Overhanging bushes, pavements and prams

sazzybum

Okay-- I'll say it..

Won't somebody think of the children!!!!!:D:D

Hootie19

When I had a pushchair (and depending on how far into PMT days I was), I used to find it possible to make quite a mess of the side of the car which was illegally parked on the pavement, whilst I was legitimately walking along the section of highway provided specifically for pedestrians.

There was no way I was going to be weaving in and out of cars and on and off the pavement with a pram, because lazy assed drivers couldn't be bothered to find a safer parking spot. This was usually around the local school, and I knew the vast majority of the parents lived well within walking distance and could easily have done without the car for the school run.

Dislodged quite a few wing mirrors along the way.

newcook

Hootie19 wrote: »

When I had a pushchair (and depending on how far into PMT days I was), I used to find it possible to make quite a mess of the side of the car which was illegally parked on the pavement, whilst I was legitimately walking along the section of highway provided specifically for pedestrians.

There was no way I was going to be weaving in and out of cars and on and off the pavement with a pram, because lazy assed drivers couldn't be bothered to find a safer parking spot. This was usually around the local school, and I knew the vast majority of the parents lived well within walking distance and could easily have done without the car for the school run.

Dislodged quite a few wing mirrors along the way.

My mom used to do exactly the same thing!!

Near where I work they park that much on the pavement that it is nearly impossible for a pedestrian to walk past – I must have left god knows how many scratch marks from my coat zipper down the sides!!

I usually contact the police on the non-emergency number and ask them to get a traffic warden out as they will make a fortune!!

dizziblonde

OK I think I'm doing this parenting thing wrong - I don't get obsessional about P+C spaces, I don't go nuts at the idea of kids falling over and getting hurt, and I don't regard the neighbourhood shrubbery as suddenly having had a personal vendetta taken out against me.

I also try to stick to the shop side of the pavement in town - unless of course there's a pavement cyclist coming along in which case I'll do the full on pavement panzer tank routine, sadly without armed gun turrets which I really must write to my pram manufacturer about and request as an optional attachement. In this country this summer it would be more use than the parasol they're flogging for something ridiculous like £80.

fluffnutter

dizziblonde wrote: »

OK I think I'm doing this parenting thing wrong - I don't get obsessional about P+C spaces, I don't go nuts at the idea of kids falling over and getting hurt, and I don't regard the neighbourhood shrubbery as suddenly having had a personal vendetta taken out against me.

I wonder about this too... I can't see myself getting bothered about any of this when this baby finally pitches up. People look at me 'knowingly' and say 'oh, you'll change' but I can't see it myself. I'm having a baby, not a personality transplant.

I'm not arrogant or naive enough to think that having a baby doesn't change you - of course it does. Things that passed you by before will probably assume enormous significance. But the idea I'm going to turn overnight into some chuntering DM-headline spouting hysteric is anathema to me personally. It ain't gonna happen.

It's all faintly annoying (and patronising), this idea that 'parents' think this, and 'parents' do that, as if everyone suddenly becomes the same person with the same agenda the moment they procreate. It's not some club with a rule book you read and absorb the moment you push out your baby. 80% of adults in this country have children; we don't all have the same beliefs, nor act in the same way. There was a Calpol ad a few years back that epitomised this homogenised, nauseating idea of 'the cult of parenthood' - the one which said 'If you've got kids, you'll understand'. Thankfully it's no longer shown. I know that I'll never buy Calpol as long as I live, purely because of that wank advert.

dizsiebubba

Elsewhere wrote: »

Parking cars on the pavement is against the law. Try the police for this problem.

Around here it certainly isn't...

moneyhoney1

I think what the OP is trying to say is she has to walk her pram onto the verge or get forced into someones scruffy bush. When I'm out with my baby I have a similar problem. When someone else is walking along the path you or them end up in the sodding bush. Also around here on my way to clinic i walk past a house with a serious hedge overhang and a bloody car parked outside and me and baby are forced into the road.
On another occasion I was walking with my baby and I came to an obstacle on the path. It was some thoughtless persons motorbike. I was able to go down the kerb but someone in a wheelchair would have had to turn round and find a drop kerb just to get by this sodding bike. I spat on the seat i was so outraged.
Come on people stop being so fcuking naive, other people's thoughtlessness is a problem.

dizziblonde

moneyhoney1 wrote: »

I think what the OP is trying to say is she has to walk her pram onto the verge or get forced into someones scruffy bush.

Ooo-err missus!

If someone's scruffy bush is the worst that happens to you on any given day - I'd say you're doing pretty well and I wish that my problems were that trivial.

How do you define a "serious hedge" - is he looking all stern, possibly with spectacles pulled halfway down his nose so he can look over the top all earnestly?

lostinrates

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

There's a difference between not having had a chance recently and not caring at all - one pathway near where I live is pretty much impassable because of the overgrown hedge next to it, it extends across the entire pavement and onto the verge next to it.

Perhaps there are birds nesting in it?

BJV

Mrs_Imp wrote: »

Cars blocking the pavement make me a bit cross to be honest.

Where I live is the main drag to the beach with very very wide pavements. We used to park half on and half off the road as although the pavement is wide the road is not and it causes an obstruction to park solely on the road. The local council decided that they way we parked looked untidy and so issued a notice that any cars parked on the pavement would get a ticket. I did try to park on the road and my car was hit twice.

I now have to park in a side street about 1/4 of a mile away. Not nice with shopping and the kids esp when it is raining.

The local school is even worse I feel sorry for them. It is smack in the middle on a cul-de-sac and parents park everywhere and anywhere with no consideration for anyone.

Even worse though is the number of bike riders who use our pavement as their own private cycle path. With no thought of any one else prams, wheelchairs nothing.