I'm not alone!

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Well, while I have a stroller and sometimes USE it, it is more to get two toddlers safely through a parking lot while also carrying gear to and from the car to the baseball field! No, no mirrors, headlights, or toys...and no, once we arrive at our destination safely, they do NOT stay in it like little lumps. :-)

We were at the ballfield the other day and this mother of a baby was there and the baby fussed and cried through the whole game. Yes, baby was plopped in the stroller for THAT eternity, and did mama (or dada, auntie, or grandma) ever pick that sad little baby up? No. He got "plugged in" with a bottle or pacifier, or was shoved a couple of spoonfuls of babyfood. He wasn't even taken for a ride in his little baby "coupe" for a change of scenery! It just made me very sad.

I guess there are many in our culture who are under the impression that if you pick up and hold your child too often, you will be spoiling him. ::sigh::

I was just reading a thread elsewhere on the Internet about a woman being bothered by family insisting that she'll spoil her 2-week-old by holding her too much. Aside from the argument about whether you can spoil a 2-week-old, it just struck me that it seems to be okay to some people if the baby cries over food or diapers or cold or warmth, but the desire to be held is somehow illegitimate? Even when you're brand new to life outside the womb? Some people may just think there is a need to train a baby so young that Mama can't be at their beck and call every second of the day, but I really do get the impression that wanting human contact is seen by some as being as frivolous as wanting a toy or a trip to DisneyWorld something, and that 2-week-olds should somehow be able to deal with loneliness the same as 20-year-olds.

I don't know what I would have done without my baby sling when DS was little. I carried him everywhere. My mom thought it was kind of weird, but also very nifty.

Here in the Arctic, Inuit (eskimo) women also use a baby carrying coat called an amauti (a-mouw-tee). It has a giant hood and a puffed out back. Baby's feet go into little feet holders under your arms, and his little head pokes over your shoulder in the hood. On warmer days, you can let baby's head poke out of the hood. (incredibly cute.)

I have one, and DS loved it while he fit. He used to hum.

Now, when the temperature hits -40 (that's right, -40 f and Celsius are the same reading) I use a super-dooper sealed-in stroller. It was a gift, and used only for transportation on the coldest days. I put a sleeping bag in it.

Well, I do have a stroller & I have used it fairly often because with my hands the way they are, I can't hold a baby for very long, let alone a toddler. I tried the sling on Zooey, but he hated it -- he was always trying to stretch out and didn't like how close the sling held him in. Edyn liked the sling a little better, but at 2 months, she was sitting unassisted and at 4 months, she was creeping, and after that, she wouldn't stand for a ride in the sling for any significant amount of time. Laurel likes the sling better, but I've found the one I bought years ago before Zooey was born is too small for her now! So I will have to get a bigger one, or some other form of carrier.

But even with Laurel in a sling, I have to use the stroller for Edyn when we go for a walk because she tends to dart away from me, and I can't rely on my hand strength to grab onto her overall strap in time.

Loved the last line in that article.

I wish I had been handier with the sling for longer walks, etc -- I tended to use a stroller for longer jaunts, like if we were touring someplace, and then scoop him up into the sling for shorter runs. The most convenient thing about a stroller is the basket at the bottom. Sometimes I would carry the baby and just use the stroller as a little wagon for the rest of the baggage (purse, diaper bag, purchases, etc)

Strollers have their place, but we also have a backpack and a sling. We mostly used the stroller when our DD was very young, and fit into her first childseat (which locked into the stroller).

We still sometimes use the stroller instead of the backpack - it really depends on the situation.

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This page contains a single entry by alicia published on May 27, 2004 12:05 PM.

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