To still use buggy for 3 year old DD?

[pennypineapple]

DD goes to nursery four days per week. She turned 3 in April.

We recently bought her a scooter, which she loves. But at the end of the day at pick up she often says she is too tired to ride it and we have tears and tantrums and her demanding to be carried all the way home.(Due to our working patterns, 90% of the time DH does drop off and I do pick up so it's me who gets the pleasure of this).

The walk home from nursery is just under half a mile and there is no way I can carry DD, my work bag and the scooter so the journey home is torturous.(Just to add to the fun I'm also pregnant!)

I think we should reintroduce the buggy. DH is adamant that DD is too old and points out that very few of her peers use a buggy now, they all walk or use scooters (and he is right).

I honestly don't know if I am being unreasonable or not to think that it's ok to keep using the buggy for a while longer. Is she too old? AIBU?

The walk to town from our house is about 20 mins. Sometimes my 3yr old will walk it, sometimes she won't. Interestingly she struggled on the way in today but after dinner in town she basically ran all the way home! Maybe she was hungry? Who knows. It's hard for a 3yr old to explain how they feel sometimes.

If I'd tried to cajole her into walking the whole way in it would've been pretty miserable on a hot day like this!

Three is fine to still use a pushchair. He's tired, got and hungry when you pick her up, why make it worse?

All kiddies are different my DD 1 would not use a buggy when she started to walk. However my Ds 1 would have stayed in it forever. I honestly think if you child is tired use it. 3 is still little.

I agree with your hubby, soz...buggy was binned at 2.5 yrs...and he's walks it whether he likes it or not

Would she sit in the buggy? Just asking because my ds is coming up to 2 and hates it, my dd was 3 in March and she stopped using the buggy when she was 2. She starts preschool and I am doing the pick ups was thinking about whether I should get a tandem seat for the pram or a buggy board as our walk is 20-30 mins.in your case I would do all that you can to make your life easier and if that means putting her in the pram then go for it.

My DD was 3 in Feb, we ether use double for long walks (6+ miles) which she hops in and out of or I use a buggy board. I don’t think she’s too old for a buggy if she’s tired and especially if you’re pregnant xx

My son is 3.5. Sometimes we use the buggy and sometimes he walks.

I fucking hate scooters, those things are an absolute liability on pavements.

Wow, loads of you would judge me, then. DS is 3.5 and in age 5 clothes. Very energetic, strong, loves his buggy. Is he lazy? Maybe. Am I? Maybe. We use it every day, because it's easier than a ten-minute walk taking 45 minutes, or me carrying a heavy child. We use it for school run with older DD so she won't be late. Occasionally I do get a judgy look but, seriously, people who judge you on your child being in a pram need to get a life.

Both ours were out of it at around two and a half for short walks (less than a mile) and by three altogether. However, that said... if I was in your position and pregnant and child was tired then I would not think twice about using the buggy. It makes your life easier and it makes your child’s life easier. Your child can get in and out when they feel able to walk and there’s somewhere to hang your shopping. It just makes sense. I hope all goes well with the pregnancy.

Haven't read the replies, but it's totally fine. Your child, your choice, anything that doesn't harm them and makes your life easier is good.

I really so not understand peoples hang ups about a buggy. My little boy three in two weeks and this weekend we are going to a festival. He is a heavy wee beast and come bedtime I will be pushing him around the site in an bughy6 certain as hell wont be carrying him from place to place once asleep and coulsny give a stuff about the opinion of others.

I used a buggy with dd until she was school aged, and even after that on holidays so that she could fall asleep in it in the "family disco" or on a hot afternoon and I could wheel her back to the accommodation. She'd often get tired and sore if a day involved a lot of activity/walking which I now know was likely due to her disability (genetic) which wasn't DX until she was 12.

Every child, family and circumstances are different.

She may be more active during the day than the other kids? maybe they don't have as long a walk at the end of the day or get driven home? Their parent collecting them doesn't have any physical limitations as you currently do?

You do what works for your family, going back to using the buggy for a while really won't do any harm.

"If no special needs then yes three is old for a pushchair." Seriously? Are you even aware that very few but the most obvious/serious disabilities would even be properly under investigation at this stage?

"I’m genuinely curious as to how many
Who say 3 is too old for a buggy don’t drive." I'd like to know that too! I can drive but at various points wasn't allowed to due to meds I was on. It's one thing criticising buggy users if you're a non driver yourself, hypocritical if you rarely walk and therefore your kids rarely walk more than a couple hundred yards to the car!

My dd is now 18, very slim, active and aside from her condition fit. Depending on how her condition is affecting her she walks pretty much everywhere and has for many years, high school was 2m walk, she now works full time and walks 2.5m to work. Certainly didn't do her any harm.

Gosh, people get so hung up on things that don't even concern them.

I usually put my 2 year old in the pram to collect my DD from school. One of the TA commented one day a few months ago that he was getting too big to go in the pram. I just raised my eyebrow and ignored her..... that particular day we also happened to be dropping my DD off and then continuing on to a kids activity about 20/25 minutes of adult walking down the road.

