For my birthday we went to Derbyshire for a few days with our 4 month old daughter. Our first day we went to Matlock Bath, a place we have visited many times, but never with a baby on board. Matlock Bath only has one set of public toilets, there used to be another one at the other end of the town, but on this visit we realised it was now closed. The toilets were 20p to get into, so we just used the disabled toilet, as the 20p pay machine was taped over and the door was unlocked. The pushchair would not have fitted into the normal toilets anyway as there was a sign saying that the barriers made it too narrow.
It was a warm and sunny day and this meant we had to make sure the baby was covered from the sun’s rays while in the pushchair, and when we had to carry her in our arms we had to make sure we held her out of the sun. This meant holding her in all kinds of different positions while on the constant look out for shade.
Now we have a baby and a pushchair we are seeing what it’s like from a restricted persons point of view. We went into one of the amusements to spend some 2ps and in the middle of the amusements was a big step, so Emma went over to the other side and I was left behind, stranded. It must be incredibly frustrating for wheelchair bound people when places don’t have good disabled access.
It was a lovely first day out and the first time we have been away with the baby it happened with no hiccups, just a lot of restrictions and everything took longer to achieve.
Less could be achieved with a four month old, as she’s too young to play on parks or for example, even though that didn’t stop Emma…and a pushchair means some premises and pathways are off limits.
Where The Wildings Are 