4yr olds in pushchairs

[SEH23]

aaaaahhh!!! i made my annual trip into the town shopping centre for christmas shopping today with my 5 month old DD.

LIFTS!! wow i hate them more than ever. waiting alongside 4 other pushchairs and then the mom with her 3-4yr old in pushchair pushes infront of me... WHAT?!?

a) wait your fucking turn
b) do you really need a buggy for children that old?

i hate my pushchair and can't wait for my DD to start walking so i can leave it behind. absolutely acknowledge shopping centres are busy etc but this child looked miserable, had a dummy stuck in his mouth and could be on reigns? surely?

I'm 43 and still use my pushchair occasionally. I get my kids to push me, the lazy bitch that I am!

I remember the days I used to pop out to the shops with an uncombed dd, in a buggy, with a dummy and an unwashed 'blanky', she was in sensory heaven. If looks could kill I would've been in hell.

I notice the OP still hasn;t come back.

I gotta say I miss my pushchairs. I have to carry stuff now which is just painful!

Actually, I lie. I use a trolly, which mortifies the teenagers and they walk FAR FAR away from me.....which is a bonus really .

I did however have mine in pushchairs until they were ready to walk without running (or climbing, in the case of Jacob.....which was reception age), and I used dummies too. Not to shut them up.....it was soothing to them in the same way that us adults use maybe, smoking (for want of a better example).
In fact, I removed the dummy from one of my girls at age 3, two weeks later her thumb went in!! (and is still in when she is stressed or ill!).

I knew it wasn't mrsD and I agree with you and will add, a huge problem with short Safeguarding training courses is the amount of people that attend them and come away with the "I'm the saviour of the little children" complex.

All of a sudden their referral rate rockets because they have misunderstood or the facilitator is crap and children's services get besieged with referrals because little Fred dribbled milk on his school jumper as mum was trying to get him out of the house or little Olivia is keen on wearing odd socks. And these referrers never seam to know how important following the requirement to inform the parents actually is nor how important not taking short cuts is and how bloody dangerous the attitude "anything in the name of CP is acceptable" because they never take those messages away from the training.

I remember being shouted at by and elderly man for having Ds1 in a buggy with a dummy... he was "far too old" apparently.
I'd give him "gammy legs and buck teeth".

he was nine months old, couldn't crawl, never mind walk and he didn't have a single tooth in his head .

FWIW, he now at age 4 wears age 5-6 or 6-7 clothing. I frequently get stopped in the street by busybodies people demanding enquiring as to why he's not in school.

2 yr old DD wears age 3-4 mostly.

DS2 who has just turned 1 wears a mix of 12-18 and 18-24 months, and has done for a while.

things aren't always what they seem, OP.

an not and... grrrr!

The OP is probably seeing to her never-before-mentioned 2.7yo. Fictitious children are such a handful you know!

Until I joined mumsnet a couple of years ago I had no idea that using a buggy for a 3/4/5 year old was looked on with such horror. I used a double umbrella buggy for years when my eldest 2 were toddlers, so if the 2 year old was in it so sometimes was the 4 year old. It never crossed my mind or any of my friends minds that it wasn't the done thing.
In those days, the early 80's I had no car and was a stay at home mum walking everywhere every day. Much easier to get somewhere on time with little ones in the buggy. Nursery was a half hour walk away with 2 in a buggy, goodness knows how long it would have taken if the 3/4 year old had walked all the way.
Of course they were active, just got tired.
They haven't been harmed.
Mind you, I also used to warm up the pre made bottles of milk in the microwave.......

Interesting storynanny. I remember being in a side-by-side double buggy with my brother. I must have been at least 2 in order to remember, and bro is 21 months older than me, so must have been nearly 4. My mum too was a carless SAHM and also had my oldest brother who would have been about 5. Imagine, mothers were lazy as far back as 1980!

ah yes chipping....I forgot.....her family magically expanded didn;t it!

