to worry about seeing older and older children in buggies?

[mariebl]

In the last couple of years I've really started to notice many more children in buggies, some of them must be almost school age.
I also very often see them looking unhappy and bored and trying to get out and being told off for being "naughty".

I'm beginning to think it must be my age as not too many years back there didn't really seem to BE any buggies for older children, babies went in prams, when they started toddling they had reins and when they got tired people picked them up and carried them for a bit.

I appreciate that there are children with conditions where having that transport is helpful and necessary but I also believe that having older and older children in buggies is a recent trend which is in danger of becoming the norm. We are also told we have a child obesity crisis and are told that children do not get enough exercise.
Am I being judgemental to say is this kind of trend a part of it?

purple - Why do people do this on threads???? Why? It is not about you and your DD. Op is talking about a general trend to putting DC in buggy for own convenience. She even mentions their miserable faces and parents calling them naughty for wanting to get out. Doesn't sound like you would be calling your pained DD naughty for having health issues.

I sincerely hope they remove all disabled sinage from toilets and replace them with a universal easy access sign.

*signage

Fast track universal toilet passes for large buggies

To those with kids who can't walk far for various health reasons, lets be clear - you are not the problem. I'd bet that as a (small) % of the population that has stayed roughly the same.

What has definitely changed is the growth in buggy size, size of child in it, and length of time child is in buggy.

That point re kids running amok once let out was exactly what kids were like 15 years ago, so what did we do then - we let them out! And you know what, after a bit they didn't run amok anymore. Funny that.

Sorry, but imo YABU.

My son is 2 1/2, but looks older - he was 9 1/2 lbs at birth, and is very tall - and yes, he can run all over the place. But he is too small to do the walk to and from the shops, plus I can't manage him (mini Houdini) and shopping.

DD3 occasionally used a buggy until about 4.5, because she lost a lot of tissue on the legs, buttocks and hips (like a middling sized shark took a chunk out of her) when she had meningococcal septicaemia at 13 months old, so her legs get quite painful and tired. Even now, if her school does 'walking trips', she might have to go with a teacher in a car. She is 7 now, and has her Hello Kitty inline scooter, which enables her to get exercise and keep up without hurting her legs.

BUT as she will soon be having an operation to insert saline filled balloons under her skin to try and even out the scarring, I fully expect her to be needing some kind of wheeled contraption for a few weeks - but this is a cosmetic procedure (which neither she nor me thinks is especially necessary but society and family do), and not mechanical, so she will still tire and hurt.

We do not drive. So we muddle through as best we can. And my vintage Mothercare 2-in-1 with the shit-hot suspension and good old fashioned wire shopping tray is part of our muddling through. :o

Blimey who notices these things let alone worries about them?

I guess I might have fallen into this category once. My dt's have always looked a good two years older than they really are because they are so tall. The buggy was the best option if we had to be somewhere fast ie to collect their older sister from school.

My neighbour used to enjoy commenting about it. I used to fantasise about throttling him because I was a tad stressed juggling 3 dc and it was none of his beeswax.

I see what you mean but it has a lot to do with safety. If I am taking my 4 into town or on the train into London, having the buggy is the safest thing. My 2.5. year old can easily walk a mile or two and would rather do so and if I just had her with me and all the time in the world that is what I would do. But if I have 3 other children, bags, getting on and off trains, contending with crowds, I would put her in the buggy otherwise I would think it would be more dangerous (and potentially meet more justified judging).

Lunabelly
The op included the line about children who have conditions where a buggy is helpful or necessary. So she excluded your dd from her observations.

OP I am finding the complete opposite. When I had dd1(15) she was in a buggy until over 3 years and she was a big girl so well over the 15kg weight limit on new buggies. DD2 (2) was at the 15kg limit by 2.6 and out of a buggy as she had had enough.

I don't think all 3 year olds are capable of walking everyday for long distances but with buggies having a low weight limit on them then they have to

My OH is a bit like you. He likes to try and force our 2.7 year olds to walk everywhere - that's fine if you are going to the park, but if we are going to do some food shopping, having to walk over a mile there and over a mile back, not to mention the wandering around the shop and then carry back the bags, I just don't want to do it. It's not fair on them as they get tired and want to be carried, it's not fair on us either. Also, they still have a lunchtime nap and he without fail manages to take them out at that time, which is a nightmare.

I would rather take my children out in the buggy and put them on reins sometimes, or take cabs or buses everywhere just so as I don't offend someone's ideas about how long a child should be in a buggy for. It's my business not yours, so why worry?

