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?

Oh OP, you’re pregnant and you have a three year old and by the sounds of it I’m guessing you have a fairly long commute to/from work?

Fuck it, don’t think twice about putting a 3yo in a Buggy. You’re tired enough as it is without inviting further trials.

3 seems terribly old to me, I must say.
I got my 16 month old out of the buggy, as I needed it for my newborn. DD1 walked everywhere on baby reins from 16 months on. Including up hills (we live in Scotland). She soon developed sturdy little legs! I’ve taken 3 year olds up 2,000 ft mountains.
OP, half a mile on the flat should be nothing for a healthy 3 year old. Either she’s never built up her muscle strength from being buggied everywhere, or she’s just playing you up. I’d start a graduated walking program with her, building up to mountains - but yes, wait until after your pregnancy!

As always, you do what YOU need to do. No one else is living your life.

My DD has just turned 3 and still uses the buggy on the rare occasion. I have a baby too and use a single buggy that converts to a double. It always has the double attachment and I probably use it once a fortnight for a few mins because she's a runner and will bolt at her whim. Nothing I have said or done has changed this. Sometimes we use a strap that attaches to my wrist and sometimes not. My priority is keeping her safe and I don't care if I'm judged. If you're pregnant and struggling then if using the buggy keeps her safe and is easier for you then use the buggy.

We also use it at the end of a day trip and she'll readily get in, fully exhausted. Without it she's overtired fraught and tries to run off. She's only just 3 and has been walking most places quite happily for a year, so I do feel that if she needs a rest then she can have one. My eldest used to still nap at that age, but she doesn't, however she certainly needs a rest.

I’m really surprised at those saying 3 is too old to go in a buggy at nursery pick up! Lots of 3 year olds at my daughters nursery are still in pushchairs for nursery pick up, I wouldn’t give it a second thought! The journey home from nursery is NOT an endurance test and you need to get home at quickly and simply as possible. Tired 3 year old will have tantrums and if you end up having to carry her, it’s obvious you still need the pushchair and having some arbitrary reason not to use it is ridiculous.

We tend to get the bus (or use a buggy board because I have a newborn) our journey is nearly mile and uphill, I could walk but at the end of a long day I don’t fancy it either!

Personally it seems quite lazy to me. Kids should be walking or on bike/scooter rather than a buggy at that age. But it sounds like easy parenting so whatever works for you.

I used to bring a buggy everywhere with me until my youngest was about 4 years old OP! I used to find it really handy for hanging bags on and if my child got tired so what if he wanted to sit down and be pushed for a bit? My kids are slim teens/young adults now and think nothing of walking 3 miles or so to get to their destination so it hasn't made them lazy or fat, so where's the harm?

I used my buggy for my 3 year old for long distance and if I want to go to a few shops in town and he wants a snack. It's fine but I probably be done with it by 4 I think.

Mine was in a buggy sometimes until just turned 4. It’s fine. Don’t see why me putting mine in a buggy for nursery pickup is horrifying and lazy and obesity-causing while all the parents who drive putting theirs in cars is not!

I don't know anyone who uses a buggy for a non SN child over the age of 3 (except for maybe holidays). That said, every one I know drives, and I'm often baffled by the huge volumes of people on MN who apparently don't/can't drive at all as they don't seem to exist in RL!

User27495824
I've never understood the brigade of people who adamently think 3 is too old for pushchair. I've had 3 children and they have all been prone to refusing to walk the right direction at their whim, refusing to hold hands, wanting to walk up people's drives, pick up people's gravel, touch cars, collect sticks and leaves, sit down on the pavement, cry to be picked up, etc etc.

Every child is different. I had all these problems.... but it was between the ages of 18m and about 27m. Then he learned that a) if he didn't walk in the right direction he would miss out on swimming/cafe or whatever
b) if he didn't hold hands he was put in reins.
c) I won't let him tamper with other people's property or walk up their drives (cos he will be holding my hand or restrained on reins).
d) if he sits down on the pavement it achieves nothing and he misses out on other things.
e) He can cry to be picked up. He is 28lbs and I've got prolapse & I'm pregnant, I'm not going to pick him up! He did this for all of a month before realising it never worked.

Yes, I drive. There are people on here who are claiming they must use a buggy for a 4 year old because they are walking everywhere constantly all day etc. Surely simply the time this takes means it is not really reasonable with a young child? When does the child get time to play? When does the parent have any time to prepare meals, work etc?