My DD probably went in the pram for the last time when she was almost 5, it was at the end of a 6km walk round a festival and i put my baby (at the time) in the sling and her in the pram.

Do what works for you, not what other people think you should do because no matter what you do there will always be people who think you are doing the wrong thing.

My dd is 3 and similar to yours found the scoter triacky to master. At the end of a long nursery day it was worse. Respond to the child needs - use the buggy- there s no when they should be scooting (actually forcing her When she s tored May even cause an accident or aversion of the activity. Let her practice when she s feeling good on weekend days or for short spells at home.
Scooting involves core and balance that some 3 years old may find challenging - no reason not to do it but reason to allow a gradual mastering - ah wouldn't run a 1/2 marathon without training would he ? Think of the scooter as a new physical challenge her body has to master in it s own time. Look at the most appropriate time to introduce this challenge.

(Speaking frond the experience of my dd s broken nose and a night in a and e)

Get a scooter strap. Then she can just stand on the scooter and you can pull it along if she gets tired
www.amazon.co.uk/Micro-Scoot-N-Pull-Blue/dp/B005LGWHEA/ref=asc_df_B005LGWHEA/?hvlocphy=1006886&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=310771719027&hvpone&hvlocint&th=1&hvpos=1o2&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-718349703720&hvrand=15160846248782671040

4 year olds in buggies?! No wonder there’s an obesity epidemic.

Seriously?! 🙄 (I appreciate one anecdote doesn't make data but I'm about as far from obese as you could get in my late 30s)

Really not getting the hangups on here about buggies. I don't think we got rid of mine completely until I was about 6 (definitely remember it being borrowed for a school friend in the year above when she was ill and the family had to go somewhere). I don't remember going in it every day as I got older (4 and up) but we had it with us on days out definitely (like if we went to London for the day and we're doing a lot of walking) as my dad used to stick his camera bag on the seat if I wasn't sat in it!

Agree with PP who doesn't like scooters - I have no issues with them outside, but seeing them being used in shops (especially coffee shops when people are carrying trays of hot drinks!) isn't really on.

OP sounds like you wouldn't be unreasonable to use it for the nursery pick up.

You know what i think....if people stopped judging others and saying what is right or wrong regarding small things, others would spend a lot less time worrying about silly things. Just do what works for you

Going out for the day today, catching the train from a station which is a 25min walk. I suppose I could leave an hour earlier to factor in my 3yr old dawdling, stopping to look at ladybirds or cobwebs or interesting leaves or I could just avoid everyone some stress and put her in the buggy to get there knowing she'll be doing lots of running around once we get to London.

3yr olds are still very small and don't really have a concept of time so don't really get being "late". Once they're a bit older they understand this a bit more. And probably less inclined to stop and stroke aforementioned ladybirds.

Oh wow. I didn’t realise how many judgemental mummies there are. We used ours till my little one was 5. I don’t give a damn what anyone else thought. My dd2 is SGA. She found walking hard.

My motto is. Life is hard enough. Do whatever you can to make your journey easier.

Well my buggy isn't being retired just yet. My 4 year old is about to start school in September, it's a mile away. But she is tiny, about the size you'd expect an average almost-2-year-old to be. No one would moan about a nearly 2 year old needing a buggy to collect older siblings from school, yet my same sized kid should be forced to wa!I instead after a long day in school making her exhausted. She will walk in, but at !east at first I'll give her the option of buggy to come home as I know even average-sized kid s struggle for a while when going full time.. Which suits me as my 6 year old has SEN and sometimes that one mile can take 90 min if he melts down or isn't feeling cooperative. At which point the !little one gets turfed out, and he gets in so we can get home. (And yes, just people, the 6 year old occasionally goes to school in it -about once a month. Otherwise the kids would all be very late to school, I don't have a car and kid in a meltdown means "needs must" and I do what i need to do to get them there)

I 've had all the judgement this year when she is in the buggy at the end of school - but she's walked to school (in the nursery class), done 3 hours there, walked home again, then played a!l afternoon at home, then is tired and making her walk 2 more miles to fetch her siblings would be unfair on her. So we let them judge and do what works for us regardless.

Ugh too many things in that which need re-correcting. Autocorrect strikes again! Sorry!

It's fine. It's not going to lead to problems like some posters suggest. Posters who say it's not ok usually drive or have 1 child they can devote themselves to, it's completely different when you have more than 1 child's needs to consider. To be honest the posters who seem to plan everything around a toddlers tiredness and only goING out when toddler won't tire from walking are just building problems for themselves. Lives dosent revolve around one toddlers needs.

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

Get up at seven, ready in 20 mins, leave house at half seven to be in at nursery around quarter past 8. Then I walk to work for nineish. Then collect toddler at 6, home by quarter to seven, quick shower down (not always bath) and (still) breastfeeding to sleep by half seven.

Am single, can't drive, and would struggle to afford a car.

I admit I would like to have more time with DS in the week, is part of the reason why still co-sleeping.