What would you do if

[Weregoingonabearhunt]

Your 9 month old baby was crying in the pushchair and you’re 5 mins away from home.

A) pick him up and push the pushchair with other hand
B) continue pushing him home even tho he’s crying

I’m asking because yesterday me and my partner went for a walk with our baby. I stopped at the shop on our way back so him and baby were a few minutes ahead of me.
When I caught up to them outside the front door baby was crying and partner was unbuckling the straps to lift him out.
This made me feel upset that my partner didn’t pick him up straight away. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve had to hold baby in one hand and push the pushchair in the other. Am I just being OTT or would it bother any one else??
Also, partner said ‘it’s only 5 mins’ but I can’t bear to him cry for even a minute!! My hearts starts racing and I just have to pick him up.
It seems he doesn’t have the same instinct/response.

You’re a bit OTT.

I’ve done both, depending on how upset they are / how knackered I am/ whether it’s raining / what else I’m carrying - a million things.

There will be times you HAVE to let them cry. When they’re a toddler and you can’t physically carry them, or if you have two and they both want you. It’s a bit upsetting of course, but makes zero difference.

I've done both. Sometimes I know holding baby wouldn't stop her crying so I've just pushed through, sometimes I've carried her. Either is fine.

B) continue pushing him until you I got home

Depends why they're crying. If it's just because they want out then I would wait, usually sing or chat to them, find a snack or a dummy!

What would you do if your baby was crying in the car and you were 5 mins from home? You cant just stop. Wait until you have 2 kids, one of them is always crying 🤣

I’ve done both. But sometimes my children have to just cry because it’s not always possible to pick them up. Sometimes both dc are crying- I can’t carry both and push the pushchair.

I feel you

but also you have to calm down and control your automatic response. Babies cry and a panic response is not putting you in a good position to deal.

Babies with older siblings have to be left to cry sometimes and aren’t totally traumatised. 9mo is not a newborn and wether I would pick them up or not would depend on wether there had been some kind of incident that frightened them or wether they had gone from grizzling to crying.

I remember the first time I let my baby cry.
she was also 9mo and eating solids but mostly boob.
She wanted boob and communicated that effectively but we were 1 stop from our stop on the bus and instead of getting my boob out I got my coat on
She hit the roof!
There was a lot of screaming but I pushed her home from the bus before I fed her because I knew she wouldn’t starve in the less than 2 mins it would take for me to feed her in the comfort and privacy of our home.
It felt awful in many ways but I do think even 9mo sometimes have wait a min before they get what they want/need and they soon learn that’s not the end of the world if you let it actually happen a few times instead leaping into action at every grizzle

continue pushing home whilst reassuring the baby that we were nearly home

Probably B unless they were hysterical. I would push and soothe them with my voice as we walked, that is still responding to your child.

B but I'd speed up my walking pace.

Thank you all for your perspectives. I wasn’t expecting so many to agree with option B!

@blueskies99 also thanks for your insight. That makes a lot of sense actually and has helped me understand my partner and myself better.

B for sure after I'd established whilst walking that there wasn't anything seriously imminently wrong. And I'd just reassure them by talking - why would I take longer to get to somewhere which is much more equipped to deal with whatever the reason they're crying than the street?

I understand the immediate need to help feeling more when it's a newborn baby (if you're a first time mum) as I used to occasionally worry about that sort of thing then, but not at almost a year when logically you must know that they will be fine whilst you get them home even if it makes you feel bad.

B - being as my baby cries in the pram and in the carrier/sling. We wouldn’t be able to go anywhere if I stopped every time she cried. When she’s hysterical I do stop to try to comfort her but otherwise have to keep going.

Definitely option B! You'll get home so much faster just pushing than pushing and carrying and then you can sort out whatever the problem is.