what age do you stop using a pushchair?

[helsi]

thats my question in a nutshell.

OOps that makes it sound like dd still USES the buggy at the age of nine. She doesn't of course but would if she got the chance. She's very jealous of ds's major buggy!

What an good question.

Yesterday I saw a little girl from my nursery who is 4 in a pushchair. Fine if she had long to walk I think but this little girl is seriously overweight and physical capabilities are not well developed. She finds any movement physical attivities hard and is quite akward. I'm sorry if this is judgemental but no wonder she has the problems she does when she gets no opportunity to walk even the five/minutes home.

By the way my children were thrown out of the buggy at 2. However I keep in it the car because my son has the horrible habbit of falling asleep just as a get to school so its a matter of holding him for 15mins (at 3 he's heavy) or a pushchair.

I ditched the pushchair when my sons were around 3 years old, but wish I'd kept the pushchair for longer with my oldest son. I let my dh talk me into throwing ours away. Cue lots of needless arguments between ds1 and I, as he used to complain like mad about walking and he wanted to be carried a lot. I really wish I'd had the pushchair option for longer as the resentment on both sides really spoilt some of our time together. I can still remember a whopping, showstoppig argument that we had in public

So whatever you do, don't ever let someone else decide when the pushchair goes.

ds still uses his occasionally at 3.1. we are guilty of putting him in it to get to nursery (10 minute ADULT walk) as time is so precious in the mornings even though he can easily walk it (it's only twice a week. new baby due in july though, so his good times are coming to an end. i don't really want to get a buggy board either.

Message withdrawn

tassis - OK - actually I think apushchair may be a good idea - DS2 spends ages pushing a toy shoppign trolley around the house!

So WHERE did you get a non-pink one then????

Cod snap. Whenever I have taken DD out in her yellow and black Y2K Graco any others I have seen the same have had a 4/5 year old dawdling along at the side just like mine.

tescos have got blue buggies for around £3
Or look in woolies aswell...I had to trek to find one for ds which he loves but dh isnt too kean on..lol

DS used to get lazy when we went for walks with the buggy alongside, even though he loved to run long before he turned two. Just after his second birthday I started taking him out without it, just me and him and no shopping to carry, so that if he got tired I could carry him the rest of the way. It worked fine, and he never went back into the buggy after that. So, two and a couple of weeks.

Got DS' blue and red toy buggy in Argos

My dd will be 7 in July and can fit in my 15 month old ds's Quest. When he gets out to walk she jumps in!!.

Legacy, I got his in ELC, but it was old stock. They used to be blue, but are now pink (including the wheels). Dh wasn't convinced about getting him a pushchair in the first place so a pink one was really going to be pushing my luck!!

Try woolies or asda?

Thanks Tassis!
Just for anyone's info - Argos.co.uk have a fab offer of dolls carseat/ cot/ pushchair and highchair reduced from £25 to £7 !!

Alas all pink................

God I can't imagine getting rid of mine as early as most people on this thread. My son is 21 months and a good walker, or should I say runner. But he has no sense and doesn't like holding my hand for long and he just spins round when on reins. He also into everything and going shopping without a pushchair would be hell; because he would constantly escape and carrying bags and controlling him would be awful.

I don't think it makes any difference to their stamina in walking. Its not as if he spends more than an hour and a half a day in it. The rest of his day is spent running around. He happily managed three and a half hours in Kew gardens at the weekend without any sitting at all.

Finally collapsed when DS was 2.5 and I threw it out with relief.

There is a pic in this week's Closer of Tina Hobley (ex Corrie) pushing her 6 year old in a buggy - FGS!!

Ds is 2 (walking since 16 months)and we use his buggy on trips of over 3km total, also to and from nursery as he would be too knackered to do anything when he got there if I let him walk.

Yesterday he walked around the aquarium, to a cafe and all around a museum and through half the park. Not suprisingly he fell asleep in the car.

I like going on long walks, but have amended them to be bike rides as he loves sitting in his toddler seat on the back. Or I will walk to the bird reserve, he will walk around (3km) and then I will push him back.

He's quick too - not much bird watching allowed!

We stopped using the buggy for DS somewhere around 2 for short walks to shops etc ... then around 2.5 I started to 'forget' to put it in the car.
We did use it for our last long haul trip back to the UK when he was just 3 as it would have been terrible to make him walk around airports if he was tired.

bundle, on buggyboards, my dd was off hers by 3yrs 3 mths I think (tho in theory we might still use it - she's 4 in June).
Ds1 was last pushed on b/board at almost 4 - with DD in buggy and ds2 in sling!! what must I have looked like. I nearly died and told ds1 (who's fairly big) that that was the last time.
But like you, I know a mum who pushes her dd to school on the board, she's 5.5!
On the buggy itself; mine were out of it and onto the b/board at about 2.5 to accommodate new baby too big for regular sling carrying; but in the case of poor ds2, no new baby (!) no b/board. So we're going cold turkey for him,this summer. He's 2 next month and already keen to walk tho not always in the direction I want him to lol.
Cod - yes we had the red check one! It's long since fallen to bits tho!

ds loved his pushchair!!! seriously up till a couple of months ago he would still be in it if i let him(he's 4 1/2). he is a great walker now, will walk miles without complaint-in fact i normally flag first

Does anyone feel like me though? DD can manage without the pushcahir. She is nearly 3. BUT I miss having the pushchair with me when shopping as I have no where to hang my bags! So I have to carry the bags and hold DD's hand - which is far harder to juggle than having DD's pushchair with me. Or is it just me who is lazy?!?

Dd's 2.5 and there's no way I could ditch the buggy yet. For one thing we don't have a car and it's a good 15 minute walk to the supermarket and she's very little and always needs to be carried a bit at some point there or back. How the heck would I do that loaded down with shopping?! I'm also not keen on seeing toddlers racing round the supermarket so prefer to keep her strapped in out of the way .

i agree with that hula. not having a pushchair defiately makes you more select about what you take out with you!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do either! The trip to the childminder's takes 15-20 minutes when I walk briskly, so if we have to start walking there we'll have to get up at the crack of dawn. (And I can't drive.)

maisystar - Ialso have to think more about what I am buying, worst luck! No wonder Dh is keen for the pushchair to go away when we move!!!

DD is 26 months old. We hardly ever use the pushchair now. We have tried taking it as a back-up for when she gets tired, but then she insists on pushing it herself (cute for about 10 seconds, then irritating, since she does this extremely slowly and can't steer it). Walking any distance becomes impossible. She also gets so absorbed in trying to steer the pushchair that she misses out on what she has been taken out to see (eg the Cotswold Wildlife Park). I now use it only around town, and we don't go in often. My main concern is how to teach her road sense. We have a 'hold hands on the road' rule, but she is starting to kick against the idea. I don't want to use reins. What have other people done about this?