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?

My DS was out of pushchair before he was 3 but after a hospital admission he went back in his pushchair.

It is very easy to judge someone else. Without knowing their life their reasons. Someone will judge you and you won't like it very much

I know that I have noticed the age for children in convential pushchairs going up, too! Admittedly there may good reasons for some perhaps but in other cases I think it might encourage some laziness.

It's a red herring though isn't it. You don't judge when you see children in cars.

I don't drive. I frequently walk half an hour to 45 min at adult brisk speed to get to a shopping area/centre then spend an hour or more looking round and getting what I need. I simply could not put any child through that. My 5 year old does almost all the walking but I've kept the back seat on the Phil and Ted's for tired legs on the way back. The 2.7 year old is keen to walk everywhere but runs out of steam.We also have scooters and both my kids would prefer to walk/scoot than be in the buggy but it's great for avoiding a meltdown.

Some 3 and even 4 year olds still have afternoon naps. It's also useful for when you're out at nap time.

I reserve my judgy pants for people who drive everywhere without a second thought

fairnotfair
Yes, I said it once and I will say it again, lazy parenting. The type that will do anything for an easy life, whether it is actually for the good of the child or not.

The average 4 y/o simply does not need a buggy or a dummy. Yet this lazy and arrogant woman is defended to the hilt because on MN nobody is average, everyone is special and her child must have some kind of hidden SN or some other extreme circumstances that require a buggy.

I don't drive and all of my 4 were out of push chairs by the age of 2.5 at the latest.

These days I think it is absurd how often one sees 4/5 year old children being wheeled about in huge buggies and I do believe it is mainly for the parents benefit. For some mothers the buggy has become a designer item, almost like the male equivalent of a flashy car, with the added advantage of screaming "out of my way I'm a mother and therefore a VIP" as they use it to shove you out of the way in the shopping aisles.

I do believe it is mainly for the parents benefit

Yes totally my benefit, I cannot walk slowly laden down with heavy shopping and tired child moaning.

In a car you whizz into supermarket, and out and home. When you don't drive you will naturally do far more walking than people who have a car so perversely a child in a buggy at 4 whose family have no car will do more walking on average than family with car.

• For some mothers the buggy has become a designer item No designer buggy here!

I've never understood why - if I walk downtown with my children to visit the library or bank or post office, which is a 5 mile round trip, and I let my 3 YO hop in the bottom seat of the double pushchair for the last mile - this makes me lazy. And yet if I'd driven the equivalent journey (which I'm guessing most people who have a car would) and my children hadn't walked at all, this would be fine.

Yes they cant understand this.

YANBU dd Is 2 & I leave the buggy in the car whenever possible. However I do use it shopping or I can't bear it. 4 year olds in pushchairs is ridiculous though!!

when my then 3 year old fractured her toe she was in a buggy as she could not use crutches or wear shoes. and the nurse used to say to her something about getting her toe better because your to big for a buggy. and im thinking no shes not haha. as i said up ^ somewhere she came out of buggy fully when she was 3.5 but if i/she needed it till she was 4 or what ever then so be it. and i would use it to make my life easyer i dont care if that makes me a lazy parent.

rinlytinkten. would you still think the same if you did not have a car.

So what if kid is 3 or 4 and in a buggy?

Even if no SN.

So what? Bottom line

My 8 year old uses reins BTW

One thing I love about mumsnet (and there's plenty I don't love) is the willingness of so many posters to give others the benefit of the doubt. I'd much rather see 100 posts saying "what about SN?" than see one condemning a complete stranger as a "lazy and arrogant woman" based on 5 second snapshot of her life.

I'm a lazy parent. DD had a dummy til she was 4 and sat in a buggy til then too. There is fuck all wrong with her - it was just easier. She was a very difficult toddler and it made my life easier.

She's 16 now and absolutely fine. Achieving well at school, no speech issues, and she runs to county level.

OP good luck with dragging a tired, possibly just finished nursery child around the shops without a buggy, don't think you will be so keen to ditch it then!

on MN nobody is average, everyone is special and her child must have some kind of hidden SN it's not that they must have a hidden SN but it's something to be considered before judging. Op is being presented with some options that she doesn't have the imagination to think of herself.

Do you consider yourself lucky your children were out of their buggies by 2.5? Do you give a shit about people that don't have your luck? Which is actually what it comes down to. Not your spectacular parenting, just luck and genetics prevented you having a child with SN.

People who use buggies for their 3 or 4 year olds, don't worry
Not everyone is judgy. Do what you gotta do.

You know, there's so many posts on here about visitors after birth, bf v ff, putting them to sleep, weaning ... all say "things have changed, your baby your rules" etc etc

Why not with this? They'll hardly be in a buggy when they're 21 (SN excepted obviously)

Or, in other words, why judge over something like this? It's none of your business, it's feckall to do with you and affects your life not one jot.

Oh to have so little to be worried about.

I don't drive and all of my 4 were out of push chairs by the age of 2.5 at the latest.

I am sincerely intrigued how Foreverdepressed managed shopping, school runs and other errands that took 2-4 hours (combined total) every day on foot, in every possible weather, with many children under 5, all on their own feet all that time.

Loved my children's pushchair, all the crap I could hang over the handles

I'd have it back now but I'm not sure I could actually push any of my children in it

Very handy for sick older children, remember sticking my 6/7 year old in it on the school run

And YABU, it's fuckall to do with you

Although the pushing in is very rude