How long did you use a stroller?

[Anonymous]

My kid is 4 and tiny. We walk a lot but if it's not a leisurely walk and we are walking in the city to get somewhere on time, I have no shame in taking the stroller out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Americans like to create rules... no stroller after age 3, 4, etc, no bottles after age 1, sleep by 7:30am, etc etc. Who cares? Do what works for you. My 4.5 is not in stroller but sometimes she likes to sit in the double stroller next to her little brother.

I feel like it's a growing trend of continuing to infantilize children long past when we should. I mean, we have 6T sizing. T means toddler!

I treat my children like children. I am not trying to make them grow up too fast. But I also trust that they can handle giving up baby things, and that feeling "big" and gaining skills makes them feel confident.

And I think parents will use something like a stroller or a bottle or whatever just to pacify the child, to make sure they don't whine, to avoid having a child who's even slightly uncomfortable, because it makes you the parent uncomfortable.

BTW, this isn't a referendum on your 4.5 year old. Just a comment on why parents get judgy about this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not gonna lie, we used one up to age 7. After age 3, we just used a foldable umbrella stroller for days with a lot of walking like Kings Dominion, the zoo, museum trips etc.

Lol, hope you weren't offended when my 6 yr old asked why your 6 yr old was in a stroller and I said "he's probably disabled and can't walk."

I would never say this out loud but when I see an older kid who looks like they can walk being pushed in a stroller I assume they are either disabled in some way or have lazy parents. But it would be rude to say aloud, especially passive aggressively to my kid!

[Anonymous]

We gave up the everyday stroller at 3 and the travel one for airports at 4.

[Anonymous]

My dd is 3.5. We have a wagon we sometimes use for walks, and we'd probably still use our travel stroller for an airport if we were traveling at this age, though not sure when we'd next take an airplane, so we probably won't next time we do. Not sure what we would do if we went to the zoo or something at this point, probably bring the wagon instead of the stroller though. We've done a fair number of half mile walks without a stroller though this spring and summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not gonna lie, we used one up to age 7. After age 3, we just used a foldable umbrella stroller for days with a lot of walking like Kings Dominion, the zoo, museum trips etc.

Lol, hope you weren't offended when my 6 yr old asked why your 6 yr old was in a stroller and I said "he's probably disabled and can't walk."

I would never say this out loud but when I see an older kid who looks like they can walk being pushed in a stroller I assume they are either disabled in some way or have lazy parents. But it would be rude to say aloud, especially passive aggressively to my kid!

But how does it bother you? There are so many reasons why this would work for a family. Let people be. So much judging for such weird reasons.

[Anonymous]

The oldest was2.5 when she gave it up. It was summer and she was walking a mile to the playground and then back. I brought a stroller mostly for the ride back and eventually just didn't need it anymore. We used it a few times for airport only after that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not gonna lie, we used one up to age 7. After age 3, we just used a foldable umbrella stroller for days with a lot of walking like Kings Dominion, the zoo, museum trips etc.

Lol, hope you weren't offended when my 6 yr old asked why your 6 yr old was in a stroller and I said "he's probably disabled and can't walk."

Yep. We saw a friend's 90th percentile 5 yo being pushed in a stroller, and my 4 yo asked me why a bigger boy was riding in a stroller like a baby. Except this kid is not disabled so I didn't know what to say. His parents are also holding him back next year. so he won't go to kindergarten until almost 6.5. He is clearly on track to live with mom and dad until 30.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not gonna lie, we used one up to age 7. After age 3, we just used a foldable umbrella stroller for days with a lot of walking like Kings Dominion, the zoo, museum trips etc.

Lol, hope you weren't offended when my 6 yr old asked why your 6 yr old was in a stroller and I said "he's probably disabled and can't walk."

I would never say this out loud but when I see an older kid who looks like they can walk being pushed in a stroller I assume they are either disabled in some way or have lazy parents. But it would be rude to say aloud, especially passive aggressively to my kid!

But how does it bother you? There are so many reasons why this would work for a family. Let people be. So much judging for such weird reasons.

