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

[Butternutsquash22]

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.

My 3.6 year old ALWAYS goes in a buggy. He is 110cm and 3st 10lb same as a 5year old. I am used to the judgy looks and ignorant comments. DS has autism,no sense of danger and wont walk on reigns. Given the choice of stopping him run out on roads, constantly run off, hold complete strangers hands or lie on the floor and refuse to get up - the buggy wins hands down!

To look at my son he doesn't look disabled in a photo or buggy but he is incredibly hard work and recei9ves constant 1:1 at pre school and will attend a specialist autism unit in sep when he starts school. If I had a £ for every look or comment we've endured my bank balance would be very healthy!

None of my kids were out of the buggy before 4.5yo.
Didjall see my recent bragging thread about how DC keep doing very well at cross-country running races? Oh, I forgot to mention, DD was told that she would be "phenomenal" if she joined the local competitive swimming club.

Because DD is such a sludgy Lard-Arse, and all that. That's what using the buggy until you're nearly 6yo does to you.

Seriously, when I walk at my natural pace, my 6yo & 9yo have to jog to keep up with me. They whinge at me to slow down. Not surprising, random adults (including strangers) comment on how fast I walk.

But if some of you think the average 3yo should be able to keep up... well then, you just keep popping those little the pills the man in the nice white coat gave you. I'm sure they'll kick in one day.

um no three isnt too old for a buggy if they do alot of walking,

No, it really doesn't matter and it's up to her. Unless she is forcing her child to sit in it when he wants to walk. YABU. If she was driving the distance it wouldn't the subject of criticism. And there are plenty of grownups who can't be bothered to walk the distance toddlers are supposed to.

No, it's not quite old to be using a buggy. If I need to do a bit of shopping, DS1, who has just turned 3, has to go in double buggy with DS2. There is no other way of doing it safely. The alternative is trying to push a buggy with DS2 in, one handed, while holding DS1's hand and trying to shop.

Yes I could struggle but why would I choose to?

Also, if we have days out, at some point, DS1 will usually hop into buggy if he gets tired.

There is no harm in this- to think otherwise suggests you have too much time on your hands.

If DS1 was an only child I would still want the option of using a buggy at times, despite him being capable of walking.

Can't be bothered reading past page 1 so this post is relating to original post not subsequent posts as haven't read any of them -

My first ever biscuit!

Is 3 years old too old for a buggy? No.

YABU Some 3 year olds really do ned a buggy. I know DD3 was still using one at that age.

It does depend - I certainly didn't need a buggy when DS2 was 3. We live in a city, but still a good 15 min walk to school/cm etc. So for him he could be walking an hour plus a day to school and back, school and back doing school run.

But there were times that I did use it - day trip to the beach save me carrying loads of stuff cause I can put it under buggy, if he was ill, if I needed to get somewhere quickly.

I hate these threads because they make me feel guilty for being lazy.

I'm with Pixie, several dozen posts back, who essentially said that taking a 3 year old for a walk entails massive amounts of prevarication and roadside dawdling.
DS1 is about to be 3 and while his doting grandparents take him for walks, and while I know he does like walking on occasion, he also likes the buggy. I also have a 9 week old baby and while he's in the sling at present, I'm still getting used to the whole 'getting out of the house with 3 yr old and baby and getting us all back alive' thing. It is massively easier for me to put DS1 in the buggy, DS2 in the sling, and push. I am, frankly, terrified of taking DS1 out on foot (with DS2 either in the buggy or in the sling) because of the traffic and DS1's recent tendency to wriggle away and run off. Yes yes, I am being a Bad Parent not to just sort this out (any idea HOW, though, short of letting him get run over just the once to teach him the error of his ways? When I have DS2 to look after too, it's bloody hard to control DS1 on foot).

So sorry, but for the moment I am glad that DS1 still likes his buggy. I don't know how else we'd manage to do errands about town.

(why isn't there a board on MN for weaning small children out of their pushchairs, anyway? )

ReshapeWhileDamp - I hate these threads too! Don't feel guilty and be all apologetic for your decision, you are doing NOTHING wrong and don't need to justify anything .

Incidentally I don't feel guilty when my DD1 picks up my DD3 (aged 3.5) from nursery at 4pm, then gives her comfort 'blanky' and pushes her to the bus stop in her buggy.

Oh don;t let people make you feel guilty! Nobody lives your life, you amke your own best-choices.

In the mornings I lug ds4, then walk back the short distance from school; by whcih time I will have had a nervous breakdown due to his refusal to hold my hand.

buggy won;t be used usually if DH is there on a family trip out but I would never consider that otherwise: we have 2 with asd, one with sen who falls over all the time- there's only so much attention I can guarantee wrt safety.

And sometimes we still use a buggy even when two of us; yesterday we did, becuase he was clearly tired and owuld have tantrummed all afternoon (he naps occasionally but no longer as a routine).

Basically we make it up as we go along and that's OK.

YANBU - excluding sn of course.

And yes I walk everywhere and rarely get public transport.

Am fed up of comments (still) on how my (now 6yo) ds shouldn't be expected to walk that far.

Um he doesn't know that and so just gets on with it.

YABU I used one for my DTs until 3.4-4 as we walked 6 miles a day for the older ones to get to school. Imagine walking 2 x 3 year old twins 40 min walk to be there for 8.50 every day!!!They also had global delays and so were behind developmentally but you couldn't tell by looking at them! I have lots of friends with 3/4/5 year olds in buggys and I don't give a poop. It is up to them. Keep your nose out.

