So here I am innocently clicking over from a link at the Blog-faddahs . . . and here I see a series of pictures . . . of big kids in small strollers. Which I hadn’t really noticed at all around here, of kids who look like kindergarten or grade-school age being stuffed into a stroller with their knees up around their ears, or dragging their feet on the ground, which reinforces my belief that in this part of flyover country, parents are generally rather sensible. Plus, it’s a bear hauling that folding stroller around, everywhere . . . not when the kid can just walk. Been there, done that, felt the relief. Taking a baby or toddler anywhere outside the house meant the stroller, the diaper bag, the toys, the odd bottle or two, the diapers . . . why then, would a sensible parent still continue hauling the child-impedimenta around, when it’s no longer required?

Me, I ditched the stroller at earliest opportunity, when Blondie was two-almost-three and we were on our way to Greece and it was just one more marginally-useful barely-used item, even though it was one of those light-weight, folding things with the umbrella handles. Seriously, I had enough stuff to haul along on the flight from Los Angeles to New York to Athens. The kidlet was old enough to walk, and walk she would.

Although, when I did get to Greece, I thought that perhaps I should have reconsidered it: there were children up to a year or so older than her, of nursery-school age and still in strollers – and we did do a lot of walking. I did wind up carrying her often, at that point, but eventually when she weighed about forty pounds, I was saying firmly, “Darling, I don’t care how tired you are, you are old enough to walk.” And so she did. I can’t imagine what these parents pictured are thinking. Are they afraid to let the kid out? Are they just too much in the habit of wheeling the little darling around? And how much longer are they going to wheel them around in a stroller – until their legs atrophy altogether?