3rd pp on the above string here...it doesn't hurt me or my family (my kid has been out of the stroller since a bit before his second birthday and has no problem walking long distances), hence why I would never say anything out loud. But I can think whatever I want, and privately I think using a stroller with older kids is weird and infantilizing and probably bad for the kid. So I judge, but silently.

[Anonymous]

I'm team stroller! We just went on vacation to a beach town and our fave beach to go to was about a mile walk, and my relatives were staying half a mile away. We didn't put the kids in the car the whole week. We just put 1 & 4 year olds in the double BOB, strapped on life jackets if we were going boating or floaties if we were swimming, and it held towels and beach toys and anything else we needed. Yes, my 4 year old can walk, but after a long morning of playing at the beach in the sun, why not push her home? We often also take a 25 min walk to a great park, and obviously put the kids in the double stroller for that. I mean I guess I understand the shade if was using it to get around the zoo or something or to take the kids into target?

When I was working from home and watching two kids in the spring, that double stroller saved me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people who stopped using the stroller at 18 months just drive a lot more? We’ve always been big walkers. My 3 year old can scoot for about a mile or so, play, scoot the mile back home and be struggling a bit by the end. But anymore than that is too far so we need to use the stroller. I’d love to stop using it but he can’t scoot 4 miles.

Nope! I think it really varies kid to kid, hence all the different responses about giving up the stroller. My three year old can walk about 1.5-2 miles somewhere, play, then walk back and be fine.

Mine could walk like this as a 3 year old, but I don't think he could at 18 months. We live in the city and walk a lot so he worked his way up in mileage. He started riding a pedal bike at 3 so he rode a lot while we walked and that was basically the end of the stroller for him except occasionally throwing him in the jogging stroller so I could do some longer runs. Now he is almost 5 and bikes with me while I run.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the kid. My 6yr old would probably let me pull him everywhere in a wagon if I offered. My 3.5yr old has reliably walked 2 miles round trip for over a year and prefers to scooter or walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not gonna lie, we used one up to age 7. After age 3, we just used a foldable umbrella stroller for days with a lot of walking like Kings Dominion, the zoo, museum trips etc.

Lol, hope you weren't offended when my 6 yr old asked why your 6 yr old was in a stroller and I said "he's probably disabled and can't walk."

I would never say this out loud but when I see an older kid who looks like they can walk being pushed in a stroller I assume they are either disabled in some way or have lazy parents. But it would be rude to say aloud, especially passive aggressively to my kid!

But how does it bother you? There are so many reasons why this would work for a family. Let people be. So much judging for such weird reasons.

3rd pp on the above string here...it doesn't hurt me or my family (my kid has been out of the stroller since a bit before his second birthday and has no problem walking long distances), hence why I would never say anything out loud. But I can think whatever I want, and privately I think using a stroller with older kids is weird and infantilizing and probably bad for the kid. So I judge, but silently.

DP. I confess, I've judged too when I saw some kids coming to K in strollers when my kid the same age had been walking for years? I knew them too, and no disabilities. But you know what? Those kids are all heading to middle school now and those days are long forgotten. Kids are perfectly normal. There a lots of times when kids hang out to things longer than they "should" -- drinking from bottles or sippies or sleeping with parents or riding in strollers. Most of the time it resolves itself and no harm done. Parents put too much pressure on themselves to make sure their kid keep on schedule with all these things lest other parents judge them and it's really no big deal for most kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of you judging have obviously never had an autistic kid bolt.

+1. My almost-4 year old is not autistic, but I wonder about ADHD. He's impulsive. Today he bolted across the street while I was letting him walk rather than be in the stroller on the way home from the playground. This was out of blue, because we've been working and working over the past few months on stopping at corners and waiting for me to hold his hand before crossing the street. He bolted where there wasn't even a crosswalk! It's exhausting to have to worry about this.

So yeah, I hope you all don't judge me and my near-4yo (who looks like he's 5), but on the other hand, I guess don't really care what you think. My kid gets plenty of exercise, probably more than yours. I also need to keep him safe.

[Anonymous]

We stopped using one at 3