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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that three years old is quite old to be using a buggy?

297 replies

Butternutsquash22 · 25/02/2011 10:41

Relative of DP was talking about how her buggy broke, so was going to have to find money for another one, find one she likes etc etc.

But the child in question is three which I would assume is old enough to walk places rather than buying another buggy?! Fair enough using it if it's there but if the buggy breaks she's probably too big for it...

Would you have bought another buggy at that age? She's an only child, with no immediate plans for any others yet.

OP posts:
PrincessScrumpy · 28/02/2011 16:57

DD just turned 3 and we've probably used it 5 times in the last 6 months - usually as I get somewhere in the car and dd is asleep (she's a right grump if woken within an hour).

But, when my twins are born we will be walking dd to school once they are 1 and it's a bit of a hike (nearly 2 miles, so 3.5mile round trip). Twins will stay in buggy for longer than dd did I imagine and dd may well hop on for a ride after a full day at school.

Anyway, I would be cross if any relative decided to make comment or criticise - only dh and I know our children's real needs not people who spend the odd day visiting.

thefirstMrsDeVere · 28/02/2011 17:31

None of my kids are overweight I keep the little buggers in their buggies as long as possible. So I am afraid your well thought out, widely researched theory has just been blown out of the water. I know this to be true because I have loads of kids and you are only talking about ONE, ergo I AM RIGHT. Ner.

(this is to the lady with the non obese child BTW)

thefirstMrsDeVere · 28/02/2011 17:32

Anyhow - how is it more lazy to want to push a great big obese child than it is to get them to walk themselves?

That doesnt make sense does it?

maxybrown · 28/02/2011 19:33

LDN - you do make some interesting points actually and I do see where you are coming from........let it be known though that my DS NEVER asks to go in the pushchair so I am certainly not pandering to him Grin

He is VERY strong and able, even if he is a skinny monster. We also have a 4 month old labrador which my DS walks everyday (not alone I might add!)

But yes this is one of the things I always said i wouldn't do but hey - I never thought my son would have a severe language delay with an understanding 2 years ahead of his age, nor did I believe in fussy eaters or that one could survive on so little when never offered anything else or that he could have endless energy on no food EnvyHmm or never need to sleep.............but we live and learn Grin

ragged · 28/02/2011 20:04

"A child of 5 in a buggy for me is confused but even at 3 it would have to be for long journeys"

LDNmummy:
What's a "long" journey? 1 mile? 6 miles? Does timing have any bearing on it, or weather? I mean, would you be happy to plan for 2 hours to travel one mile? Especially in the cold wind & rain? Most of all, would you be happy for the duration of that one mile to be consistently unpredictable; one day it might take you 20 minutes, another day it might take you 80 minutes? Would you be happy to live your life that way?

Please come back here when your first child turns 5yo and tell us how you got on Wink.

gardeningmum05 · 01/03/2011 08:20

wasnt being patronising, asked for opinion and i gave it, i am entitled to that! and i have to use public transport and strangely enough i cant cover 5 miles in 30 minutes but am prepared to be patient with my toddler. the more you walk the faster they get.and no, im sorry to dissapoint you but my 4 kids dont have tantrums when out

thumbwitch · 01/03/2011 08:25

no one said you were being patronising - more like smug, judgey, thick, and making sweeping (bollocks) generalisations.

cory · 01/03/2011 08:45

LNDmummy, I also had exposure to a great many children- large, extended, very closely knit family- and thought of myself as really experienced before I gave birth. I thought I looked after my younger brother pretty well round the clock: I had little understanding of how different it would be to actually be his mother. I can't believe how many of my ideas I have had to revise since. Being an older sister or a kindly and involved aunt (both of which I was) was nowhere near the same as being a parent. My experience helped, certainly, but it didn't preclude a rather steep learning curve.

fwiw my mother who is a very experienced mother and aunt and grandmother and greataunt and greatgrandmother is still learning things and having to revise her ideas because her youngest grandchild is very different from the other children she has looked after.

cory · 01/03/2011 08:59

What I have found, though, is that you can stick to some middle road of doing what is important to you (within the limitations of your actual children) without feeling the need to judge other people whose lives may be very different. If my children were able to, we would be out walking those hills every weekend- but I'd still accept that this might not work for everybody.

