Bad design?

Sippy cups are the invention of the devil. I was dressed for a lunch party, nipped back to fill the cup and put on the lid, sprayed my face and hair whist pushing lid on firmly. GD likes to dance around the room shaking the cup and liberally sprinkling everything. Another moan ... my DC were drinking out of ordinary cups when they were one, why do they have to have sippy cups until they are about four now ?

Like grannyinmypocket I have had dreadful trouble undoing the clasp on my grandchildrens' pushchair and highchair. Once I took my GD to the park and couldn't undo the damn thing no matter how hard I tried. She was getting impatient, she was only 2 then, and that made it worse. In the end a small child about 7 offered to help and pinged it open! It was a combination of arthritis and just darnright difficulty. When my kids were babies the safety belt was opened and closed like a normal belt. I also can't undo sippy cups and dissemble a baby bottle to put in the dishwasher. Again that is weakness of the hand. Several plastic bottles of pills, mouthwash, Tomatorite etc have marks where I have hacked them with a sharp knife to gain access. As for biscuits I slice open with a knife (I'm good with knives) between the first and second biscuit. I then decant the biscuits into a cookie jar.

Solution: don't buy biscuits! I know if I have them in the house I will just eat them. So I don't!

Whether you zip the biscuits or cut the packet open, you end up having them spill out everywhere and have to sticky tape the bag shut again, because the bag clips are useless for that ... gr. Or you can eat enough so that you can screw the top of the packet to close them up again

Very true

So do I. Some of them have little zip strips but often they break off halfway round.

I always slice the packet open with a knife

Marty slice the packet with a sharp knife!

How do you open a packet of biscuits without breaking the biscuits or suddenly, the whole packet rips open and the biscuits end up on the floor.

Re shop shelves, I just went to Sainsbury's and had to ask for an assistant to reach bottles of water from the back of the bottom shelf....way too far in for me! Not the first time.

How come some places do not meet the requirements!!! I am all for the accessible facilities being usable but seems very inconsistent. It was more expensive to kit out our two accessible loos than it was the four ordinary ones...perhaps that is why some places 'skimp' on facilities??

burgandy tell me about it! And the mirrors are above the sink and far too high! I complained about the one in the tribunal! The mirror is too high, and I couldnd manage the door catch! I complained and they altered the catch, but not the mirror. I used to design them for my examination centres successfully, so why don't they ask?

How I hate the shops where the top shelves are too high for me to reach. I'm 5'2", not an unusual size.

Now I'm retired, and not usually in a big hurry, I take delight in finding a shop assistant to reach the goods down, hopefully someone who is also vertically challenged, so they have to find themselves a stool.

burgundy the legal requirements for accessible loos are very clear! I know this from having two installed at the school where I worked. It was a nightmare.. the space was tight and the required measurements /colours/styles for handles, floor space etc precisely specified. They all had to pass the scrutiny of the disability officer at the council!!

ariadne agree! Glasses on to turn taps on If you're lucky), glasses off and in the shower, glasses needed to adjust temperature or turn off! NMARE as my friend would say (she uses text speak out loud and talks in capitals). And grannyinmypocket I babysit for a woman sometimes and she has a double decker pushchair that I can't manage to open, always have to ask the staff at the nursery. I had a 'buggy' that looked like a folded umbrella when my kids were small and I could flick it open with a baby on the hip and a toddler by the hand. I think you still get them but they are non-u nowadays.

Lilygran childproof pill jars, and some pill strips are terrible for my arthritic hands but my grandchildren open them no problem!

I hate the doors of shops that are push or pull as when I am on my own in my wheelchair I can't do either and sit waiting like a lemon until someone comes along to open it for me.

My biggest hate is whoever designed some disabled loos? The rooms are either:

Too small to get into let alone turn round and access the loo or they are jam packed with junk not needed immediately like buckets, mops, brooms, chairs etc

The loo is so low in some places and no bars to help you up.

The sink isn't the right height for a wheelchair user

The taps are a nightmare as hands like mine can't turn them and there is always someone who has such strength they have turned them off tight. some of the taps are ones you put your hands under and the water starts - that is OK sometimes. One I met recently is a knee operated tap which is OK if you can use your legs!

The size of the basin. What can I say who likes those tiddly little things that you can't get your hands under?

The driers are always so high. I have soaking hands and then have to stretch up to reach the drier, towel machine or whatever.

Who for heaven's sake designed the loos? Not someone who uses a wheelchair.

I find the safety clip on my grandsons buggy really hard to open and close, by the time I get it clipped shut he's climbed out, it's infuriating and it hurts your fingers!

Grannyknot I have yet to find a shower that I can operate first time! I have to remember to put my glasses on to fathom all the taps etc, then take them off and put them down somewhere, then I can't easily see the markings on the taps etc.....

On the subject of toilets and bathrooms, I almost had to stop visiting my son's home as I couldn't access the toilets in his new-build house. They are quite low as are so many nowadays. I suspect the vast majority are designed and selected by men, who of course don't need to sit down as often as we ladies do.

Dear daughter has one of those square, long sinks with a tap that lets the water out like a long waterfall. Very stylish, but would take a lot of water even to cover the base of the basin (not good with a water meter) and I have never mastered the very stiff lever above the tap, so either a dribble or a downpour! And she also has one tap over the kitchen sink which you have to pull one way to turn on the water, and back or forwards to adjust the temperature. After two years of visiting, I have never got this right first time. An awful lot of modern design if style over substance.

What about those stupid little levers that you get at the back of taps nowadays that are meant to work the plug up and down e.g. in a hand basin? They always break or go wonky and never work properly. Silly idea if ever there was one. jeni I feel better knowing I'm not the only one.

My SiL installs many kitchens and bathrooms and always gets so cross with me when I point out that no matter how beautiful and well installed they are if they are tricky to clean and use they are badly designed!! However he did install the worktops at a height more suitable for me (5'1") rather than him (6'3")

DS, in whose house I have been cat-sitting, had to ring me up to find out how to use their new kitchen tap! Mind you, to be honest, I had to get this priceless piece of information from the builder who was working on the house.

Same here!

I have more than once, when staying overnight in (sometimes fancy) hotels, been defeated by the bath tap/shower arrangements! When faced with a whole lot of taps and levers, I never seem to be able to work out the right combination of temperature, water pressure, and whether or not it is going to run a bath or give me a shower! I travel in the course of my work, so short of calling reception to send someone to explain it all to me, I usually give up and do my best in the basin.