Kelty makes a fine backpack rig for hauling the kid around once they don’t fit in the bjorn. Sadly, not all kids take to the bjorn or the backpack. My older kid LOVED the backpack. My younger one HATED it.
As for the moms with no stroller control - that is a design flaw many times. Those things do NOT handle well. They do not turn, and they tend to drift across lanes. The less you spend, the greater the chance that you get one with a set of wheels designed to travel in the oblique. This then requires a good set of arms and balance control to reset your direction.
It sucks. I could handle our big stroller. Once our kids hit a certain size, my wife struggled (or she faked it so that I could feel manly pushing the stroller.)
None of this excuses the rude folks who run into you and don’t even try to say sorry, by the way.
At the same time - if you are just standing there, could you please make room for those with the strollers? Again - they are HARD to change direction, and asking a strollered mom to shift 15 degrees right, swing around you, and come back into line is asking a lot. Not that us stroller pushers won’t do it - but you can save someone some serious arm wear by simply being aware of your surroundings and making a little room.
While not completely analogous to a wheelchair, it is similar in handling and space.
One problem - are you familiar with bus shelters with the overhang because I was standing in one when she ran into me from behind. The entire queue would have had to move away from the curb and out onto the pavement. London bus queues don’t tend to move that far. And if she hadn’t hit me she would have slammed into either the gentleman in front of me or the lampost right next to him.
Literally, she wasn’t looking where she was going.
And I thought, “it’s that little whiner again”. I just popped in because I was curious to see if he’s grown up at all or if he’s still a total suck about anything that infringes on his all-important comfort. He still hates women and mothers, but at least not babies.
I really think it’s less about the size of the stroller than about the consideration shown for others by the person pushing the stroller. I’ve had my ankles jabbed by people with very small strollers, and i’ve seen people with very large strollers maneuver them deftly without hitting anyone or blocking traffic.
Also, this seems to me one of those cases where people remember their bad experiences, the times they were blocked or cracked in the leg by a stroller, and tend to forget or discount all the people who push strollers without causing anyone inconvenience.
I just don’t buy the need for the side-by-side; it’s the width that causes so many problems in stores and public places. I know that parents are terrified that one of their little 'bortions will have his feelings hurt by being behind the other one, so everyone has to be equal and side-by-side and equitable.
Oh yeah - she sounds like a clueless bitch. I was NOT trying to excuse that one. My comment was more for the clueless idiot in the grocery store who stands there staring at the infinite selection of ketchup while you want for them to move a foot so that you can get around them.
I have had friends take control of the stroller and they quickly note that “the steering on this thing SUCKS!”
:rolleyes: Yeah, that’s exactly why someone would choose a side-by-side vs. a tandem. Get a grip. FYI, in a tandem stroller, both seats can’t recline all the way, you have one kid kicking the back of the other’s seat, and I’ve heard they’re actually harder to control. You probably think all of these things are trivial, but if you’ve ever had to care for infants, you would understand that you want to minimize the time that they’re screaming.
Also, the tandem is just as, if differently, hard to maneuver. Granted, it takes up less of your walking space, but it’s a nightmare to get around corners and over curbs, and I’m guessing that your average parent of two children young enough to be in a stroller is shamefully unconcerned with being in your way for 30 seconds versus struggling with that thing every day. People are bastards like that.
Do you mean the stroller or the scary woman pushing them?
I’m always a little floored by people standing with a stroller at a walk light, waiting to cross. They stand on the sidewalk, and have their stroller in front of them just about in traffic. I know people are thoughtless gits, but look down once in a while - is your baby in traffic? You might want to adjust that.
It’s sort of impossible to keep little ones from pulling hair and kicking seats (especially if you’d like us to watch where we’re going, so we don’t run into you).
It’s also a lot easier to see where you’re going w/the side-by-siders. With a long one, the first kid is a good 4’ away from you, making it easy to crash into someone as you turn a corner.
They fit in smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.
And, you know what, sometimes it’s what somebody else gave you. So you use it.
Geez, people used to open and hold doors for us all the time, and they’d smile at the twins. I guess your time is too valuable to spare a nanosecond for someone else’s needs.
I had both a side-by-side and a tandem. The side by side was awful. It wouldn’t fit doors and narrow spots and— well, I hated it. When I got the tandem, I put the seats facing each other. This worked much better.
Having been single/no kids for a long time, I really get the annoyance at strollers. Now that I have the two little ones, I try to at least be extremely apologetic if I find myself inconveniencing anyone with my strollers. Seriously, there isn’t much you can do to avoid having a stroller if you have a couple of kids.
I am trying to figure out what to do about the double-stroller thing, so this thread is actually very helpful to me. I have a stroller that is just a frame that the infant car seat fits into (kind of like the travel system, but it doesn’t convert into a big-kid stroller when they are done with the infant car seat), which I am using for the baby. My daughter is almost 3, so I have been making her walk places, and try to do my shopping & such at places with carts, so the baby’s car seat can go in the basket, and she can ride in the cart with the stuff. If we go on long walks around town, I get my husband to go, and we each push a stroller. I am hoping I can get away with this long enough to not have to get a double stroller at all, but it does kind of limit where you can go by yourself.
Getting back to the OP, I guess the preference there would be for moms to be stuck at home, the kids getting pasty from lack of sunshine, because taking the kids out in public is just too darn inconvenient for everyone else? :dubious:
