How long did you use your pram/pushchair for?

[redfox14]

DD is 18 months old and I’ve been considering replacing her travel system/pram with a more lightweight pushchair. The pram we have at the minute has done us really well but it is so heavy and bulky and I feel we really don’t need such a big one anymore.

I have seen a lightweight stroller from mamas and papas that I think would be better but I’m a bit reluctant to buy a stroller if we won’t get much use out of it. DD is a confident walker and I imagine the need for a stroller will decrease over the next year or so?

At what age did your little one stop needing a pram/pushchair? Is it worth investing in or should I stick with what we have for now?

I'd say it depends how much you walk or travel...
my LO is 2 years 3 months and I still use a pram for school picks ups, going to the park and for holidays.
A five year old would still nap in a pushchair on holiday for example.

Yeah mine is 3 and still uses it for picks ups from nursery and also holidays.
Although we've just bought a big trolley for family trips so don't use the pushchair then either, so rarely now but it was still worth having

I bought a new one when my DD was 14 months old and we are still using it a lot at 2y4m. But we walk every day to playgrounds etc that are a bit too far for her both ways.

It will really depend on your lifestyle.

When DD2 was in preschool...
The mile there was fine. The mile home was fine...
But for her and all of her friends... the mile there and back to pick up their older siblings a couple of hours later was too much. They were even driven or in buggies, including 4yos!

I like the yo-yo they can be up to 3 after coming out of nursery and being tired ect, or if you are going on a day trip ect.
If fact I used to take it on holiday every time until they were about 4 so I could stay out past their bedtime if I wanted to.
We used to have a caravan so it came in handy if I wanted to say in the clubhouse a bit later then just transfer them into bed.
In fact I still use a pram now if I walk to the shops because I always get more than I intended and don't want to carry it all.

DD basically refused the buggy from when she turned 2. DS used it intermittently until starting school. We were doing school runs and longer days out and he needed it.

Also depends if you use a car much. If you regularly walk/bus you will have greater need than if you drive places, wander round and then drive home.

We still used ours up until 5, especially on holiday. My daughter was smaller than her friends and tired easy though

Dd2 is 3 and will still go in her push chair when we go for a long walk/I walk to school etc, they have little legs and can't keep up 😂 plus I refuse to carry her now as she weights so much.

We have two, the original silver cross travel system, and a yo-yo for travel (when daughter turned 8 months). We always take one when out and about involving parks/long distances for wee legs. She's 3 next month and although a typical toddler who prefers walking she does actually prefer the SC as it's higher up than yo-yo so she can see more when she's in it. You could end up getting a smaller lighter one and DC child doesn't like it so end up using the bulky one anyway. Plus they do get to an age where they understand they may need to go in it, we flew yesterday and took the yo-yo and she was told she'd be in it as the airport was busy and concourse long and she was grand.

We switched to a
lightweight one at 9m…
dd is 2.5 and a good walker we still get a lot of use out of it.
i expect to keep it until she’s about 4 but only for theme parks etc

I had DS somewhere rural and car based then we moved to London and had no car. NCT all got rid of theirs around 2 but they didn’t really walk anywhere so neither did their kids. By contrast, most of my parent friends in London had a pushchair until 4 because of the increased amount of walking and the ease of using it to carry stuff.

For example preschool was a mile walk, and
often DS was tired on the way back and would
nap in it.

Your post has made me realise that we haven't used ours in about six months - my youngest turned 4 in May. So we
definitely found it handy for occasional use until 3 at least.

Eldest was 5 when he stopped using buggy and I suspect youngest will be the same. It does depend how far you walk though. We often walk a few miles.
mine takes a child upto 25kg

City dweller here and I’ve never had a ‘big pram’, only a YoYo but used it pretty much daily until DS hit 3.5. Now we basically never use it. It got one outing on holiday when we knew we’d be out late for dinner. Our next holiday will be skiing staying in a chalet so can’t imagine we’ll need it then (even though we have the ski attachments for it!) since we won’t be out late with the kids, and by next summer I don’t think he’ll be using it at all as he’ll be 4.5 by then. If your DC is only 18 months then I think you’ll get more than enough use out of a stroller to justify the purchase.

My older kids (7 and 5) still fight over getting in the pram when walking around on holiday ( pram is intended for use for the 3yo).

I think if you walk to places and don't want to go at a snails pace you need the pram til school age, at which point most kids will be too embarrassed (for mine, laziness trumps pride apparently)

We only used ours a few times after DS turned 2 but he was great at walking. We've kept it for DS2 though who is likely to use it longer as with having an older DS as well this time we may well go to places where he'll need to walk longer/faster than he's comfortable with etc.

We got the pram off a discount site for only around £100 so it's not a big investment anyway.

Many people around here are still using pushchairs occasionally for 4/5 year olds. But then we live in an urban area and lots of people don't drive or have access to a car, so we're not talking a short walk to the car but a few miles at a time, perhaps several times a day. My older one was able to manage that at age 4 but lots couldn't.

We used ours until age 5 as we have very busy weekends, we do theme park/safari type attractions most weekends and through the holidays, and go on holiday a lot. Friends who just drive everywhere or have quiet local weekends stopped by age 2, they barely walk a couple of miles so not too hard for a toddler to keep up.

Around age 2, although we still have it just in case

About 18 months to 2 years. We live in London. Nursery is at the bottom of the street, school will be about 3 mins walk on top of that. The end of the high street is approx 20 mins walk and for anything longer, we’d get the bus or train. DD is 4 and can happily walk round the park for an hour without complaining. Some of her nursery friends still use a buggy but that’s predominantly for speed when you have to drop off then get to work, a lot of them use bikes or scooters instead.

I don’t think we’ve have used ours since DS was about two and a half.

About 20 months or so? Possibly a little older. We drive mostly everywhere so walks are just ‘for fun’ so in line with how tired or otherwise he is!

About age 3. It has been different for each child and depends on your lifestyle. But just because they can walk, doesn't mean they can walk long enough, fast enough, or in the right direction. I continued to use a pushchair when I wanted to actually get somewhere and let them walk if it was for fun.

Depends on the child, mine hated his pushchair so we hardly used it from about 18 months, 2 years, DS wore reins and walked

Mine were 7&5 when I got rid of it to tears - village at the time and I didn't drive. By the later years they walk mostly but it's useful for shopping, holidays, illness. Mine was a large single mamas and papas one but they could both fit one behind the other (had a proper twin umbrella buggy for when they were younger) they were both petite though I should add. Dd1 is autistic so strapping her in despite being 5+ often just saved my sanity but she liked her little sister sitting between her legs