To think that a 4 yo and a 6 yo don't need to go in a stroller?

[princessalbert]

Saw this on tripadvisor earlier

^Hi there. I have a baby jogger elite and am thinking of going to Paris.

Did you face any issues?

I have a 4 and 6 year old and that is why an umbrella stroller is not an option but having just came back from Tokyo, the stroller really saved our backs (imagine having to carry a 4 and 6 year old that you can't expect to walk the whole day)^

I cannot imagine putting my Ds in a pushchair at age 4, let alone 6. Am I the only one who found this bizarre????

Now I have discovered what a baby jogger elite is I would say anyone trying to take that on the metro is unreasonable. Bitter experience of lifting a similar size pushchair over the barriers at La Defense as despite being advertised as a wheelchair friendly metro station those exit gates were closed!

My DD is super fit, super fit but still after hours of walking her legs really hurt her I think its growing pains too, and she is very tired.

I use the pushchair on morning school run or DS3 would dawdle too much and his brothers don't appreciate leaving 20 mins earlier than normal to accommodate him.

I use it to collect in the afternoon as he's exhausted by then and often has a 20 minute nap that makes our evenings manageable.

In between he walks back from school, to shops, to the park...

I don't drive. Walking is important to me. My (just) 4 yo isn't exactly the same as all other 4 yo. Who cares?

fwiw DS1 was out of the pushchair at 2 1/2 and DS2 was 4 1/2. They walk everywhere now, loads more than most of their friends.

It always makes me laugh when people who use cars all the time complain about children being in push chairs past a certain age!

My 3 year old can walk for miles one day but then another day complains when he's tired that his legs "don't work" and behaves as though it's true.

We've had sit down strikes [usually in the wet or in the middle of a busy road] and had to man-handle him pick him up swiftly. But even at 3 on the 50th percentile, he gets pretty heavy to carry. We use a buggy-board to save our backs but if I were going to walk around Paris from dawn til dusk I would be tempted to consider a pushchair.

I'm hoping he will grow out of it by the time he reaches 4 years old, but for those of you who criticise parents trying to save themselves tread the path of least resistance, I'd love to know how you'd handle a child on a sit down strike? Especially if when you try to coax them it ends in dealing with a howling toddler who still doesn't walk!

My own DC did need a pushchair as they were disabled -DS only learned to walk aged 4 and he was 11 before we have up the pushchair - but I agree that most Dc aren't disabled.

As she says stroller I am guessing she is from the US. It may be that none of the family is really used to walking all day, given the car culture of much of the US. I expect they normally drive a lot.