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?

[badtime]

I was just thinking this morning (even before I saw this thread) about all the shit that will be talked about my friend's baby as he gets a bit older.

I showed a picture of me holding him (when he was about 5 months) to various people and every single person thought he was well over a year. He is huge. His mother is over 6' tall, and his father about 6' 8". I wonder how old he will have to be before his parents are judged for having him in a pushchair?

[Stillwishihadabs]

I'm sorry it took you so long to get the help your ds needed Frusso. How bizarre about the block stacking thing.

[MoHintawnFein]

Does it matter if the child had "additional needs"??? I would have used a buggy for my children up to 5 to keep them contained in a shop/shopping centre and so I could put shopping underneath.
YABU!
None of your business whether they "need" a buggy at that age or not.

AND they had dummies til 6!!!! So there OP: what are you going to do about that?!

[zazzie]

My son wasn't weight bearing at 18 months and so was seen by a physio. She said that because there was nothing 'wrong' with him other than low tone there was nothing she could do and he would walk in his own time (which he did at 25 months). In my experience you only receive ongoing input from physio and OT if you have a physical disability. Just being delayed (my son's gross motor skills are at about 24 months level although he is 8) doesn't count.

[Wolfbasher]

Yes, Mrs DeVere is right. My DC are the only ones at their school who walk 1 mile to/from school each day (private school, everyone else drives).

Is my 7yo the child who was out of his buggy earliest? No, actually he was latest. Everyone else stopped using buggies at nursery (on the same site) - they only had a few yards to walk from their car. My DC have all used the buggy until they are in reception, and usually stood on the buggy board throughout the reception year. By Year 1 they walk the whole time. (So far, anyway, DC3 is still at nursery).

Anyone who ever drives their DC anywhere in a car sometimes hasn't got a leg to stand on (ha!) complaining about other people putting theirs in a buggy sometimes!

[IgnoreMeEveryOtherReindeerDoes]

Question for those who's ditched the pushchair as soon as child was walking, did you put those delicate little feet in proper walking shoes straight away?

These same judgy pants who look down on people using pushchairs do you still have same views as people who use slings, cars, trikes or carry child on hip? What about supermarket shopping do you frown upon those children in the trolley.

[BearsDontDigOnDancing]

I used a pushchair for DD till she was 4 and a half. She had no SEN or physical disability.

Just, she was not the best walker, we lived in a very very cold country at the time, and she really felt the cold, so was easier to convert a child size sleeping bag into a pushchair blanket and have her wrapped up toasty warm, as opposed to crying in pain as her feet were cold, despite thermal socks and fleece lined boots. It was very icy and I saw lots of adults falling - so the pushchair gave me added stability, gave my 5 year old DS something to hang onto. Also, no online shopping, so meant I could get a lot more shopping and hang bags on the buggy.

Still we did a lot of walking around our area in parks etc.

No one really gets beady eyed about the "poor children" sat down in cars being ferried about the place! But a child in a pushchair and you can get all judgey?

So yes, she was 4 and a half, in a pushchair and a NT child. So what? Oh and she walks fine now at 5 and a half.

[LithaR]

I'll admit, when I first had my son and didn't know about SEN's I judged women like this too. Now my son will be getting a new pushchair now he is four, because of his special needs and his inability to understand danger. :(

Hopefully you wont have my hard lesson op, so take the grilling and get educated.

[ouryve]

Yes we were in London. Corner shop was 100m away, play group the same. You hold their hand or use reins, yes it takes forever

Bit crap when you have a 2 mile walk to do, though innit

I even had DS1 walking to the post box 100m away, by the time he was 18m (he was only just steady enough on his feet to manage this, at this time, despite being determined to crawl around the house as young as 20 weeks - funnily enough, he wasn't born with a certificate proclaiming the various diagnoses that he now has). It's a bit different from doing the school/nursery run 2 or 3 times a day, though.

[ouryve]

Oh - and neither of mine have ever been overweight, either - even the one who was back in his buggy at 7.

[NellyBluth]

If you live somewhere where it's only 100m for most of your journeys, you can hardly judge people whose regular journeys are 10 min walks with the pushchair for not doing the same, can you?

I do what should be a 3 min walk for an adult to our childminder's every morning. Sometimes I struggle to get the 3yo there in 10 minutes. And this is a child who loves walking and will happily go on a 2 mile hike through the woods. But shopping without a pushchair? Unless I have nothing on for the rest of the day, that's just not happening.

[meglet]

I've just remembered. Now 6yo DD was in the buggy until 4.6. When they ran the Sports Relief mile in reception class last year she was only one of two of the children who beasted all 8 laps it. The rest were flagging after one lap , most had sat it out by lap 2.

Buy using a buggy all those years she had walked far more miles off and onthan children who are in cars. We have walked 3 miles to the large town supermarket on a nice day. I don't see many adults doing that.

[meglet]

by

[BerniceBroadside]

Ooh, all the buggy judgers should go to disneyland. They have buggies to hire you can squash a seven or eight year old into. I will fully confess to taking my own and pushing a 4 year old around on occasion. It was bloody brilliant for storing coats and drinks and meant we could do a mad dash to the bus at park closing.

[meglet]

IIRC my friend, who is usually lurking here somewhere although I think she's clever and namechanges unlike me, used a buggy at disneyland last year. Her DD would have been 5.6 I think.

[CheeseEqualsHappiness]

I despair at people judging when they have no idea of individual circumstances.

Dd was in a buggy at 3 as she tantrumed and I could not pick her up when she went. She saw red, is so strong, it sometimes took me hours to do a 15 min journey. She didn't always sit in it but I took it when she was walking any distance so I could anticipate these. I have post pregnancy long standing SPD so being on my feet for any length of time is hard, as is lifting.

Do you have any other children?

I seriously think you need an attitude adjustment. How dare you be so judgemental?! Was your nose fully pointed in the air with a cats bum gave mouth too? Did the other mums see you? Are you sure they felt sufficiently judged?

I don't often say this, or wish bad on people, but I hope karma bites you hard

[5madthings]

Madtging5 is four next month, she can walk for hours if we go on country walks, days out etc ie we went to legoland in half term and she walked all day from 10pm til after 7pm when we left. But on schoolrun if we are walking she goes in the pushchair. I normally bike tbh with her in bike seat. It's just over two miles, I have to do it three times a day sometimes so that's 12 miles just on the schoolrun. We walk everywhere so if I go into town it's half an hour there, however long we are in town and then half an hour back and that's at a decent pace.

Yes she could walk but I need to get her elder siblings to school on time and then to any after school clubs on time, some are a mile or more in another direction and then home. It's getting dark at 4pm now as well and is often raining, so yes she will go in a buggy or on the bike seat as for her to walk it would make it a 40-50min walk.

She has s dummy for bedtime as well so shoot me!

Honestly madthing1 was out of a pushchair before 2, about 18mths but once you have a bunch of kids, longer walks and placed to be on time then toddlers/pre School age kids often need to be in buggies. I never had s double buggy with my elder three but when I had ds4 and then dd I needed one.

The madthings are all healthy and fit and walk or cycle miles buy a pushchair is still necessary for madthing5 sometimes.