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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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:
ariane5 · 25/02/2011 10:57

my ds (4) still uses a buggy, he looks fine but has a condition where his joints dislocate a lot. So many people make comments (esp on buses) that he is 'too old' for a buggy.I get really fed up with it.

3 years old is still only little, maybe he gets tired or they walk a lot?

Hullygully · 25/02/2011 10:57

This is why children are so fat.

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 25/02/2011 10:59

oh FGS get a bloody grip - DS3 did the walk I mentioned in my previous post at just turned 3yrs old - it's a fair old slog right to the top of Arthurs Seat (especially when you've walked 1 1/2 of the Royal Mile before hand). He's perfectly capable of walking that far. Just sometimes it's easier for me (and him) to let him go in his buggy still.

For just the same reason that some people may decide to take a bus/car/taxi a "walkable" distance once in a while somtimes a 3 or 4yr old may use the buggy - it's not going to kill them - it's not going to make them fat (though I wish DS1 would have just a little more "meat" on him - would make clothes buying a little easier for him).

bigbitch90 · 25/02/2011 10:59

DS1 was out the buggy before 3. due too having 3 under 3 he had to walk as the other two were in the double buggy. DS2 will be 3 in june and I doubt he will be out of the buggy before then he's a lazy lummox and doesn't like to walk much!

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 25/02/2011 10:59

I'd have replaced it with a cheap job at 3 - we used to walk long distances and didn't have a car.

darlene - we'd have been walking more than 6 miles a day, easily. It's not that far really - a mile into town and back, at least a mile or so walking around town, mile to and from the park, another mile to a friend's house and so on.

Original poster
Butternutsquash22 · 25/02/2011 11:00

Imelda I have to try then on every so often, make sure they still fit!

(and need to do a washing so my judgypants are the only clean ones just now...)

OP posts:
BaroqueAroundTheClock · 25/02/2011 11:01

I regularly saw 3yr olds carried in slings (ring type ones - or the traditional tied on the back ones) in Zimbabwe - they may not have had buggies - but they still didn't expect their chilren to walk miles and miles and miles - especially fi they needed to get somewhere (and back) in a reasonable time.

DeWe · 25/02/2011 11:01

Depends on the child, and the situation. For example, dd#1 occasionally went in a buggy aged 4 because I didn't drive and if we were going somewhere a distance where I didn't want her tired out by the time we got there, then it was appropriate. Ds (age3) goes in the buggy when I'm going to pick his sisters up from school, it's roughly 60-80 minutes round trip and it's at the time of day when he's tired.
dd#2 rarely went in the buggy, she went in a sling until she was 1yo and after that usually walked.
I would want another buggy available if mine broke when they were 3. You might not use it often (eg when they're ill) but the times you need it, you may be stuck without it.
Just because they haven't discussed plans for another child doens't mean they don't intend another.

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 25/02/2011 11:02

I do love Hully's posts Grin

imo one reason so many people (children included) are fat is that they travel everywhere by car. Buggies enable people to walk more - and it's not as if the child spends the entire journey in it.

MCos · 25/02/2011 11:03

I still had buggy when my girls were 3. Used it when spending the day in town, going for long walks with DH, disneyland/other outings which involved a lot of walking. Wouldn't have been without it.

blinks · 25/02/2011 11:03

i have my 3 year old pull me along in a sleigh.

i highly recommend it.

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 25/02/2011 11:03

(though I should perhaps add that aside from the Arthurs Seat expedition I took the buggy out with us every day of the 3 week holiday after that - he was utterly exhausted by the end and really was too big for me to be carrying around - and it meant we could do more. He didn't get shattered getting to where we were going and could spend more time running around and exploring.

BertieBotts · 25/02/2011 11:05

Cheap buggies are harder to push when children get heavier as well. DS is 2.4 and I still use the huge tank like thing I had when he was newborn because it pushes so much easier than the umbrella fold which has tiny wheels and when he leans forward it's extremely difficult to steer.

If you don't drive you NEED a decent buggy, it gets a lot of use! Takes me about an hour to walk a 15 minute trip with DS if he's tired, and when he's on top form he walks for miles quite happily.

Anyway if I didn't have a pushchair, what would I put the shopping in? Grin

weegiemum · 25/02/2011 11:05

My dd2 was in a buggy until she was 6.

Used to freak out little old ladies on the bus who would say "aren't you a bit big for a pushchair?" by explaining the ins and outs of her congenital hip condition or just giving them a withering look and going back to her book.

sungirltan · 25/02/2011 11:05

you proba dont need a buggy all the time with a 3 year old but they dont half whine when they get tired. plus also if you walk lots at least you can hang the shopping off them and leave your hands free for toddler wrangling :-)

randomimposter · 25/02/2011 11:06

would love it if DS (2y9m) would get in the buggy... he decided 5 months ago that he would only leave the house attached to his micro-scooter Hmm. I gave up trying to force the issue...

laurennemzy · 25/02/2011 11:07

I don't think this is unreasonable at all, if a child can walk wherever it is you are off to, let it walk. My DD is only 3 months at the moment but as soon as she grows out of her travel system which is looking to last her until about 2 1/2, I will only be getting a cheap buggy to deal with the times we will be out all day etc.

ImeldaSnowboots · 25/02/2011 11:08

Grin at blinks
We bought a new buggy while on holiday for my DS when he was 4 as DP too fed up with his moaning, we walk a lot.

GiddyPickle · 25/02/2011 11:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NormanTheForeman · 25/02/2011 11:10

My ds was still in a pushchair most of the time until he was 4. But I don't drive, and we often walked several miles a day. It would have taken ages without a pushchair. And ds is small for his age (so wasn't heavy to push). It hasn't made him fat though, he is a skinny little chap!

mmmitsdelicious · 25/02/2011 11:12

My children are not fat Hullygully.
Are you? is that why you are obsessed with fat children?

blinks · 25/02/2011 11:13

hahahaha

BertieBotts · 25/02/2011 11:16

Lol lauren.

We all had such good intentions once, I can promise you Grin

bamboobutton · 25/02/2011 11:19

yabu.

i tried to do my usual shop with ds walking instead of in the buggy and what normally takes 45mins to walk there and back took 2 hours! it would probably take 4 hours if we were to walk him to the library.

i don't have that kind of time to waste, lunch needs cooking, dd needs bottles and naps, cleaning needs doing etc.

privategodfrey · 25/02/2011 11:21

Both of my boys were out of buggies beore they were 3 but that was more due to the fact they simply couldn't keep still so it was hell for them to be confined to a pushchair.

I don't see anything wrong with using a buggy for a 3 year old for long walks. Come to that, even for short walks if the child is point blank refusing to go and, for example, you have to pick up another child from school.

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