using the wheelchair-accessible loo.

 

this concept of "well, there was no-one waiting, I'll just use the accesible loo..."

 

what about the problems of folk who have mobility/ bladder/ bowel probs, or are in a chair?

 

it takes longer, on sticks, or in a chair to traipse to the loo.

 

when in the loo, esp if you are a chair user, you have to prat about to line up to transfer/ get the chair in in the first place...

 

it takes longer if you are in a chair, to *coff* adjust your clothing, and get onto the loo.

 

so, very often, the "desperation" of needing the loo can be compounded by the thoughtlessness of those who don't actually need to use an accessible loo.

[baileys_mum 10]

The thing that stumps me is this

 

When there are no seporate loos for parents and babies, if we are not allowed to use the disabled ones there are normally baby changing facilities in the LADIES toilets, what about the men???

 

Anyway, I quite often use the disabled loo's if I have my boys with me and also quite often if I am on my own. Fair do's you may tut and say I am wrong but often because of my IBS when I need to go, I have to go immediately. If I don't well I don't need to explain any more.

 

I don't look Ill, I don't use a wheelchair but still I get ranted at and told I should have used thenormal loo's like everyone else. WellI am sorry if I upset or put you out but you don't know me

[Templeman 10]

As ever it is quite clear who the nonparents are, pontificating about how easy it all should be, in theory.

 

As for disabled who say that they don't like to wait, what about when they ahve to wait for other disabled in there, that is still waiting or is that then acceptable cos they are disabled too? How do they know whether or not someone is disabled anyway?