See, I'm already beginning to worry about the end of the buggy use stage- DS is 20 months and can walk short distances, but not that far.

I normally push him into town a couple of times a week, it's a 2 miles each way and up some very steep hills into town - it's going to be years until he can do this walk, so am slightly concerned from the new year I'm going to have to take the car instead - bang goes my 'free' exercise (sob, I'm going to have to give up having yummy cake when I get to town on the grounds I walked, sob, sob).

If I had a second DC I could put DS on a buddy board/toddler seat for the steep hills he couldn't cope with (pushing 2 DCs uphill, that must be worth cake) but sadly, I'm very much not pregnant.

My 4 year old who incidently looks more like 6, recently badly sprained her ankle. It swelled to double its normal size and she couldn't out any weight on it for a week. I used a buggy during this time as it really was my only option and despite no one actually commenting we were subject to many dirty looks. I think yabu unless you know the reason why that individual child is in a buggy.

I just can't get worked up about this OP.

It's rainy and a boring day, and still am looking for an exciting thread on her but....yawn.

who cares?! If people start to push their 18 year olds around in buggies, to keep them safe, I might become interested.

I just took DS for his first day to school in his buggy.
Judge away. As the parent of a SN child my skin has a flame retardant layer.

Actually, maybe people think it's odd because they don't consider walking long distances normal anymore - it's surprising how many people are shocked that I walk from our village up into the main town so frequently, people who live closer don't consider it to be 'walking distance'.

I know my mum had a toddler seat on the big old sprung pram when I was a baby and DB was 3, but then they only had one car, which DF took to work so she had to walk similar/longer distances.

muggles - your skin may have developed a thicker layer but that may be affecting your eyesight as OP mentions some DC will need to use a buggy so your situ is excleuded

But its not excluded. If you didnt know my situation you would see a child (nearly 5) in school uniform being pushed to school in a buggy.

Which is exactly my point. How does the op or anyone else who thinks she is reasonable know what the circumstances of the child is, and more importantly, why do they care?

I don't think OP is judging any individual - otherwise she wouldn't have made an exclusion. She has noticed a trend - which some other posters have too. Older and older DC in buggies - she doesn't care about the individual but wonders if the trend is part of the obesity problem. Lack of exercise is part of the problem so I think she has a point.

I care what happens in wider society - not so much about the individual but trends.

Pagwatch said it more eloquently earlier up the thread ^^

Pagwatch - yesbut, people always think my son is much older than he is - and therefore expect him to walk ten miles a day and read War & Peace out loud. That's the thing. You cannot always "tell".

YABU

My dd is 2.7. She can walk and often does, but we still have a buggy and use it for the school run if its foul weather - like this morning, or in the afternoon some days if she's only just woken from her nap and I have to whizz her out to fetch her brothers while she's still half asleep. It actually helps to have her in the buggy on the school run at the moment, not because she has SNs, but because her eldest brother has ASD and takes a lot of my attention at these times, particularly pick up in the afternoon. Its a load of my mind knowing that she is safely strapped in and I don't have to worry about her wandering off while I am dealing with him.

I also use it when I go walking (trying to lose weight), as I generally do a 5 mile round trip, which is too much for her at this age and when I go into town on the bus, because as others have said, its easier than having to juggle dd and shopping whilst looking at/choosing things to buy. If I have another adult with me, she often walks when shopping though. She is never in the buggy the whole time, generally walking for a while and only getting in when she gets tired. When I go walking, we stop at a playground half way around - she runs around and wears herself out then sleeps all the way home.

I had a couple of people commenting on the school run that she should have been out of her buggy when she turned two - but frankly its none of their business.

Fortunately dd is very small for her age, so we don't comments off judgy people who see us out and about - just from the playground maffia.

I don't imagine her still using it by the time she starts the school nursery in September 2012, in fact I very much doubt we'll be needing it by next summer - but I don't judge other parent's who do still use their pushchairs to help them manage the school run. Their child - their business.

Lydia
I agree with that. I get people looking puzzled that dd walks to school. But it isn't far. They just see it as far.

Apologies for typing errors - no sleep last night!

Lunabelly
I think you are kind of missing the point. That the op is talking about a general, overall trend for children to be in buggies later
I doubt that the ppn of children who look much older has changed much. So if there are more older looking dc in buggies the chances are a big chunk of them will just actually be older.
So still not talking about your dc.