Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
bobbledunk · 03/04/2012 19:05

At his age I and every child I knew would run around outside from morning til night, none of us ever got tired until bed time.
I know times have changed and they're all couch potatoes now because of paedophiles hiding behind the bushes but how unhealthy can a child be to not be able to do a fifteen minute walk. Most pensioners can easily do it, it is very sad for any child who is being allowed to become less physically able than an old person. A buggy is fine for a child with sn but not a 'healthy' one, if you don't make him exercise he will end up with serious health problems and will genuinely need to be pushed. yabu.

amothersplaceisinthewrong · 03/04/2012 19:07

I got rid of my buggy when my second child was 3.5. She managed to walk to school a couple of times a week to get her brother when he was in reception.

Won't his peers laugh at him?

kennythekangaroo · 03/04/2012 19:11

DD(4) goes with DH in a bike trailer. It's about a 20 min walk up a rat run of a hill with no pavements. They can't leave home until DS has been collected by his SN school bus and have to be back home by 4 for his return.

DD will fit in the trailer till she is my age (SN trailer) but there will be a point where it is no longer appropriate and we have no clue what to do then.

Anybody got a good way of doing it other than joining the rest of them in a car?

ragged · 03/04/2012 19:14

No one has laughed at my kids for getting the occasional buggy ride up to 8yo.

NO ONE would bat an eye at OP if she said "I always drive to collect reception DS because he's so tired after a full day at school, it's too stressful on him and me to try to get him to walk home so I drive instead." NO ONE.

ffs, if OP said "I'm too tired to walk home after school so we always drive" -- No one would think a thing about that statement, either.

Juule · 03/04/2012 19:17

Good point, Bronze and ragged with the driving thing.

TeWihara · 03/04/2012 19:32

But what's wrong with a buggy board? At least there's no risk of the kid getting teased that way...

I can't drive, DD's preschool is a mile away, DS evicted her out of her pushchair at 2.9 so her daily options are walking or buggy board (or scooter sometimes) it takes a while (okay, an hour each leg) so occasionally I insist she stays on the buggyboard so we can walk at my pace home.

I don't really see why these aren't totally suitable options for a reception aged child too?

BerryCheesecake · 03/04/2012 19:32

Have only read the OP so not sure of all that's been said. Apologies if someone has suggested this but:
Yes to putting him in the buggy if he tired but under no circumstances do it in front of the staff/ on the playground. I would get him a little way Dow. The road before putting him in!
As a teacher, you should see the Hmm faces the staff pull in the staff room when discussing at length families whose children go out the gate into a buggy!

BerryCheesecake · 03/04/2012 19:33

If he is tired

Down **

Sorry about typos, am on my phone!

Eggrules · 03/04/2012 19:46

Ragged "I'm too tired to walk home after school so we always drive" - I think it is lazy to drive a 1 mile school run. Most children live very local to school here and the car park is full.

StringOrNothing · 03/04/2012 19:50

Yes egg - ragged agrees that driving a 4 year old child half a mile home is just as unnecessary as pushing them in a buggy, but one gets judged to high heaven and one doesn't.

Eggrules · 03/04/2012 19:55

That is true - there is harsher judgement at buggy users that drivers. I think maybe using a buggy is seen as a developmental issue??

I would think anybody explicitly saying "I'm too tired to walk home after school so we always drive" would be judged. Using a car on the school run does seem to be socially acceptable.

SparkyMcSparrowLovesMiniEggs · 03/04/2012 19:58

My neighbour drives her dd to school that is literally a slow 3 minute walk away. I think this is pathetic!

molly3478 · 03/04/2012 20:12

DDs school really looks down on drivers. They have campaigns, always write things in the newsletter saying dont drive small distances, have had road safety teams in to try and stop it etc. I think the driving short distances is seen as way worse by a lot of schools.

crunchbag · 03/04/2012 20:14

OP is not talking about using the buggy on a daily basis, just on those days that it pours down when most people will use the car (and splash pedestrians) and you just want to get home quickly.

I have been there and done it and why not. Getting soaked really isn't that much fun on cold days no matter how well wrapped up you are and OP has to do the walk twice.
CoffeeMum keep the buggy for those days.

AThingInYourLife · 03/04/2012 20:14

"NO ONE would bat an eye at OP if she said "I always drive to collect reception DS because he's so tired after a full day at school, it's too stressful on him and me to try to get him to walk home so I drive instead." NO ONE."

I would if they lived within easy walking distance.

I can't get my head around people who think they need to use a buggy or drive for a walk of less than a mile.

It's so lazy, bad for your health, and very bad for the environment if you are taking a car out for such a short run.

funkybuddah · 03/04/2012 20:15

No I judge those that insist on driving to their catchment school as well (and no they don't have places to be afterwards)

It is laziness and the feeling that poor children can't wall that far/be outside etc.

pinkyp · 03/04/2012 20:15

Someone I know picked up her ds from school with a younger ds in pushchair, 6 months later the younger ds starters reception, I was shocked as I always thought he was younger, he's actually taller than my ds when he's stood up

ragged · 03/04/2012 20:16

We live just over half mile from school and most people around here drive to school or to town centre (15 min. walk). I think that's the social norm, few people walk anywhere more than 10 minutes away, especially not purely utilitarian journeys like getting to school/work.

AThingInYourLife · 03/04/2012 20:16

"No one has laughed at my kids for getting the occasional buggy ride up to 8yo."

Up to 8 years old?

I can assure you that you are wrong about that. People have laughed.

Meglet · 03/04/2012 20:17

You probably shouldn't as your DC will get used to it. The weather should be nice for the first month or so.

I stopped using the double buggy in the summer before DS started reception. TBH I would rather stick pins in my eyes than walk at child speed, I'm quite ratty on the school run while I wait for him to catch up / stop dawdling.

CecilyP · 03/04/2012 20:18

OP is taking a buggy anyway for her younger child. What's the problem if the older child hops on. If she takes the double buggy, he can have the choice whether to use it or not.

scottishmummy · 03/04/2012 20:18

in a buggy at 8yo
yep folk laugh,just not to your face

Piffle · 03/04/2012 20:19

My ds2 was in a buggy for most decent walks up until he started school last year.
Never been in the pram since
what about a buggy board type thing, though I find mine all walked (including DD who has gross motor issues and walks slowly) all walked well holding on to the buggy handles of the younger child

AThingInYourLife · 03/04/2012 20:19

I'm not sure a link to what Americans are prepared to walk is a reliable indication of what is socially acceptable in the UK.

When I used to walk to work in California, I was mistaken for a prostitute on more than one occasion because it was inconceivable to some people that there was any other reason for walking.

molly3478 · 03/04/2012 20:21

Agree with thingforlife we went on a work trip to America and walked about half a mile people were looking at us like we were mental and when we got to the restaurant they said you walked? as if it was really shocking. They used to drive out the road all the way along and drive all the way back down to avoid crossing the roads even though they had crossings. It was crazy behaviour.