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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

School run hell

40 replies

Booandpops · 08/02/2011 22:25

My Ds has lately been running amok not crossing roads safely with me, running ahead etc. I've had it with this so I've told him if he can't walk nicely with me and his sister he shall go in a pushchair. He is 3 so a bit old for that as it's a 5 min walk. But I wanted to teach him I won't have him being dangerous near the Rd. ( very busy Rd through village to walk by)
This morning he stepped out off the kerb again right on school gates so I told him he was getting in pushchair. Of course he starts crying and doing the rigid body thing so im having to force him in the chair with all the mums walking by witnessing me. I was calm but had to push him into chair. I'm sure you know What I mean Rigid toddler syndrome.

I'm so embarrassed. god knows what they thought of me. But I've had it up to here with his lack of road safety.

He was good till he turned three now we are suffering the threenager!!! Was I BU?

OP posts:

HappySeven · 09/02/2011 12:19

Buzz, I have visions of you screaming while you carry him - very funny!

Boo, I think you're doing the right thing and as someone has already said the other mums are probably just thinking "been there, done that, got the T shirt" and that you're doing what's necessary.

I'd be tempted to use the pushchair right from the start a couple of times and then only let him out if he holds onto it. If you keep putting him in it when he misbehaves then he'll soon realise that to get his freedom he has to do what you ask. Good luck!

BuzzLiteBeer · 09/02/2011 12:28

I usually just sob quietly, but I wouldn't rule it out!

slug · 09/02/2011 12:39

Rigid Toddler syndrome ... Also known as "Ironing Board Baby" It's a well known phenomonon.

kodokan · 09/02/2011 13:09

I had to threaten my 5 yr old with reins for the school run, when he went through a phase of charging ahead with a jostling crowd of his mates, along a very narrow pavement next to a busy road. One wrong, over-excited jostle and it would have been...

fedupofnamechanging · 09/02/2011 13:22

My 3 year old DD has regularly done the 'ironing board' thing. She is also rather gifted at making herself into a kind of triangle shape if she doesn't want to be picked up! Don't worry about other parents, we've all been there and are just busy being grateful that it isn't our children kicking off, for a change!

lovelymumma · 09/02/2011 13:53

I sympathise. My youngest child used to scream all the way back from nursery most days,because she was tired.Same thing,only 5 minute walk,but usually turned into 15 minute nightmare,with lots of stopping and refusing to walk.Rains never worked on mine.They always wanted to go in the opposite direction to where I was going.My 8 year old still hates walking anywhere;wish I could still get away with hauling her in the buggy!Its horrible,but do what you have to do to get through it,beleive me one day you will look back and laugh,or sigh with relief that that stage is over!The memory sends shivers down my spine.!

lovelymumma · 09/02/2011 13:55

sorry,believe!

2babyblues · 09/02/2011 14:32

I had the same when my youngest was three. He was perfectly capable of walking for the 5-10 min walk to school but wouldn't hold my hand so I always used the buggy. However, even then he would try and climb out so I spent most journeys trying to hold him in. All very stressful and I am glad that phase is over.

He is now four and we have moved so I need to drive to school anyway, when we get out of the car I make him hold my hand which he does now.

I would just use the buggy from the start until he behaves by the road properly ie. holds your hand. Reins never worked with my little one as he would just hang like a dead weight when I put them on. It's not worth the risk, mornings are stressful and you have other times when you are alone with him to practise walking safely.

blackeyedsusan · 09/02/2011 19:04

how do they go from rigid to limp within seconds? ds was rigid and triangular as i tried to post him through the car-in-garage half-open-door, then once in he loses ll rigidity and collapses in the footwell behind the drivers seat, so I am trying to haul him out also through the half open door and over the top of his car seat, then it is bck to rigid as i try and strap him in. rigid again getting in and out of the pushchair on the school run.

later at the supermarket he has managed to wrap his reigns around me, walk into a lovely older lady's trolley and dangle limply off the reigns, doing good impression of getting strangled. He has been hauled around the supermarket under one arm kicking and screaming. all this before 10am!

diabolo · 09/02/2011 19:34

3yo was the worst ever!

I'll never forget me and two old ladies in the local park trying to force the little bugger into his buggy at home time.

I only had the one child - wonder why?

strawberrie · 09/02/2011 19:41

I've got a younger child, but I recognise the scenario! She's 21 months and we're just starting to take walks out and about without the buggy (with a view to DC2 arriving in July).

We were heading back home the other day when she decided she wanted to practice jumping off the edge of the kerb, onto the road. I told her she had to walk nicely, or else I would carry her. She continued to veer off the kerb so I lifted her up, but she did that Opposite thing to Rigid Body Syndrome and acted like her bones had melted, so the only way I could get her home was to tuck her under one arm like a rugby ball and march the rest of the way, with her wailing like a banshee. Hey ho.

Original poster

Booandpops · 09/02/2011 19:49

Hee hee am liking the stories Sometimes you forget and think your the only one with a threenager. Had a better walk today Ds even pointed out his Sister had gone ahead.

OP posts:

toeragsnotriches · 09/02/2011 19:56

The reins/wriststrap thing never worked for DS2. We'd have the same tantrum if I forced him to wear them. So I'd end up carrying thrashing toddler to school instead of having them strapped in buggy away from me!

Mine's taken to grabbing my mouth and pulling or scratching my cheeks really hard. Buggy it is for him!

Knee him in that pushchair! It beggars belief that there is a single other parent there who hasn't done it. Maybe they've forgotten, but bet they all have.

toeragsnotriches · 09/02/2011 19:58

And once he scratched the inside of my mouth so hard I started bleeding. Couldn't work out why no one would smile back at me (just looked at me oddly) when I smiled and said good morning to them while carrying exorcist child home.

Did notice the bloodstained teeth when I got home tho.

toeragsnotriches · 09/02/2011 19:59

Mine, that is. Not his...

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