Are all Pre schools anti pushchairs ?

[Notsureaboutpreschool]

Ds (3.5yr) goes to a pre school (for ages 3-5) . They are regularly telling us and also sending in emails that children shouldn’t be in pushchairs anymore ?

Twice this week already ds keyworker has said to me ‘we don’t advise the use of pushchairs it hinders development we need to encourage walking and independence!’ And I’ve made it clear on multiple occasions that we dont drive and it’s a long walk to and from pre school so need a pushchair and ds gets tired !!

Is this a new thing ? If I get one more email with a picture of a pushchair with a big Red Cross by it I think I’ll scream !!

Is the problem really about lack of storage for all the buggies at nursery? But someone has decided to take a weird child development approach to it.

Our journey to nursery is a 5 minute walk, then a 30 minute bus ride, then a 20 minute (for me) walk. On the way it would be just about doable with my son walking - although I'd be a bit of a packhorse with my work bag and lunch, his bag, possibly my laptop, and whatever else - but on the way home it was absolute hell when we used to try it that way. Constant demands to be carried (sometimes the whole way), he'd get really upset because he was tired, really stressful with timings because if we missed the bus we'd then be waiting ages for the next one, and then he typically falls asleep on the bus on the way home so I was stuck manoeuvring a sleeping child off a bus and home (plus all the bags etc). In addition I currently have a subchorionic haematoma so I'm not supposed to lift and carry things or I set it off and gush clots everywhere. Anyone attempting to ban me from bringing the buggy would be met with such a steely diatribe on the subject that they would never, ever, ever contemplate handing out little crossed-out buggies again.

So true - if you are using buses or trains and the service isn't great, a slow tired child lagging behind can result in a very long wait. Some of us also need to collect shopping or other things on the way home.

Is it babying them to put them in their car seat and drive them home? Our double pram is our main transport. We live at the top of the (big! long!) hill, nursery is at the bottom. Walking to nursery is fine, and if we are all ready with ample time to spare then DS usually walks (if we are running late, he hops in the pram - much like parents with cars may decide to drive instead of walk if they were running late...), but on the way home after a full day at nursery where he does not nap (he naps 2-3 days a week still when at home) and is very very active all day, there is absolutely no chance he can walk all the way home. He walks the same route and further quite often at weekends, but the drop off/pick up is totally different.

DS often hitched lifts in the buggy until he was 4. His hypermobility and dyspraxia weren't diagnosed until he was 8.
That explains the 30 minutes it took him to walk/ scream/ lie down and thrash the 300m walk from the children's centre when he was 2. I couldn't use a buggy at that point because of SPD (pregnancy type, not his sensory type). Parking logistics and the effort to wrestle him in and out of the car seat wouldn't have been much more favourable. It was a bloody relief when I could use a buggy again.

He now runs 5ks in respectable times, so I clearly didn't break him by using the buggy when he needed it.

Incidentally my Great Grandma still had my great-uncle in the pram at 4 and the family doctor was sympathetic to little legs getting tired easily and had no problem with it. This was the early 1950s.

I got a lot of back lash on here and probably replied into this thread at a slightly miserable time for me and I apologise for that .

i see alot of 4 year olds coming to school on buggy boards or scooters rather than actually being pushed themselves same as nursery children. I don’t also care what others do. I also could be in the predicament in over a years time when my almost 2 year old will be almost 3 plus I wouldn’t want her in there but who’s to say I won’t be wishing she does want her pushchair so it makes things go quick like most parents as pushchairs at that age are for tired legs and the parents connivence . I do drive however right now I don’t own a car so I don’t drive anywhere and it’s a struggle because my toddler wants to walk and the only way to bribe her to sit in is to eat. However at that age of 3 they can make the decision themselves whether they want to walk sensibly or sit in a stroller. I do think it looks odd a bigger child sat in one but again it’s none of my business and whether they look odd or not defeats the object it’s not about how they look and I have nothing against disability or sen children or children with needs that need one. I had a friend that pushed her boy around for years into school cause he is autistic.

so you can all stop jumping on me now. I sometimes have to avoided these threads one I’ve posted cause no one likes a differing opinion. The school I work in now don’t make comments about it not to my knowledge anyway but years ago in a nursery they did.

not my child not my problem. I’m done with this thread.