Family Forum / Parenting / Parenting / January 2006

Who cares?  If the kid enjoys it and the guardian enjoys it why would
there be a problem?

Until the child is able and willing to respond to verbal commands which
are mandatory for safety.  For some this occurs early - 2ish, for
others not until 4 or 5 ish.  Anything over 5, I'd  think it would be
unnecessary.  Or at least I can't think of any circumstance where a
stroller would be required.

-L.

However old works for you and your family.

I know I used the twin stroller longer than I thought I would.  It was
sometimes a place for the kids to sleep, and a place for them to ride
when they were too tired to walk (and I couldn't carry them both).  It
was certainly safer than trying to hang onto three kids (the two of them
and their sister).

I also know at least one family with a child with some physical
challenges who use the stroller on days when things just may be too much
for him;  it's an oversize stroller, and he's about 8 and sometimes gets
some weird looks.  But you never know what it is you are looking at --
you may be seeing a child who doesn't require a wheel chair, but has
some condition that makes what you might think of as "normal" physical
activity just too difficult.

depends on the child & the parent, oh, and the weight limit
of the stroller.
i never used a stroller with my son, but at 5 he still wants
to be carried everywhere. i can see where having a stroller
would be a LOT easier than carrying him (and he's only 37
pounds. lots of 5 year olds are heavier).
i do have a backpack which still fits him as far as weight,
but at 5 he *does* want to be up & down, able to run over &
look at something more closely, etc., so the backpack is
pretty worthless. taking it on & off every 2 minutes is a real
pain.
lee

    I think it depends on your kid and what you're doing.
Are you sure these kids were school-aged?  There are a lot of
big preschoolers out there.  Some may have brought a stroller
as much as a cart for stuff as for transporting the child.
(Hey, I missed my stroller for shopping long after the kids
didn't need it anymore.)  Or maybe they were out for a long
day of walking and at some point the kids would be unable to
walk anymore.  (It may be tough to push a bigger kid in a
stroller, but it might be even harder to carry them.)
Or maybe they still needed a bit of a nap in the afternoon
and the stroller afforded them the opportunity to do that
when the time came.
    At any rate, I don't think there's any age that's
unreasonable.  The only thing I think is unreasonable is
keeping a child strapped in all the time in order to keep
them out of trouble when the kid obviously needs to get
in some running around.

Best wishes,
Ericka

I used a stroller with my son until he was about five, for things like theme
parks and fairs.  Of course he was able to get up and run around, the question
is - can he walk around the whole time.

A good stroller can carry a larger child and wheel easily.  They're also good
for packages  ;)

I can understand some beefs about it, though - a lot of strollers clog things
up and not every stroller-driver seems able to detect the positions of nearby
tender heels!

Banty

My tall three-year-old still rides in one. When we go for walks we take
it along, and he can climb in if he gets tired or we're in a hurry. We
also have a jogging stroller that he'll be using as long as he fits in
it.

Are you sure it isn't just that kids older than yours look huge? Mine is
2y2m, has been able to climb in and out of his pushchair and run around for
quite a long time, but still definitely needs it because he can't walk *far
enough* to do without it. IOW, climbing in and out and running around
definitely isn't proof that there isn't a physical need for it! In fact we
need it more now than when he was younger, because he's too heavy for me to
carry (with or without a sling) for very far. We do short outings without
it, but there's always the risk that he'll have had enough - and if he's
not willing to walk, my choices are wait or carry him... My expectation is
that we'll use it less and less over the next 6 months or so, but will
probably still own it for occasional use this time next year.

I think the most difficult time for managing Colin plus the pushchair was
actually around the time he was beginning to walk, because he was heavy
enough for it to be difficult but still, he needed to be carried on buses
etc. when I was also trying to carry the pushchair. These days provided I
lift him up the big step he can walk along the bus, climb onto a seat, etc.
by himself which is a *big* help.

Sidheag
DS Colin Oct 27 2003

I have three kids, now all long out of the stroller phase. I used a
stroller into the kindergarten years - at least to age 5.

What I found was that when you go anywhere on foot with a toddler or
preschooler you have two problems.

One is all the junk you end up carrying with you - the snacks and
drinks, the jackets and hats, your purse, the handiwipes, maybe
diapers, toys, the quart of milk and loaf of bread you picked up, lord
knows what else. The stroller was a great place to stash all that - I
had a heavy duty one with big knobby tires so it could handle uneven
terrain and get pushed across the lawn at the park etc. It also had
space underneath it to carry cargo.

The second problem you have is that into those years, kids get tired.
They get cranky. They don't want to walk. They want you to carry them.
They pitch a fit, go all floppy, refuse to move.  I dunno about you and
your back, but I can't carry 40 pounds of kid home from the park 5
blocks, as well as the sandtoys and the other junk, plus hold another
kid or two by the hand.  I also didn't like having to cut short my
shopping, our visit to the zoo or the amusement park or the county fair
because a young child gets tired of walking. As long as a kid would fit
into a stroller, it was a godsend!

We took our family to Disney World in 2003, our youngest was 5, the
middle one was 9 and the oldest was not quite 12. We rented a stroller
there, and it was a very smart thing to do. Not only did it mean we
didn't have to lug all kinds of junk in our arms, on our backs etc. but
there is a LOT of walking there, and the 5 year old really would not
have survived if she couldn't have ridden a lot of the time. I think
we'd have been there two hours, and she'd have been ready for a nap,
miserable etc. and we'd have had to go back to hotel. The kind of
strollers they have for rent the 9 year old could fit into (he was very
slight and skinny) and we were constantly having to tell him to get out
of it, it was for his little sister! He would have been quite happy to
have been pushed around.

Mary G.

Depends on the situation - my 5 year old rarely uses a stroller, but
when we did disney world last summer she was in and out of it.
Sometimes if we walk to the park the 2 girls (ages 2 and 5) double up in
the (single) jogger for breaks. I've never used a big lugging heavy
stroller, though, once the kidlet is big enough, its straight into a
nice easy to push/steer small stroller - we got a hand me down maclaren
that is *heavenly*!!!

cara

We use ours seldom enough now that we probably won't be using it much
by then.  However apart from the distance that many have mentioned, I'd
like to second the efficiency aspect that a few have pointed out.  I
sometimes walk to pick the 2 1/2 year old Bug up from preschool.  It's
a 20 minute walk by myself, 45 minutes to an hour coming back with her
just because there are so many interesting and wonderful things to stop
and look at and touch and do on the way home.  At times I need to go
out and run a few errands efficiently without having to keep her little
hands off of everything.  That's when the stroller (or sling) is
indispensible.

Kate, ignorant foot soldier of the medical cartel
and the Bug, 2 and 1/2