How old was your dc before you ventured out without a pushchair?

[maviscrewit]

Just interested in your experiences as I am fed up with double buggy or single buggy and backpack for walking the dog (not far just round village!) Dd 1 will be 3 in March and dd2 is 16 months. I would love dd1 to walk and just have dd2 in pushchair but she refuses to go very far at all! I do have a buggy board but its not suitable for off roading!! Am I being too optimistic or will I have to wait until dd1 is 4??

DS1 Didn't use the buggy after he was 2 as I got fed up trying to push a double buggy half empty and trying to hold onto him as well. Have got a buggy board on ds2's buggy that I use for him if we're out ALL day and he gets to the slower and slower and slower stage. Do think ds2 will be later though because just after he turns 2 Ds1 starts school which is a good 25 min walk away so don't think he'll be up for an hour round trip twice a day at that age - and the thought of trying to keep both of them under control all they way - very busy main roads into city centre worries me!

We put dd1 in buggy/double buggy until she was 3 ish, i still put her in it now if we are walking a long way (she's almost 4), dd2 is now 22 months but i cant see me letting her out for a while as she has no sense of danger.

I am very embarrassed, ds1 is 4.5 and I still can't get him out of the pushchair! He just goes nuts if we try and get him to walk anywhere (MASSIVE tantrums and pavement sit ins). I hate it because he's getting too heavy to push, ds2 is getting heavier to carry in the sling, and I'd like my ds to get more exercise.

Any tips to get him out? The odd thing is that we go on proper half day long hikes in the countryside with other parents and kids - he runs around like mad and loves it. But refuses to walk to our local co-op.

Annoyingly his nursery and the town centre are both 20 min walks from our house (adult pace) so I'd worry about him making it there and back without it taking ten years.

I also think it's a control thing - the pushchair is HIS and he's reluctant to give it up to the baby.

Dd is 2.5 and I would really like her to walk more but she hates it - and she is getting very heavy for me to carry very far. I really don't know how to stop the wailing protests at walking and I'm afraid to be caught without the pucshchair too far away to carry her (she is a BIG girl). She doesn't go willingly into the chair - but at least I can get her all the way home/to the car once she's in it.

With both of mine they were out of the pushchair from around 18months, unless it was a long haul like to town or something, and theyve both walked that from about 2 1/2.
I flipping hate the thiongs so got rid as soon as I feasibly could.

Manoo, has your Ds discovered the world of ebay?(DD aged 7 has known about it for about a year and 'sells' stuff she doesnt want anymore if she wants something new) Tell him he can sell his pushcahir and buy something else, a toy he really wants, (remember he doesnt know prices or understand money so you can get him something for a fiver and buy your youngest another pushchaor) that solves it being 'his pushchair' iyswim.
Or even do swaps with someone and buy him a toy or w/e.

Personally I'm a miserable old cow and I'd just leave earlier without a buggy for him and he'd end up getting used to walking!

Thanks for that idea VictorianSqualor. Reading everyone else's posts I really wish we'd been firmer with him ages ago. I'll get the second one walking as soon as I can!

How do you cope if nursery is a 20 minute walk away, and would take 45 mins at kiddy pace? Allowing 45 mins to get there and same on way back sounds quite daunting, especially with the constant whining I know I'm going to have to listen to.

ds is 3 on Monday and he hasn't had his push chair for about 4 months now. The only time i will use it is if im going shopping etc late at night when its past his bed time and he will want to sleep. But other than that he will walk around shops quite happily for a few hours with a few sit down breaks in between when he tells me his legs ache

Short walks (1- 2miles?) from 19 months, but then illness set DS back a bit. Live on steep hill, so bit demoralising for DS really, but is managing fine when not tired!

No pram at all for ds from just over 2 years old, once dd arrived, but walking a fair distance from 18m but had to be encouraging & built up the distance.

DD, now 19m old, will happily walk any distance, surprisingly really given she is a late walker.

But now I have two children, I do use the pram for dd because she can be a bit too wilfully independent & cause havoc or be dangerous near roads & just sometimes I haven't got all the time in the world to get where we're going!

ds is 2.6. Until he was about 22 months he really didn't want to walk when out at all and insisted on being carried. We then decided to make him walk a bit more and used little tricks to encourage him.

By 2 we retired the main pushchair to the garage - I have an old one in the boot of the car for major shopping trips (once a month if that) to keep him coralled.

By 2 and a bit he could walk miles and miles - literally. I really believe most kids his age could if that was what they were used to.

I'd have a buggy board if I were you just in case but big up the walking thing and the idea prams are for babies etc.

Pagwatch - Of course and I am not talking about judging others - but a good point of which I have little experience.

But I do wonder whether I give my ds enough exercise, vs too much tv and time indoors. But point taken.

DS is 17 months and we rarely use the pushchair now. Unless we're going to be walking around town for hours, we let him walk and carry him when required.

dd is 2.6 and she hates her buggy. its me that likes her in there. i decided to take a three mile walk to my mums house the other day and because i made her sit in it i think she cried for about the first two miles lol. [BLUSH]

news years resolution for myself LET HER WALK MORE.

Well I must admit, before DS started toddling I was always horrified at the ages of the children still in pushchairs. I still am sometimes, since many seem to be about 4 (although they may have SN of course). But having experienced DS in town the other day, shooting in and out of shops, refusing to hold my hand, and invariably wanting to go the opposite way from me, I can understand it a bit more. I do use reins though (when I remember to take them with me) which helps a lot.

my dd didnt walk at all until 18mo, so she stayed in buggy permanantly until about 2yrs she then decided if she wanted to walk if we had time(ds was tiny baby and had a double buggy) now at 3.2yrs i have sold double buggy and she walks. shes never been very confident at walking and it still takes forever (she doesnt run anywhere, too scary) as in a 15-20 min walk to town can take 1hr+ and she has to be co-erced all the time, but she walks, get excercised and sleeps well at night.

ds wants to get out the buggy now although he isnt even walking yet at 14mo, i cant afford the cost on his trousers!

i do sometimes wonder if people who get their children to walk earlier, walk less.

we have a 2+ mile walk to town and dd just couldnt manage all that at 2yo (obv. that distance doesnt include round town and back again )

i do not drive, so its walk or dont go (no buses from ours to town)

I feel a bit bad about having DS in the pushchair as although he is 2.7 he looks bigger and older and I am now getting looks (so sympathies to you with children with SN). But he is still having long naps so if we go out for the day we have to take it - then he wants to go in it because it's an easy option. Having read this thread I think I'll aim for 3 to have him walking everywhere.

translating this, in Laos, as in many other places that don't have access to pushchairs or money to buy them, the children are carried around. Some of them until they are 3 or 4 years old.

a tip to whoever it was asked for tips for getting DS out of the buggy. I found the walk to nursery a PITA with DS, taking twice as long as normal, and goddamit, i have to get to work. so, he got a bike last xmas and a scooter last summer so he tends to use either one of those to go to nursery and he whizzes along, still getting the exercise though. if we go somewhere more crowded he has to walk but he's used to it now.

I almost got dd a scooter for Xmas - definitely for her bday I think. She has a trike and can bomb along on that - it's just not so easy to use on the rickety pavements and curbs around here.

I just don't have time to walk to nursery - I drive. In fact I probably drive too much as I myself really hate walking! We're doomed....

She definitely walks better when there are other young children walking too. If dh it's there - that's the worst. She just howls and howls for him to pick her up. He starts out all determined but inevitably ends up picking her up