Is three really all that old to still be in diapers? A lot of kids just aren’t ready at that age.
I just gave away my 2yo’s stroller, basically because she didn’t fit in her “umbrella-type” stroller anymore. Now, if you ever have to go on a long outing with your kid, and you have to drag about all the things moms do, and say, shop a little, I’d like to see you also carry your kid when he gets tired. And they *will *get tired They can’t help it.
After a particularly gruesome day going to an open-air art exhibition and shopping, I will most definitely buy another small stroller. At worst I’ll carry the shopping bags in it.
All this could be solved though if they would just let me drive through pedestrian streets and malls 
Yep they sure do.
We have a two year old* who was a little late to start walking (she walked at 18 months.) She’s walking well now and it is her prime method of travel over short distances. When we take her out she is fine wandering around a particular shop with one of us watching that she doesn’t get into too much trouble. But when we need to get from one shop to another, she’s just hopeless. She has no concept yet of walking with purpose and she’s too short for us to hold her hands. She’ll totter along staring at her feet or meander off to look at some “puppies”, or see a plant and start pulling the leaves off it. We simply have to either carry her or put her in the stroller. She’s still light enough to be carried for a while but we use the stroller for longer expeditions.
*I know your OP isn’t specifically about two year olds, but you did suggest that if they can walk they should. I think it is quite some time before kids have the stamina to keep up with us on a shopping trip. I know I get tired after an hour or two.
I rode around in a stroller sometimes when I was 4, if we were taking long trips that required a lot of walking (like the zoo). I was weak as a child and tired easily; plus it was better than my parents having to carry me.
AFAIK it’s quite common in places like New York where people do a lot of walking in crowded environments, and there’s subways and so on. If you live in a place where people drive most places and walk only short distances (as I do), it’s not so common.
But yeah, a 4-yo kid can only walk so far before wearing out, and is pretty slow if you’re actually trying to get somewhere on your walk. I walk with my kids down to the park in the neighborhood, but the walking part takes up as much time as the playing part, and by the end the 4-yo is done in.
Well, yes, there is that too. To a young child walking is more a vehicle of exploration than a mean of transportation.
It is difficult to keep everything under control if you are carrying bags 'n stuff and need one hand to drag (more than anything) a kid too.
You don’t, but I’m sure your poor Mum and Dad might tell a different tale!
Eldest was unusual; he walked very early and could walk all day without complaint, even at four. With Youngest I referred to the stroller as my Child Restraint Device and he was in it until he just refused to get in it any more.
Youngest is the original dreamer who considers the trip itself to be the purpose of the journey and cannot simply go directly from point a to point b. Which is itself delightful and so on but not if you have to get to the store before it closes or get to the doctor on time.
We live in the Netherlands where we walk or bike everywhere. Some parents have the kids walking without a stroller very early, some keep them in the stroller as long as possible. Many people have a board with wheels on the back of the stroller for the older child to stand on when they get tired. I ended up getting both kids a kick scooter at one point when they were about five and three respectively and that put an end to the stroller. It solved the problem handily on all fronts.
I agree that there are so many different variables (environment, containment, siblings etc) that can effect the decision to use (or not) a stroller with a four-year-old.
Any kid can get bored at a mall but might have more energy at a children’s museum.
I also agree that 4’s are sort of special cases because they are big and heavy but might not yet be very sturdy walkers with staying power.
OTOH
It does seem that strollers are more commonly used now.
When my kids were little in the 80’s early 90’s, we’d go places, holiday markets, home tours and such, and strollers (even umbrella ones) would be forbidden because they can be so difficult to maneuver around.
I remember well how 4 year olds walk slowly, y’all, but try to enjoy it every now and then. Soon enough your little one’s legs might well be longer than yours. 
I would think parents can use this to their advantage to not use a stroller to get out of all day events.
“Sorry, gotta go… Jr’s legs are tired.”
I mean come on, add it to the list. :dubious:
I guess I think it’s odd too. I know I thought it was when reading the book Little Children and got to the part about putting the three-year-old and bear in a double stroller, and even stranger when they had a four-year-old in one in The Nanny Diaries. It’s odd to me because you don’t see many three or four-year-olds in strollers around here. Harmful? Probably not, though it might contribute to childhood obesity in a minor way.
