Use of strollers

[Alliepally]

Posted a message earlier regarding getting my 4 year old dd around disney without her stroller which we abandoned at Christmas - went cold turkey. This prompted some discussion regarding use of stroller (or non-use) with dh. I thought it was going okay, she is managing to walk around the farm, zoo, etcshops with little complaining but dh tells me tonight that his mother, who looks after dd one day a week, is struggling without it and would like the stroller back. I am really reluctant and think that if dd has the stroller once a week then she may complain with me when I make her walk. Need advice - feel like the baddie!!

A buggy-free life is bliss. And you don't have to go to the damn park either, because you're walking everywhere.

coldits..surely ...if you have a child with you things are slightly different, as of the possible chasing after them, or what not...you don't have that when you go without Kids in the first place

Well, if you're only using the buggy to lash the child down...nope, I stick by my Ditch It ASAP position.

???????????

must say, I sometimes find it easier without buggy, chasing after 2 Tots, lol....one genreally walking ahead one a bit behind...try to teach them walking next to me, or at least together....lil beggars

I got the impression you were saying buggies are a useful way to contain a child. Well, maybe, but I don't think myself that that is a justification for continuing to use them.

I still say it is unfair to make a school aged child sit in a pushchair. What if her friends saw her? They'd laugh!

And if she only needs to contain her, well, she can hold her hand?

my ???? I assume tjhat post was at me, if not fair enough...but indeed sometimes it is easier to havea child sitting in the Buggy...however, suppose I would see it differently if I used the car a lot...because then you only walk in the safe space of a shop...rather then on busy roads, etc...

It is the unfashionability of reins that have caused this misuse of buggies, IMHO.

I do walk on roads. Big busy London ones. Every morning. For half an hour with both children (aged three and six) and then another half hour with the six year old.

And have done so with a walking child since DD1 was two.

what is it about Brits and making their child independent by all possible means?
Surely if you walk a fair bit or an awkard route...4 years old is NOT that old, they are still only Toddlers really, ffs!
I mena, o.k. if I have all the time in the worls, yeah I can put up with some winging and running after, but if I am in more of a reduce timeframe to do what I want to do, I have 2 options...fresh air, better for teh environment, but in teh Buggy or using the car....surely it's not that terrible...btw...my 4 year old (4 in November) isn't school age yet...it's to effing early for school this young anyway...another thing I so prefer about germany, I must say!

not every child will go with reigns, and not all children will hold hands, neither...every child is different

Right, I'm off, but should point out I'm not madly Brit.

you know motherinferiour...yeah, with ys,I could imagine doing that just fine...ms, at that age would have been a nightmare and dangerous and stressful...!

i love the reins, have yet to convince ds, 22 months, that they are a good idea, and used them all the time with dd, now 4. I found it easier to walk dd with reins when i was pregnant than push her weight about in a stroller

Sorry, but people in this country are so of the lets get them of to school kind asap, and they got to do this and that whatever....not a very childfriendly, childled culture at all, imo

A good easy to push stroller makes all teh difference...
but joking aside, i also have used and still use Slings, which are fantastic...I always think, horses for courses!

People's needs can genuinely vary, surely. Maybe the MIL here needs to be changing what she does with this little girl to things that don't need the buggy (shorter trips that aren't shopping trips, or to different shops), until the girl is that bit older. But having the buggy around is not going to stop a child walking if you make it clear that you're not going to give into wheedling. I mean what next - should we cover the ground with spikes in case a tired child might flop down on that, and refuse to get up? Tired children can do that, buggy or not, and then a parent being normally firm and sensible helps to get them up and walking again. Just having a buggy with you doesn't mean you can't insist that a child walks. The issue I'd be more concerned about would be wanting to be sure that the MIL was definitely doing that 'making them walk' bit, and not just plonking them in the buggy all the time - but in that situation I wouldn't assume the MIL's needs couldn't be genuine, especially if she's older or unfit.

As for containing - handholding restricts freedom, so do reins, and so does sitting in a pushchair occasionally. But sitting in a pushchair with a book and a drink is not that much different to stopping and sitting in a cafe or on a bench with a book and a drink - it's not going to ruin a child for life! My ds was still having naps in his pushchair occasionally till he was 4yo, on long family days out. It's not that old, like 3andnomore says!

Sorry, no. Four years old is not a toddler. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

i dont want dd to grow up and go to school as quickly as possible, she has a place to start in august when she will be 4years 6months and i have rejected so she can go when she's five and a half!

(gosh I've just popped back and people are agreeing with me here too...thought i was the only one who thought that 4 year olds in strollers aren't that bad...i mean not in the big scheme of things)

3andnomore - here in Scotland ds will start school at 5 and 4 months...I'll make it my aim to have him out of his stroller by then!!

I don't think plonking a school aged child in a pushchair so you don't have to slow down for them is very child friendly, to be honest.

How many people but a NT 4yo in reins?