Older Kids in Strollers

[spaddy]

I think several of the last comments go again the spirit of Kevin's comments. What I took from what he said is we should not judge anyone unless we have walked in their shoes.

People have no way of knowing how old someone else's child is. If Disney is concerned about their double strollers being ruined there are plenty of CMs around to handle that. I have seen adults stand in the base of the stroller to get a better look at a parade. There were CMs standing right there and said nothing.

I received several looks at my 4 year old in our own Maclaren. I am sure it is possible that they thought he was older than he is. Personally, I don't care, but now my DH doesn't want to bring the stroller on the next trip. It is ridiculous to expect a 4 year old with 18" legs to walk over 5 miles a day.

I agree that Disney has done a poor jobs in some areas of the park with traffic flow. I am not sure if many of these areas would be improved if there were no strollers allowed in the park.

 

[SamSam]

On the other hand, the other reason folks might stare are that many folks remember that when they were kids, they were made to walk at those ages. Then, they look at the latest statistics of childhood obesity and lack of exercise and make spontaneous correlations about how society is propagating the problem further. It's not personal - they don't know you from Adam to make it personal. It's frustration about modern society.

I have to admit that when I see older children in strollers, that my first thought is that children are coddled too much these days. My second thought is that there may be a good reason for the child to be in a stroller. Followed closely by my third thought that it's none of my business why other people's children are in strollers.

Thanks to the Disboards I am definitely more understanding of many, many things, including children in stroller and the use of wheelchairs and/or ECV's.

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

Spaddy - I'm sorry you feel my comments went against the vein of Kevin's thoughts. I've been in Kevin's shoes. I know. I've worked in radiology for 20 years and have a mother who (in her early days as a stroke victim) went with me to the WDW parks in a wheelchair. In her healthier days, she drove an ECV in the parks. There were some difficulties and some insensitivities, but overall, we had a great experience. (The Contemporary once rented out her personal wheelchair that they were storing in exchange for us borrowing a wider model - but that is another story for another day...).

I agree with Sam that the DISBoards open your eyes to a lot of topics and a lot of opinions. You have to respect those opinions in the spirit that they were intended, as smileys don't always cut it for communication.

Psychology deals with the fact that there are many motivations behind people looking at other people. It also seems that the stroller issue is so personal - like the wheelchair issue, that many people automatically feel that someone is attacking them personally if someone glances the wrong way at them and their children. This motivation may not necessarily be the same as the issues Kevin was presenting.

My point still is that there is a big difference between obvious abuse of the system in the case of an adult standing in the rental or 3-4 kids sitting in a single rental designed for 2, and judging someone's health due to them being in a wheelchair or stroller. You're right - some CMs don't care - not their property - so what if Disney has to replace them. You know what - I wasn't raised to think that way. Some people forget that many of the CMs in Orlando don't have the same love of Disney that we do - they came there to get a job, plain and simple - they don't care for or respect the Mouse the way we do.

My goal when we go to the parks (both DL and WDW) - not to look at and criticize others, but to have the best time with my children we can. To go at their pace - see what they want to see (I can't remember the last time I was on a thrill ride...) we never child swap, we do things with our kids. If they are tired - we go home. Maybe it's the luxury of being in Disneyland every 2 weeks that has altered our attitude, maybe it's just our parenting style. Works for us - doesn't work for others - and I'm okay with that!