maxybrown · 01/03/2011 09:26

My child doesn't tantrum at all gardening, he is good as gold actually, but when he has to be at nursery at ten to 9, spend all day there til 3.15 I am not really going to expect him to cope fine all day having walked 8 miles in a round trip Hmm that would be unrealistic. Especially when it is a specialist speech unit where they will require him to be using a lot of concentration and trying to teach him to talk (don't tell me, I suppose I failed there too, GAVE him his neurological speech condition)

And thank you for your enlightening help on the more you walk etc, where would we be without you eh? As I said, he has been walking since 10 months and very competatnt and does not paddy and never asks to go in a pushchair. But tomorrow for example, we ahve to be at the SALT early. He has some sensory issues, so we will battle with food, then the communication problems whilst he tries his damn hardest to tell me what the issue is and he starts his sentence over and over and gets cross because I can't understand him, then we are already late and me slinging him in the pushchair and me legging it, getting a bus, then walking for 20 mins VERY fast off the bus just gets us there in time. I could of course get him up in the middle of the night maybe, then we might do it.

The thing is, every situation is different and I do not take buggy willy nilly at all. Of course I am patient with him, he can't talk FFS, he needs loads of patience - yet his understanding is way ahead of his age, making it even harder for him as he has loads he wants to say but can't and tbh, this alone, aside from ANYTHING else can take up the best part of nearly every day

But you didn't give an opinion or helpful insight you just labelled everyone that uses a pushchair after a certain age as fat and lazy.

Yes I use a pushchair occasionally, but also he walks the dog everyday and we camp and go for long family, out all day walks, which he loves.

bupcakesandcunting · 01/03/2011 09:27

"im sorry to dissapoint you but my 4 kids dont have tantrums when out"

Ha ha ha ha ha! Course they don't, dearie...

bupcakesandcunting · 01/03/2011 09:28

Don't let her wind you up, maxybrown. She's a dimwit.

maxybrown · 01/03/2011 09:31

I know, excuse me, I don't normally stoop so low Smile a little blip there.

bupcakesandcunting · 01/03/2011 09:34

No, I did think about typing in a lengthy post about the logistics of getting to places on time with a toddler who likes to walk at -1MPH and it not about having patience but not actually having the physical time but thought my time would be better used sticking matchsticks into a lump of Plasticine than trying to explain something to her Wink

maxybrown · 01/03/2011 09:35

yes you are quite right, see and i could have used that time getting my toddler to walk a bit further, dammit! Grin

cece · 01/03/2011 09:45

my children were all runners so i preferred to keep them strapped in their buggy in certain circumstances .

TandB · 01/03/2011 09:54

Well all of my 15 kids are Olympic-standard power walkers - all before the age of 3. And when they get tired after their morning 26 mile constitutional which we manage in about 4 minutes flat, I strap them all onto me with the sling and totter home looking like a giant tortoise.

I don't mean to make the rest of you feel bad, but perhaps you just need to try a leeeeetle bit harder.

maxybrown · 01/03/2011 09:55

kungfu, you lazy arse, strapping them to you and carrying them, sheesh

bupcakesandcunting · 01/03/2011 09:58

Mine rollerblade to school and I rollerblade too, I strap myself to them and they pull me along like human huskies.

Come back when you're as excellent as me.

thumbwitch · 01/03/2011 09:59

Grin at bupcakes and kungfu

maxybrown · 01/03/2011 10:04

Did I forget to mention that although I use a pushchair, yes - it is I that is sat in it and DS pushing me

bupcakesandcunting · 01/03/2011 10:05

That's about right for your maxy, you lazy cow.

TandB · 01/03/2011 10:05

Well I also do the huskie team thing. But mine pull the car into which I load a dozen underprivileged old people to take on days out. Children exercised, old people happy, petrol preserved.

[polishes halo for second ti e in thread]

shewasashowgirl · 01/03/2011 10:08

Grin bupcakes and kungfupanda very funny

bupcakesandcunting · 01/03/2011 10:09

kungfu if you were such an angel you wouldn't have a car in the first place. Like me.

Anyway get this; DS is flying us on holiday this year, we're attaching 1000 helium balloons to him and holding onto his ankles. You heqrd me.

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