Shopping can be delivered & who needs to shop daily ?

We used the pram till DD was 3 years 11 months. We only stopped as it was winter and I used the car most days. If it was summer and we were walking everywhere then I’d have carried on using it. Amongst my group of friends most used it occasionally until the child started school.

My twins are almost 3 but autistic and little sense of danger. We still use a double buggy if I’m on my own with them, or walking for more than 5 minutes. I get looks but I don’t care.

Could you get one of those really light weight ones with a shoulder strap? Then you can let her walk until she’s too tired.

I’ve got a 0.8mile walk along a busy road with a 3 year old.. if she scoots there I have a rope attached so I can tow a bit and I’ll then use the buggy to walk home.. and she’s giant (in 4-5 clothing) I do not give two hoots what anyone thinks nursery have done an excellent job or tiring her out and I’ve done a day at work and I’m not carrying 20kg for nearly a mile!

Stick her in it!

I don't drive, the buggy was the equivalent of using a car so yes my son used one untill he was 5. For tne posters you said it is uncouth does that also apply to taking children places on cars? In not why not? After all the kid isn't walking in a car. So what's the age limit toferrying a kid in a car? Using a buggy untill 5 dosrnt seem so uncouth now does it? Age 10 my son either walks or rides his bike everywhere so using a buggy untill 5 isn't the end of the world.

the huge volumes of people on MN who apparently don't/can't drive at all as they don't seem to exist in RL!

We don’t have blinking neon signs on our heads spelling out ‘NON-DRIVER’ you know

Get a Scootow - they fix onto the handlebars so you can pull them along - brilliant invention. Only about £15, saved me endless nagging and backache.

I still use a buggy with my eldest, who had just turned three. Not all the time, but if we're in a rush. I don't see a problem with it really. He'll happily walk most places, but sometimes it's easier/safer/quicker to use the buggy. Or if he's hungry he can snack on the move. I have a double so can have both children in buggy at the same time if needed.
I think people who judge a three year old in a buggy are unpleasant.

There are people on here who are claiming they must use a buggy for a 4 year old because they are walking everywhere constantly all day etc.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration, no? Nobody’s saying “we spend every waking hour walking, morning till night!” But if you don’t drive then you will do a lot more walking on average and it’s not always practical to do that at the pace of a tired 4-year-old. Nursery run home after you’ve been at work all day, they’ve been at nursery all day, you’re both knackered and it’s February and dark and cold and sleeting - you really want that journey to take twice as long as it needs to with a whiny fed-up child?

53rdway

Of course not but obviously you do know fairly quickly when people DO drive (turning up in a car or having one on the drive is a dead giveaway) and I genuinely do not know anyone who doesn't. This includes a few London mums who have a car but use it infrequently (understandable as the public transport is quicker)

If it's really going to take that long for a 3 year old to walk, or they are SO exhausted they can't manage, I would use a car or public transport as I would feel they clearly needed to be got home quickly & put to bed! But then I am also really surprised by people who will choose a nursery miles and miles away when they don't drive

I genuinely don’t know anyone who is sending their children to private school, either, but I assume they do exist in RL.

I used mine through to 4.5 as we didn't have a car and we walked miles some days.

Last 6 months was just on long days out, as couldn't cary a sleeping four year old.

Everyone circumstances is different but I
do think it's mean to expect a tired 3 year old to walk miles.

NoIDontWatchLoveIsland, not everybody has the option of a nursery on their doorstep, or a car, or a door-to-door public transport route. But if you’d put your child in a car in those circumstances, surely you can grasp why people without a car might put their child in a buggy?

If a 3 year old is tired and ready to sleep....don't they need to be home in bed?

Occasional days out or holidays is a different matter but I thought OP was talking about regular use.

OP get your little one a balance bike. A 3 yr old can go miles on one, at a fast pace, even at the end of a long day!

The difference being that a 2 mile journey will take only 5 mins in a car, but is going to take ages to walk with a buggy. It's the time that I find baffling, I just dont have time to regularly walk long distances except for pleasure where time isn't an issue. If I did, my son would get no time to play, I would have no time to cook meals, read with him etc.

I don't have door to door public transport! Unless you live rurally (in which case i really think most people need a car) the vast, vast majority of the UK population will have a nursery & a primary school within a mile of their front door. unless you live on a remote Scottish island I bet you have a bus stop within a half mile?