Living on a steep hill with a baby

[MissHoney85]

We are currently house hunting and expecting our first child in January. We saw a house today that we both love, but it is on a really steep hill - like a 1:5 gradient. How much of a deal breaker do you think would that be with a pram / buggy?

I would not recommend it, thinking forward to having LOs with scooters and bikes, it sounds a nightmare.

Also is the road a major route, i.e. will the gritter lorry come down the road when it is icy / snowy in winter?

I would go for it. I think you would be unlikely to need to walk up and down it more than once a day on average. You would just get used it it.

The only reason I wouldn't go for it would be if I or my partner was seriously overweight or had another physical and really couldn't climb up or down the hill.

I wouldn't. It's probably not too bad with a small baby but the toddler years would probably finish me off. I'm not very fit or strong though!

We now live on our second steep hill with small dcs. While the bike/scooter point is a good one I wouldn’t let it stop you. I walk up and down it regularly (daily) I just see it as an excuse for slightly more cake in my life.

I used to live next to steep hill. Used to push her to it all the time. Sure it was hard going but it gave me good exercise. I couldn't do the whole hill in one go lol used to have to rest a bit!

I wouldn't . I lived on a hill when mine were in buggies. It nearly killed me off. Also the school run was more of a school huff and puff.

Cybex do an electric pram

We lived on a hill when I was a child, nice suburb, quiet road with grass verges (long time ago) but could never play out with friends because of the gradient. We played in houses/gardens and learnt to ride a bike at the park.
As an adult our street is flat but we live at the top of the town and the walk to the shops and school (pub) involves a very steep hill and I used to struggle with the buggy, but everyone does it and it keeps you fit.

I live on a steep hill and its fine. Id say its not enough of a consideration to let it stop you buying a nice house.

I lived on a steep hill when mine were young. I managed twins in a tandem pushchair up and down at least 4 times a day with school run.
My pushchair had hand brakes on which helped when the twins were older.
The only downside was snowy /icey weather and it wasn't cleared by the council so nobody parked on it when snow was due and we all parked on the bottom road. It was very common to all help out and clear the road of snow and take turns to grit it in bad weather.

Thanks everyone! We are both quite fit which sounds like it helps. We enjoy climbing mountains so we will just think of it as training!

It’s perfect training - we are on a steep hill & have a forest opposite (have to take baby in sling). Baby loves the forest and I love the post partum hill training