rbmartin - I think all the comments about chelsea-tractors, little darlings, silly buggies etc is just being deliberately provocative and not actually helping this discussion. Please lets stick to the facts. Also I think the focus on buggies is taking away from the fact that babies and children are small people who have rights too, as do disabled people.

The facts are this: The person in the wheelchair and the baby/young child both have something in common - they cannot walk by themselves (or if they can, not very far) so need wheelchair/buggy to enable them to move about.

The disabled person and the parent with children both need to get from A to B; there is only one space on the (badly designed) buses. For whatever reason, neither can make their journey without getting on the bus. Who has priority? I guess whoever gets the space first.

I don't see why in this situation its is the mother with her children that is being vilified. Try factoring any of the following probable scenarios: she's already waited for 3 buses; its probably getting close to lunch/tea time and her children are hungry and getting fractious (the toddler has probably already had a tantrum); she needs to get home to feed and change the baby (try doing that on a bus); the baby is teething and she is worried he will start crying and annoy the other passengers; or the baby has just fallen asleep for the first time all day; she needs to pick up her older child from school/nursery and if she is late for nursery will get charged £1 for every minute she is late; she's wondering if the newly potty-trained toddler will be able to hang on until they get home....I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Sorry to have to spell it out, but I get the feeling that some of the posters on here have either forgotten, or never experienced, the particular stresses that babies and toddlers babies can bring.

I personally think it is extremely admirable of Roz that she travels by bus with her twin babies and toddler; she deserves our support, not our criticism. For those of you who have criticised her stance, I challenge you to look after 3 small children all day long, with many chores to do, and only public transport to get you around; then come back here and tell me you feel the same.

There is of course the grey area of buggies that can be folded, children who can sit on laps etc. There are also cases where its just not practical for a buggy to be folded (like twins), where you have more than one small child, or where the mother is pregnant and would find it difficult to fold the buggy and carry the child.

There are also going to be selfish people no matter what; yes some of them will be parents, some won't. There are many able-bodied people who refuse to move down the bus or go up the stairs. I also once saw a man on a packed bus shout awful abuse at a young woman with downs syndrome who was getting off the bus quite slowly (I gave him a piece of my mind, in case you are wondering). Just because I saw this doesn't mean I make generalisations about able-bodied people in the same way many of you are making about mothers with buggies.

Haranguing mothers with small children who already have the rest of society looking over their shoulder and criticising their every move is really not going to help. If you'd like more evidence of what can happen when a mother is scared of going out with her baby, I can provide it.