Using a pushchair for a older child

[lisa270988]

Hi
My little boy is 4 5 in December he starts school in September.
We do a lot of walking as a family as I don't drive just my husband but he drives a lot for a work so at weekends prefer walking or using public transport to give him a rest from driving. We tend to walk as much as we can to save money on buses ect.
Yesterday we walked in to the town which in a 30 minute then round town then after we walked to the park which is 5 mins from the town then round the park its a big park then back out and back to the town to catch a bus home when we got of the bus ots also about a 10 minute walk home. We had a the pushchair with us and walked a lot but sat in the pushchair a bit for a rest as he would never manage all that walking. .
It just got.me thinking when he starts school he can manage the walk to school and home ect but at weekends when we do a lot.of walking like this will he look.silly in a buggy what about if he bumps in to school mates?
There is no way he will walk as much as what we he uses a balance bike sometimes but even then he gets tired on very long distances and like yesterday wouldn't be practical in the town

My 4yo (May, also starting school in Sep) would struggle with that too. He finds walking boring, so will moan and sit down and claim he's too tired. Yesterday we walked 30 mins into town, had a little wander, stopped for lunch for an hour, then headed back home. He asked to go on DH's shoulders for the last 10 mins. When we got home he fell asleep on the sofa.

When he's doing something fun he will run and jump and play and move for hours. We did a farm park the other week and he was on his feet for nearly 5 hours straight. So I'm not really worried about his stamina or strength, I think he finds walking boring and tiring and that's fair enough I think.

We'll be taking his balance bike for the school run, it's 10 mins on the bike or 20+ mins with him dragging his feet walking so that's an obvious choice for me.

All children are different. The trick is distinguishing between if he could walk all that way and chooses to use the buggy or if he genuinely can’t.

My ds would absolutely have walked all that at 5. He was doing it at 3.
At 8 he started to struggle with mobility and was diagnosed with a degenerative neuromuscular condition and now at 22 uses a wheelchair.

No one remembers he was the kid that walked everywhere at 3 when his peers used a buggy.

ultimately in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t particularly matter!

I used an umbrella buggy until my youngest was 4. She napped in it. I couldn’t understand how to do the school run for my eldest with her asleep without the buggy. Most people drive everywhere even short distances. If he needs it, use it. A scooter is good though.

Both of mine also napped late, and I always thought no one would care if they fell asleep in the car on the way home but the buggy was somehow worse. I suppose we could have only ever been out in the morning but that's a bit weird.