is this ridiculous?

[saadia]

is this ridiculous

balls

Yes, what a load of rubbish - OMG us parents can't get anything right can we?

I agree with what Maclaren said. And if you're going to talk to your baby, surely you're going to talk to them anyway? You don't just push them around all day without looking at them and talking to them. And if you're not going to bother talking to them, why would having them facing you help?
I agree with what they're trying to achieve but think this is all a bit of a red herring

grrrrrrrrrr..........

the thing is noone noone noone spends all day everyday out with the buggy.........

also, it is hard enough anyway to chat when out with he buggy cos traffic impedes hearing etc. yeah having the baby facing you MAY help with that a bit, but how long will the baby be happy facing that way? we started with a contraption that started with the carrycot, then used the seat unit for. By the time dd was 6 months (if that) she was fed up and wanted to face forwards.

and her speech is fab, so it clearly didn;t affect her.

grr. scare mongering.

i can see that it aids conversation but honestly, how much time in the course of a week is spent in the buggy????

It's a ploy to make us all buy new buggies. 'survey' is probably funded by mothercare lol.

What about a pushchair with a little switch that swings the seat round so that they can look at things when they need to be stimulated and look at you when they need to develop their speech? It could be on a timer in case we forget to twizzle them. And maybe it could also have a sensor for dee dahs and diggers.

Or a walky talky system built in.

I actually quite like the occassional excuse to say to ds1 "the traffic's too noisy, say it later darling" because it means I get a couple of minutes without incessant chatter.

yes I think so
they don;t spend that much time in there surely? and it's good for them to see things too
and indeed to SLEEP sometimes in there
also you don;t really want to be looking at them eating their sausage rolls

Just another way of inducing parental guilt...any when else am I supposed to listen to my music?
Ds loves to look at things when we're out - it's asking too much of very little ones to take in the world and talk about it at the same time IMO

I just can't believe the rubbish that some people come up with. IME older than 6mths kids would rather have a good view of what's going on in the world out there than be looking at their carer's face when outside. And you can still talk to them even if they are forward-facing.

lol at the switch idea fisiltoe.

Language experts have been saying this for years.

I totally agree.

I had to get a second-hand pram because there are so few adjustable backwards-facing ones.

So I am clearly the best mum.

My daughter was 3 before she asked to face forward (the chair faces both ways) so I disagree that they prefer to watch all the depressed people in my town centre smoking fags and talking into their mobile phones. I think they much prefer the interaction.

(SUch as the high-quality interaction I am currently giving of course)

I had a mamas & papas pushchair, that could have the body on it either way. When ds was tiny he always faced me, and yes, I wittered away to him all the time when I was pushing him about.

But the time came when he spent his time trying to lean out of the side, twisting round to see where we were going, so of course I turned the body of the pushchair round the other way, and that's how it stayed.

stupid. Shouldn't I be looking out for traffic rather than yakking away?

Oh I absolutely agree! I only ever bought pushchairs where I could see my precious charges. I would talk to them constantly and now they are both top of the class in language skills and may even have their names forwarded to taking their GCSE in English next year! Their ages are 5.5 and 2.

Honestly, I cannot people still buy forward facing buggies in this day and age! No wonder your children were late developers!

fisliltoe and harpsi- lol rofl.

switch is fab idea.

and yeah, what mother wants to see their little darling eating the obligitory squashage roll. lol. you know, we'd feel obliged to wipe their faces, sort out the crumbs... feed them fruit. can't have that!!!!

I think Mp is right there is nothing new year, they've been saying this for years i think the same applies to the baby slings too.

I had a parent-facing pram and ds is not very chatty at all and qute shy and retiring. I think I may have scarred him for life with all my chit chat.

year=here
I was way too busy chatting to my ds to notice the typo.

It does rather pre-suppose that parents never talk to their children outside of the buggy either.

Well my DS wasn't in a pushchair when he was 3. He was holding my hand and wittering away and looking over his shoulder and walking into things.

So I am obviously a good mum - apart from letting him walk into lamp posts, bollards, railings etc.

And DD has DS trotting along alongsid her for company - lucky little girl that she is.

I talk (see shout) at my two all the time in their double buggy, I don't take a vow of silence to walk the street.

And dd1 NEVER shuts up and says big words like 'perhaps' and 'incidently' so nerrrrrrrrrr.

I can sense a Humzinger-esque survey behind this one:

1. Do you think that forward-facing buggies
   a. prevent you from talking to your child
   b. stop your child from being able to talk to you
   c. mean you have less conversations with your child when you are out and about

2. What is the most ridiculous thing you have done in order to get your child's attention when in a buggy?

(to which someone replies "My husband has taken to walking backwards in front of the buggy just so our son can see us."

I rest my case, m'lud.

And just how old is your dd1 - 15! LOL!

head with a nail on it i think miaou

3 actually.

so double nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr