London: afraid of getting rid of our buggy

[piakai2013]

Hi! I have a ridiculous question. My LO just only started walking with 15 months, but just today I was wondering when you can get rid of the buggy. We have to take a Bus to Nursery here in London and have to walk through a Street packed with tourists and with Traffic, so i was just wondering when it would be safe to just walk with her? How to prepare best? And I have seen many toddler with Scooters? When is the appropriate Age to introduce them and why are they so popular? Tia

Depends how far you have to walk. 5min walk from
Station easily done or carried more than that or if you are in a rush and can't wait for little legs then I'd say 2.5y. If they are doing long days or under the weather buggy is really handy.

Scooters in under 4/5 are bit lethal certaibly woulnt use in very busy packed pavements you are asking for trouble!

We didn't properly get rid of ours until dd was 3. I really wouldn't worry about it yet. Scooters are fab but I wouldn't fancy letting a toddler use one in a busy city

3+ so you can carry shopping home from the supermarket easily.

I didn't get rid of mine until at least 3, more like 3.5 depending when winter was. 4dcs and I live in zone 2. Using public transport etc, you really need a buggy, or a sling. Esp also if you are out all day and yOur dc still naps, and if you need to carry lots of things.

Sorry, missed your scooter question. All mine were interested from around 18 months. Sure, you can use them, not down oxford st or anything, but I wouldn't rely on them as a mode of transport til they are older. You an get a handy towing strap to pull them along with for a mini micro scooter. They fold in half and go under the buggy.

We used the buggy til age three and scooter was perfect for us after that (10 min walk to station from home, 5 mins from station to nursery). I had a pulley thing for the scooter so I could pull him along when he was tired.

I found the scooter helmet a helpful addition for the tube in the rush hour as well!

I think the key is don't get in a situation where they need to walk a lot when tired, if that means hanging onto the buggy for longer to avoid a disaster on the way home, then do what works, there's no rush to dump the buggy when you have a London commute

London based. We got rid of it at 3. Used lots of buses and walked in fits and starts after that with lots of cries of 'carry me Mummy!' which I ignored. Began to use the scooter age 4, and now at almost 5, scooters to school in the mornings with me (good 15 min walk for both of us). In my opinion it wasn't so much about the safety of the buggy but about the whinging when he had to walk long distances. Drove me nuts.

London tends to have a lot of public transport and I'm assuming that the OP isn't in and out of a car much so the child needs to be walking on a fairly regular basis. It's easier in rush hour to be in a buggy than to be tackling a whinging child that doesn't want to walk. It would be quite common for a non-driving family in London to spend an entire day out, including say 45 min Tube journeys from 10-5 using walking and public transport in Central London. Clearly a small child will get tired and a buggy would be useful. So the OP is obviously asking at what age it would be safe to ditch that and rely entirely on walking.

I have to say I try not to take the scooter on the Tube. It is a right nuisance. When we go for days out, DS just has to walk but when he was younger we fitted in lots of 'snack breaks' so he could sit down and give his leg a rest.

Brillant, thanks for your advice!