She might now also have expanded to include a 5yr old come the monring, who has been walking everywhere since 9mths old

Yes and in the 2 years since her first fictitious DD cut her first tooth she's forgotten how to clean their first teeth and just asked again the other day...the elder fictitious DD hasn't appeared in any of her previous posts, just her, her baby Dd and her DH. Poor big fictitious big sister.

aww....poor big forgotten sister.

Maybe she is kept in a cupboard and only bought out to play when mummy is arguing on the interweb

My nearly 3 year old DD looks older because she has all this mad hair, anyway:

She never walked until late - so has not been walking for as long as some of her peer group.

It is so busy at school pick up with cars and bottleneck que's in and out with heavy metal gates there is no way I'd do it without the buggy

She also was a bolter but seems to be calming down to be fair.

In the afternoon she still sleeps for 1 to 2 hours anytime between 1pm and 4pm - she does this in her buggy. My DS also was late in dropping his daytime naps.

The small amount of time you see me is not a reflection of the rest of the day - i.e. the days I have DD we have already done out activties so if you see us in the PM, DD will be in a buggy. she may even have a greggs

DS loved his dummy. His speech is exceptionally advanced for his age, in vocabulary and enounciation (and before anyone thinks I'm being a smug parent, he is on the autistic spectrum, so I am immensely chuffed by those things he can do really well, because they improve his life chances immeasurably).

I think the notion dummies interfere with speech development is straightforward bullshit, frankly. I suspect that the fear of it has meant parents who are conscientious and engage with their kids have tended not to use them. In our case, he found it hugely comforting, so I never had the heart to remove it. It turns out that, like many kids on the spectrum, chewing helps him regulate his moods and emotions - he now needs one of these for stressful situations, rather as some adults like chewing-gum - so I was glad I kept to my instincts.

I used to look down on older toddlers using dummies before I had one, too. Thought it looked lazy and shoddy parenting. SO easy to have all the answers when the questions are theoretical only.

My DS was in a pushchair until nearly 4. [shrug]. He was a bolter and I have a recurring back problem that makes it hard to run. I would have been devoted to reins if he would use them. He is also being assessed for being on the spectrum. Frankly the pushchair was a godsend on many occasions. He still has a dummy at night too. [another shrug]. What I have learned is that there is always something you will be judged for.

I wish my wonderful wilful bold just three year old dd would go in a buggy on shopping trips.

She's the Houdini of the preschool age.

But clearly she pushed in front of the OP because, as the OP explained, they know each other. Plainly there is a mutual dislike.

Do people really walk around looking in prams to determine whether they think the child is old enough to be walking, and comment on it to the parents? Would you walk up to someone in a wheelchair and demand they get up and start walking?

Why does anyone even care about what person chooses as a means of getting from A to B?

Hope you don't live near me, OP, as you'd definitely judge. DD looks about 3-4. She's 2.6, very tall, & already over the weight limit for a buggy so people who do know us & know how old she is, also judge us for trying to get her to walk more as we need to stop using it.

All my kids used to use their buggies sometimes ,right up to 4 years old, because thats what I decided to do. Nothing to do with the OP, or people like her/him.
Hear that OP? Absolutely none of your business, and didn't give a single fuck what anyone else thought.

Why do some people have to be a martyr to their children?
I bet those that judge are the ones that do everything by the book because that's what you're meant to do, right??

No, doesn't really work like that you see.
How about you actually listen to your children's needs and make that judgement for yourself. If your child is ready and able to walk he/she will walk, if they're not, they wont.
If your child is ready to give up the dummy they will, if not they wont.

Why make a rod for your own back if its not necessary.

Yes you would have judged me when my dc's were small, but I don't have to justify my parenting decisions to anyone. I did what was right for them.

You have got a lot to learn OP, especially as your child is only 5 months old. When you have walked a mile in everyone else's shoes then you can judge accordingly.

LegoCaltrops there are a couple of buggies you can get which are aimed at heavier children for example the silver cross pop goes up to 25kg not had to look into this myself recently