To not have the pushchair/buggy front facing!

[willothewisp17]

The buggy attachment on our travel system can either have my daughter facing me, or the other way around, but I can't bring myself to turn her the other way around!!
She's 10 months old, and soon I'll be getting a lighter, easier to fold away pushchair, which will be front facing!
I keep meaning to turn her current buggy to the front to get her used to it, but every time I go out, I don't and just say I'll do it next time!
I don't think she would have an issue facing the front, but I just like to see her is this weird or unreasonable? Every other mother and child I see are front facing! I feel odd when I'm out and about!

My DS is 8mo and he's only been forward facing once, he doesn't seem to care either way but I prefer him facing me so that's just what we do. I know plenty of mums who've had their kids parent facing until they started using the stroller full time, it's definitely not strange.

I had coachbuilt prams with mine right through to age 3, I never used forward facing.

It's really none of your families business. It makes no difference, do whatever suits you.

Research has shown that babies kept parent facing for longer experience less stress as adults. Also your family ABU to ask have you not turned her around yet. It's not a rite of passage! It's not like putting her on solids, it doesn't have to be done if you don't want to.

Less stress as adults? I'm a little dubious about that research.

I mean what percentage of a baby's day is actually spent in the buggy? I really can't imagine it would have that much influence on an adult's mental well being.

I chop and change depending on DSs mood. Some days he wants to flutter his eyelashes and coo at his target audience of old ladies. Some days he wants to stare at me judgementally while I'm buying malteasers and singing "yes my name is igglepiggle" in a whisper round Aldi to keep him occupied. Whatever works!

My two year old still usually faces me in the buggy. We like to chat as we walk along. Do whatever makes you both happy.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties There are a tonne of factors from infancy and early childhood that contribute to how we experience stress as adults. For instance more recent research says that allowing babies to cry instead of attending to them quickly can contribute hugely to feelings of insecurity. Bottom line is babies need to feel that their caregiver is with them when they need them. Since they don't have a great sense of object permanence it's perfectly reasonable to assume that if the person pushing the buggy isn't visible to them they feel like they aren't there at all.

My DS is 2 in June, he still parent faces in his buggy. I tried turning him round a couple of times but he didn't like it and neither did I!

Your family sound like a pain OP, do what you want and ignore them! I wouldn't try and engage with them about it or argue why you're doing it your way. I've found the phrase "we find this works best for us" quite useful. Just repeat it over and over again, hopefully they'll get the message.

I had ds parent facing until he was about 20 months. He only really goes in the pram to nursery and back now so it's not bad but when I used to do longer walks with him we would chat away.. I dont really like him facing away now but he grew out his other pram!

We only switched to front facing at about 18m/2y and that was because DD wanted to climb into the buggy rather than being lifted in and it was pretty tricky for her to do in parent facing mode.

Do what suits you and baby. DD is 8 months and I do both. If we are in town with lots of people and dogs etc to look at (smile at, she loves attention) she faces out. If we just go for a walk she faces me.

Whatever your baby prefers imo.
My ds nearly killed himself trying to peer round to see forward at about 8mo so never faced me again. He was a right nosy bugger.

Well I live in a 3rd floor walk up and the only type of buggy I can lug up the stairs whilst carrying DD is the type that only faces forward. Didn’t give it a second thought, because really who actually notices these things, until I found this thread. Now apparently I’m hindering her development and setting her up for a toxic childhood according to some posters. I mean she’s only 9 months but would she be speaking 3 languages in complete sentences if she were parent facing in the pram?! I suppose I’ll never know...

OP, ignore the weird comments from family and do whatever works for you!

Advice I read was to keep them facing you for as long as possible because it's easier for you to chat to them and communicate as you go along. I stopped that very quickly because DD screamed blue murder if she faced me and was happy as Larry facing away. Bless.

Unless they're in the buggy for 15 hours a day it really doesn't matter

I wondered this. Surely they are in them for so little time compared to all the other interaction they get through the day.

Your family are the weird ones.

DD faced front sometime between 18 months and 2.