At what age do you stop using a pram?

October 5, 2017

Parents, tell me – at what age do you stop using a pram?

  1. At what age do you stop using a pram with your child, for good, and…
  2. What do you do with all your STUFF when you do stop using a pram?

At what age do you stop using prams - for good? Bugaboo Bee pram

Our pram days are numbered…

It appears that our pram days are numbered. Florence has been vocally and physically reluctant to use it for a while, we’ve started to make short trips entirely on foot, and we even ventured further afield recently without it. Spoiler: it was all fine.

She’s very nearly three, which seems about the right age. But…but…at what point do take the big and somewhat scary step to ditch it altogether?

Stopping the buggy use with our first baby

Eliza was unceremoniously pushed out of the pram – not literally – when her baby sister arrived, and promoted to the loftier heights of the buggy board instead. So we never really had to ask or answer the question. Or find another way of carrying shopping home (we shop online so I’m mainly thinking more of the daily time-wasting trips and the ’emergency’ milk and wine…and more wine…what do you do with such heavy items? Invest in a rucksack?!).

Although there are obvious benefits of going pram-free – fostering independence, the bus and tube being a million times easier, more floor space in the house – I have to admit it’s just a lot easier for ME to use it. Mainly to carry all the stuff, and because half a minute down the road one or both children’s legs inevitably and inexplicably become exhausted. And as we walk everywhere, quickly because we’re usually late, it makes sense to keep using it. Especially on the two nightmare school run mornings a week that require getting them both out of the house on time and then to school and nursery, which are about a billion minutes away from each other. Even when you’re running.

Thinking about the practicalities of no pram

But then there are the much less practical reasons. Although prams are so practical they aren’t something I can imagine myself becoming misty-eyed and nostalgic about, they are such an integral part of early parenting, aren’t they? From picking them and buying them to the first trip out of the house, to all the millions of other times when you have to weave them around tables and slot them in around all the other prams in the cafe and all the late night long strolls around and around the block and the park to get your wide-awake newborn to nap for just five minutes, please, anything.

And more than anything, it seems an incredibly short amount of time from picking them when you’re pregnant to now saying bye to one of the last things from the baby days….doesn’t it?

So, tell me – at what age do you stop using a pram?

Our favourite pram, the Bugaboo Bee 5 review  – and how to get around on public transport with a pram  – and follow me over on Instagram

3 Comments

  • Sarah Rooftops

    October 5, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    We had to give up the buggy recently; I suspected the day had come because Matilda’s feet were dragging on the ground but then she had her 27 month check and was officially classed as too heavy for it. So. 27 months, into storage it went. It’s a bit of a pain as I’m constantly trying to figure out whether she can ACTUALLY do the walk I want her to, but overall it’s much nicer (for bus related reasons); I’m kind of dreading having to use the buggy again when the new baby arrives (for bus related reasons) but also can’t imagine trying to walk anywhere with TWO small children to wrangle…

  • Tori

    October 5, 2017 at 9:32 pm

    I have a 3.5yr old and a 20mth old and I still have a double buggy and plan to for as long as possible, and on the whole I still love having it – it’s just easier when the whining starts to just bundle them into the buggy! And like you say if you do actually need to walk somewhere fast it helps! But I don’t have to deal with buses or trains so I would probably change my tune if I did.

  • Rachel

    October 9, 2017 at 9:26 am

    We stopped using one at 16 months this time round – we passed our Bugaboo chameleon on to the next baby in the family and now just use car seat and our Ergo. This coincided with our move to Cornwall though, I suspect if we were still in London and using buses we would still need one. Last time round, we moved from a buggy to a scooter around 2 I think.

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