A failed bus trip...

Getting the bus isn't something I have to do much these days - I can borrow my husband's car if he doesn't need it for work and my brilliant Dad is usually around if we need to get a lift anywhere. Occasionally though, we do have to jump on a bus and yesterday was one of these occasions...

Last week we moved house to a quieter part of town and the area is lovely and peaceful however the bus only runs on the hour. Yesterday after a particularly stressful morning trying to sort out our gas supply, I had to go to a specific shop to pick up a temporary card. The shop was by our old house and just a couple of miles away. A nice walk on a sunny day however a bit too far for a toddler to manage!

Due to the house move, the buggy was still buried under a stack of cardboard boxes so we decided to save little legs and jump on the bus and head up to the shop. The bus arrived on time and I asked for a single ticket - I almost fell off the bus in shock when the driver said it was £3.70!! That's probably cheap in some parts of the country but I'm used to paying just a couple of pounds to get from A to B and didn't think it was value for money considering there was only 3 bus stops along the journey!

I told the bus driver that it was extortionate and that actually, I'd rather walk. So I then had to do the walk of shame back off the bus whilst about 50 pairs of eyes looked on in amusement (typical, the bus was just full of tourists!) ...poor Elliot wondered what on earth was going on!

When did buses get so expensive for such a short journey? I thought the public transport companies were meant to be encouraging us to leave the car at home! 

Mum Annoyances - Number One!

Before having Elliot I was very easy going and it would take a lot to wind me up. Nowadays, I'm still pretty easy going but there's a few things that really do make me angry as a mum, and the more they happen the more irritated I become! So at the top of my list is...

THE MIS-USE OF THE PARENT/CHILD PARKING SPOTS! 

The parent/child parking bays are alot bigger than a normal spot and this is SO important when trying to get a carseat or toddler out of the car. Our cars are getting bigger these days and a normal space just doesn't give you enough space to open the door wide if you have someone parked next to you. 

These spots are usually located near the doors to the supermarket which is a bonus but not a necessity, I'd quite happily park further away in a wider spot if I knew I wasn't going to get jammed in! Unfortunately due to their close proximity to the doors, some people who don't have young children in the car seem to think they can park there if they can't be bothered to walk 5 steps further from the normal parking spots!  

It's not just people without children though, I've seen families pull into the spaces with kids around 10/11 or even worse teenagers and they think this is ok! Surely if a child is old enough to get in and out of his seat and exit the car on his own then a extra wide parking spot is not needed. 

Some mums think that if they park in the spots but then leave their husband and kid in the car then this is also fine - surely this defeats the object of having to park there in the first place! I saw a lady just yesterday who pulled into the only parent/child spot in the carpark. She got out, locked the car and went to use the cash point. Meanwhile, we had to squeeze into a little tiny space and try and manoeuvre a wriggling toddler out without bashing the car next to us! I must admit, it did make me very angry and I actually went up to the woman and asked her if she knew the parent/child spots were for people with children!! She looked mighty annoyed that I'd questioned her and said actually her child was sat in the car. Er ok, and you needed that space why?! (I know why, because she was a lazy so&so who wanted to get to the cash point fast!) 

On another occasion at my local Sainsburys, we pulled into the carpark but all the parent/child spots were taken. At the time, Elliot was only very young and we were having to get the carseat out each time so a parking spot with more room was very useful. After we parked in a normal spot, we noticed that there was a lady parked up in the parent/child bays and she didn't have any kids in the car, she was just sat there reading the paper.  My dad was with me and he's not one to mince his words or stay quiet and he knocked on her window and asked her what she was playing at! She replied that she was due to pick her grandchild up shortly from the nearly school and that was why she had parked in that particular spot. And basically as she was picking up "a child" it gave her every right to park there!! My dad quickly put her in her place and funnily enough she moved her car!! 

Apparently Asda can issue a £50 Parking Charge Notice if someone is found misusing the parent/child spots but I don't know how strict they are about this. The wardens are never around when you want them to be!! 

Would you confront someone if they were parked in the parent/child bay and didn't have kids? (I normally hate confrontation but I wouldn't hesitate to say something these days!)

Co-op Carnage!

I have a long standing issue of my local shop and their lack of room for buggies in the aisles!

Our local co-op is really convenient to me - I live two minutes from it so I'm always popping in to grab a few bits when my weekly shop is running low. I've always shopped in there since moving to the area, but it wasn't until I had Elliot that I realised how small and cramped it is. My buggy is a Silvercross Freeway and it's lovely to push, has lots of room underneath but it is rather bulky. But is by no means the biggest buggy out there! Everytime I pop in, I usually end up leaving the buggy at the end of an aisle and dashing about grabbing my shopping whilst keeping one eye on Elliot because there is literally no room to manoeuvre in the aisles.

A couple of weeks ago I popped in and we had an embarrasing collison with a cardboard twix promotion stand! The following week it was a stack of french sticks! It's always in the same place too, just by the check out where everyone queues so I have no choice but to battle down that aisle. When the french sticks got bashed over, there were boxes of stock all along the aisle meaning the width was actually less than my buggy - not good! So I thought sod it, and I barged on through leaving a trail of destruction!

Today we had another incident which was probably the most embarrasing yet.... it involved water!! We were queuing down my least favourite aisle and I realised that the gap to get through was cluttered with buckets of water with flowers in. I thought I'd be ok but as I wheeled through my wheels took the buckets out leaving a massive pool of water with some sorry looking bunches of carnations in the middle! There was a big queue and everyone was staring, no one offered to help and the sour faced bag on the till looked disgusted as she called for assistance over the loud speaker!! I mentioned that there was not enough room and she just tutted. Along came a young lad to clean up the mess and I could hear him moaning "oh for gods sake, whats happened" so I turned around and in my most pompous moany old lady voice I said "there's not enough room for a buggy, THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!!". I picked up my shopping, avoided the giant puddle of water and flounced out....almost knocking a tower of toilet rolls over!

I do wonder how wheelchairs manage to get around the shop if buggy users are having problems. Are your local shops buggy friendly? Have you ever had an embarrasing moment involving a tower of beans?!