Ds rarely went in the buggy aged 3 so if it had broke I probably wouldn't have bought another one. But each to their own perhaps they walk loads and the child gets tired or maybe she finds it easier. Ds never wanted to use the buggy when he got to about 2 but sometimes it was easier for me if he went in the buggy especially if we were running late.

At that age I would just buy the cheapest product on the market you can get a really basic buggy for about £15.

She should get a wagon. That way its not wasted money as she can use it for other stuff as well.
at least that's what I did but then I never had a buggy for ds3 and I don't drive
I love my wagon.

My dd is almost 3.5 and is the laziest child I have ever known, she wants to ride in the buggy everywhere and it is so much easier for me when she does. So that makes me lazy too right? Oh well, luckily she runs around the house and garden like a lunatic, and goes to ballet and gym class where she practically bounces off the walls.

Funny, my mother tells now how much I hated walking when I was a child too - maybe there is a no walking gene?? :)

I walk MILES every day now though, hate using the car and we are all slim and fit (oh apart from my muffin top - can't shift it )

Don't be too judgey, my older 2 hated the buggy and loved walking, dd just dares to be different!

Buttnernut
I feel the same
There are children aged 4 at DS1s nursery who still go in a pushchair and they are moving to reception in september. THATS too old.

My DS2(2.11) is 3 at end of march and he only goes in the buggy is he is tired. I take the buggy with me to school but he walks mostly. I must admit on i only use it to hang shopping and my bag on it.

As soon as he is 3 though the pushchair will be going to the tip. He has no issues, he has no reason to be in a pushchair when he can walk to school, town, school again and then home in one day without stopping, he is very good at walking.

My DP has been commenting on this ever since I got pregnant. He can't stand seeing LO's who outsize a buggy being pushed around at the supermarket. We are both very active and I think he finds that it creates lazy children if it is normal or everyday practice after 3 years of age.

TBH, I agree with him. After my little one turns 4 I doubt I would be using a buggy anymore. I think 3 is ok but reaching the age when one should stop. After all, there was a time when children did well without buggies from start to finish and children were much healthier then. Of course I understand that some children have exceptional circumstances and I pointed this out to DP, but we do not come from families where children use pushchairs into age 4 and above so we feel it is quite possible to not need a buggy then.

A child of 5 in a buggy for me is but even at 3 it would have to be for long journeys or when we travel abroad and want to ferry the little one around in unfamilliar places.

Children are capable and it is actually more debtrimental in my opinion to use a buggy if they have illnesses such as asthma or low muscle tone. Severe asthma runs in my family and my youngest sibling due to being a premie had this and used to have fits as well as low muscle tone. We used a baby harness for him after age 2/ 3 and he grew out of the asthma and the other problems as he physically grew stronger. You are supposed to excercise more if you have these health problems to help with your respitory and cardio vascular system.

As for foreign countries, I think half the reason me and DP and our families do not like using buggies for long is because we are west African and children walk everywhere from as soon as they can walk. And mothers would not carry them on their backs at the age of 3 as some have suggested, it would be too tiring for the mother, especially with work and household chores and both mother and baby would be looked at as if they were strange.

My DS stopped using one when he got to 2.5, but that was mainly for my convenience, and because the brakes broke on his loola. So, saved me shelling out for something else, plus most of the time we're out and about, we get the bus somewhere, anyway (might as well make the most of the student bus pass, eh?)But I do think it depends on the mother AND the child.

Whether using buggy is detrimental for children with low tone depends on the causes for the low tone, LDNmummy.

My dd has low muscle tone due to Ehlers Danlos syndrome. I believed the same as you and forced her to walk everywhere and take exercise even though she was crying with pain. By the time she was 7 she was unable to walk at all; eventually we had to give up and buy a wheelchair. Later I was told that her joints have probably been permanently damaged by overstraining . Yes, exercise is good for her, but it needs to be paced- and if you have to walk long ways without a car, pacing isn't going to happen. She is a lot better now when she is able to take carefully planned paced exercise.

Same with asthma- moderate exercise is good, but the severity of asthma can vary no end and not everyone is going to be cured by exercise.

I am a fanatical walker myself, I really believed I could make my children healthy by making them walk lots. It isn't always as easy as that. What will work for most children will not work for every child.

It doesn't matter one jot what age they are. You do whatever you think is best taking your situation and your child into account and cobblers to everyone else.

Why are people so judgey? Should I really have expected my DTs (then 3) to walk 6 miles a day then? Have you ever tried that with one toddler never mind two? Some people don't have cars and some people have to walk miles. Some kids have unseen disabilities and delays. Some kids dawdle so wouldn't be able to deliver older kids to school etc etc. They can walk on the way back surely.

Yeah, three is way too old. The parents should be shot, or at leastforced to bow down to people who's kids walk everywhere at 18 mths and kiss their Good Mother boots. Or something.

LDNmummy - Hi, I hate to sound harsh but most people find that they have all sorts of ideas about what their kids will do and when but the reality doesn't always match up. Maybe once your first baby is born you will start to realise this otherwise you are going to find yourself very frustrated. Did you read the message by cory (2 below yours) which blows your theory that kids with low muscle tone just need to walk a bit!!