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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To collect Reception age DS from school in a buggy?

313 replies

CoffeeMum · 03/04/2012 16:23

Theoretical question for now, as DS won't start Reception until September, but i'm just wondering...

I also have a DD, two years younger than DS, so she'll be in a buggy on the school run. I'd planned to pop her in the single buggy, with DS on foot [school is 15 minutes away from home]. We do also have a double buggy, which I was on the verge of getting rid of, but now I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to take the double buggy on the school run in the autumn. Sometimes it'll be raining, and we'll want to get home asap, rather than at child-pace Hmm, but mostly, because I think alot of the time during the first term, he's going to be shattered from starting school. On those days, i'd just pop him in the buggy.

However, would it be completely laughable to even think about putting a school age child in a buggy, no matter what [SN aside, obviously]? Do any of you put a Reception age child in a buggy, or know people who do? Is it very rare to do so?

Thanks for you thoughts all Smile

OP posts:
YouChangeWithTheWeather · 03/04/2012 17:06

You know what, sometimes I stick the back seat on my P&T for my reception aged child.

He's a late August born boy who spends all day legging it around. He is shattered most days and just wants to sit down and have a sandwich. He's just as likely to leg it as collapse in a heap. I also have a baby in the front seat and two other school aged children who come out with bags and bags of stuff. If he's not in the back seat then somehow I have to juggle all of that, chase/carry him and cross 3 roads on my 15 5 minute walk to the car. So ner.

molly3478 · 03/04/2012 17:06

I havent got a car and a lot of people on the school run havent. DD is only in pre school and I have never seen anyone use a buggy and we live in a really hilly area. The children are only 3/4 but I still think it would be seen as lazy.

Flightty · 03/04/2012 17:07

'flighty - I think the "fuss" is that by school age children should be able to walk a short distance without needing a pram.'

Why? And what if they can, but find it tiring after a day at school? What if you live up a really big hill? (yes we do)

What if it takes ten times as long to walk as it does to drive, and maybe four times as long without the buggy? What about all the other stuff you have to do at home?

I don't know how you want to work it with your children and family but that's your business, and the way I do it is mine. I don't see the problem.

AThingInYourLife · 03/04/2012 17:07

I meant the adults, Original :o

Flightty · 03/04/2012 17:08

Yes, I find it tiring, AThing. So?

usualsuspect · 03/04/2012 17:08

I've never seen a secondary school age child in a buggy, seen plenty in mummies car though.

ariadne1 · 03/04/2012 17:09

No Apart from anything else you are setting him up for a major piss-ripping!

PestoPenguin · 03/04/2012 17:09

Bike or scooter Smile (I have an Aug baby, she manages).

OriginalJamie · 03/04/2012 17:10

ATIYL

Oh, sorry Grin.

I love walking but I do get a bit of backache. I think I might be doing it wrong....

usualsuspect · 03/04/2012 17:10

I hated taking bikes and scooters , bloody pita dragging them back home

Flightty · 03/04/2012 17:10

A mile and a half up a hill, with several bags of heavy shopping is tiring for me. I would rather not do it. I can do it, I'm not hugely unfit, I have a BMI of what, about 19, I'm not obese.

I just find it easier to do the school run with either the buggy or the car, because that way, I have more energy for everything else I have to do. Plus try getting a 20kg bag of layers pellets home on foot.

The car and the buggy are very useful tools for our family, so we use them. No one has laughed at us for it. Maybe we just have nicer friends?

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere · 03/04/2012 17:11

He will be very tired at first but he will get used to it quickly.

Make sure you have his tea/dinner ready early for the first few weeks.
You might find he falls alseep as soon as you get in.

I used to take advantage of their general knackedness and confusion. Mine would eat anything in that condition (mwah ha ha).

I am not anti buggy btw. I keep hold of mine for as long as possible but I dont think you will need it.

porcamiseria · 03/04/2012 17:11

god! I love my double buggy

Looks like days are numbered Sad

fuck em OP, do what you want. Just dont let him go in buggy 5 minurtes near school Grin

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere · 03/04/2012 17:12

OMG, If your DC is going to school in September....
that means..no, it cant be true...that means my DC4 is going to school too...

OriginalJamie · 03/04/2012 17:12

Flightty

Seriously, get a trolley. I got mine when I got rid of the buggy and realised I couldn't carry my shopping home. People take the piss a bit but it's brilliant

everlong · 03/04/2012 17:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

valiumredhead · 03/04/2012 17:14

Ikea do really nice trollies!

Flightty · 03/04/2012 17:16

Oh, Fred, I've just noticed your rather disdainful sounding post (might be wrong)

I cycled to school and back every day from age 11 to 17. Three miles there, three miles back. Don't talk to me about fitness. It made me fit; it was also horrible.

It's not just about being tired. It's about how little sleep I get, with one or other child waking most nights, it's about fielding every single aspect of family life, having major renovation projects on at home, 12 pets all needing food, usually having to stop off for equipment or materials or food en route, and TIME.

I really hate walking all the way to school and back because it's so fecking boring. I have a million things I can do at home in that time. I'm not sitting around all day on my arse. I'm often doing stuff that most stay at home mothers don't even consider. So you can keep your self righteous fitness lecture and come and lay a concrete floor for me, Ok? While I walk to school.

CheesyWellingtons · 03/04/2012 17:17

-Not very nice-- people used to comment on my DC being in a buggy at 3, let alone 4. In my defense, it was because I walked miles every day and it would have been unfair to expect DC to walk 5 miles a day at 3.

I would try him without. I expect he will see all his new friends walking and want to be the same. Tiredness and tantrums are very much part of the first few weeks though Hmm

Flightty · 03/04/2012 17:17

Trolleys are great but you still wouldn't get ten lengths of four by two and a bag of rabbit feed in one.

Everlong - none of his friends have taken the piss, they all want a turn.

AThingInYourLife · 03/04/2012 17:21

You shouldn't be so angry with the people who walk. If it wasn't for us your short car journeys would take a lot longer and keep you from your concrete floor.

GeekPie · 03/04/2012 17:21

DD is finding reception more emotionally tiring than physically tiring.

She still has plenty of energy to run around after school, but is liable to burst into tears for no apparent reason Confused

Flightty · 03/04/2012 17:23

I'm not angry with people for walking, far from it, if it floats your boat or works for you then by all means. i'm angry at being told I'm unfit and my child is unfit just because I don't enforce a no buggy policy when he is not even five yet.

Flightty · 03/04/2012 17:23

Anyway...I didn't start with the angry.

valiumredhead · 03/04/2012 17:24

I used a buggy til ds was over 4, just not on 15 min walks.