I know people are saying the kids tire out, but having worked with many preschoolers, it seems like they usually have more stamnia that we do! All day things are tiring for everyone, not just little kids, anyway.
There’s a twenty-two year old picture of me in an umbrella stroller at Niagara Falls at age three. Probably, as others have said, because I would’ve gotten tired out before everyone else, and it would have been too much for someone to have to carry me. I wouldn’t strap a chid in right off the bat, but if he got too tired to walk, but wasn’t cranky enough to need to leave, why not use a stroller?
I don’t really see the big deal, and am willing to bet if some overheard a person saying “well, we weren’t ready to leave, but the little one was sick of walking, so we cut the outing short” they’d shake their heads about adults catering to children, and not planning ahead by bringing a stroller. That’s not directed at anyone in particular.
nyctea scandiaca’s post cracks me up ---- looks like I’m plus 2 points for kicking the stroller habit early, but minus 2 for not somehow miraculously “training” them to use the potty before they were 3 yrs old.
It’s just like everything else, you have to experiment to find the solution that works for you.
I’ve been telling me daughter, now just four, that she’s old enough to walk. I haven’t put her in the stroller for a while, myself. She still sometimes asks to be carried, and I usually don’t oblige her. Kids’ tiredness, I find, is all relative. They can claim they’re exhausted and need to be carried, but if they find something that catches their attention, they’re off like a shot. Plus, of course, how do they develop more endurance, except by walking more?
It also depends how far you’re going. My wife and I took our three-year old twins out for breakfast yesterday, and we walked to the restaurant and back – about two miles each way. The kids walked as much as they could, then rode in the stroller for a while, then walked some more. I want them to walk whenever they can, but relying on walking only would limit us too much.
I see a lot of children using backpacks these days. What’s the matter with these slackers? When I was a child, I had to carry my books in my hands. Lazy sons of bitches.
You think that is bad? When I was a child we were living in caves, and we ate our mammoth meat raw. What is it with kids today and their cooked meals and pasteurized milk? 
Oh puh-leez! Your parents caught the mammoth for you?
I hate the stroller, except that, as mentioned, it’s a great place to store stuff. But it’s bulky and a pain in the ass and I can’t get where I want to be while pushing it, and you can’t get around me easily, and yes, I do think she should be walking more, since we’re not exactly athletic types and we don’t have a good yard for playing in.
But there’s that hyperextended arm from hand-holding thing, and the wandering slow-walk thing and the ironic running off when you’re “too tired” thing…
So yesterday I went out and got a Kid Leash. Terrible parenting, I know. But the thing is, she loves it. She doesn’t have to get into the stroller or the cart or walk with her arm up over her head. I love it, I don’t have to try and hold onto a sweaty wiggling itty bitty hand while shopping, nor do I have to chase her.
Mostly, she and I both hold the handle, so it’s like we’re holding hands, but I don’t panic and drop things if she lets go and darts, 'cause she’s only going 4 feet. Plus, it’s cute.
(Anyone see the tragic design flaw? That’s right, the buckles are on the kid’s front. :smack: I see this working only as long as she likes it, which is probably just as well.)
My son went through what seemed like “a lazy period” when he was 4. Although always very active, he’d claim tiredness. Given an opportunity, he’d ride in a cart or a rented stroller (say, at the zoo). He grew out of it. It was no big thing.
Now that he’s a bit older and can communicate better, I look back and think this was just not about tiredness. I think that he needed to shut down and turn off sometimes. Riding (instead of being on his feet, having to negotiate a crowd) allowed him to do that.
I think this world can be an exhausting place for kids sometimes, yanked hither and yon to their own activities, and their parents’ activities, and errands as well. As a working parent this is unavoidable at times, and I find it’s not always easy to give kids the downtime they need. Maybe it’s “coddling” him, but I try to be respectful of my son when he’s telling me he wants to chill. I think that’s what the stroller preference was, and I think it was the right call.