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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here's the scenario, you have a sleeping infant in an infant seat, a 2.5 yo melting down and refusing to walk, and a double stroller with its underneath loaded with kid stuff.  How do you get to the unit?  Can you leave the stroller or kid stuff or infant somewhere safe while you carry the 2.5 yo upstairs?  You can't carry an infant in the seat and 2.5 yo at the same time unless you're super human, so you'll have to wake the infant to carry them at the same time (if the 2.5 yo will even be cooperative enough to let you safely carry the infant too).  The double stroller and kid stuff will likely require two more trips, for 3-4 trips up and down total. Dont forget that the infant will likely be screaming its head off while you make trips to carry stuff because you just woke it up.  Meanwhile, the 2.5 yo will be screaming its head off too because you stuck it in a pack and play to stay out of trouble while you carry up loads of stuff.

Same for car trips.  You arrive home with a sleeping infant, a 2.5 yo who wont walk, a large diaper bag, and a trunk full of shopping bags (including stuff that needs to go in the freezer). How do you get everything upstairs?  Logistically where do you stash the kids while you carry stuff up?  Some stair scenarios are easier than others.[/quote]

Have you been in this situation? I'm the pp who has been in a 4th fl walk up for years. Dd was 2.5 when DS was born. We survived and I'm so glad we stayed bc our apartment is great in so many other ways. There will surely be some "how do I do this?" moments, as there always are in parenting,  but the stairs dont have to be a deal breaker.[/quote]

Agreed.  It can be doable.  But these scenarios are helpful for a not-yet-parent to understand what people mean when they say stairs are hard with kids.  It was meant to help the OP think through the issues.  Can they stash a stroller on the first floor?  Is there a safe place to ask the 2.5 yo to wait while you haul stuff upstairs?  Are the stairs wide enough to easily haul a double stroller upstairs?  Can you see the door of the condo from the bottom of the stairs?  How many sets of annoying double doors do you have to get through to get from the lobby to your car to stash the stroller?  Is the OP okay with grocery delivery?  (My husband likes to pick his produce and won't use it.)  Alternatively, is OP okay waiting to do shopping with two parents or have one parent stay with the kids while the other parent shops with no kids?

It's also great that many posters had 22 month olds who were comfortable doing the stairs routinely, but it's also completely possible to have a 22 month old who isn't steady enough for the stairs.  You get what you get.

So many of these other factors are just as important as the stairs.  [/quote]

Good points, and laying out the challenges can be helpful.  But as a walk-up dweller with 2 kids I could also point to a host of "how will you manage XYZ" scenarios associated with suburban living. I would seriously struggle with getting 2 kids loaded into car seats for something as simple as a grocery run!  But I realize my my suburban friends don't bat an eye at this, and think my grocery outings sound harder.  Having kids is hard!  There are so many logistics to consider, regardless of your situation.  The point is that if you decide to live in a walk-up you should know that it's totally doable, and that people have and are doing it every day without really thinking twice about it, once they have their routines down.

And I'd speculate that most of the 22 month olds who can't do the stairs can't because they never had to.  Barring substantial physical delays, it's something most 22 mo are developmentally capable of doing, if they have the chance to.  They may crawl up, but they get there![/quote]

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