Fully qualified Grans?

Flower I had one of those high prams. One day I went shopping with tiny baby in pram, and waterproof apron cover on it, and 20-month old on the pram seat.

I stopped to look in a shop window - hand still lightly on pram handle - and the toddler decided to jump down off the seat She leant on the handle to do so, and the pram tipped down onto the handle. My light hand wasn't enough to stop it, so I had simultaneously a bawling toddler to soothe and a baby who had slid down under the apron cover and was completely invisible. Neither of them harmed, thank God.

trouble was this young lady was a full grown woman with autism and just would NOT change the clothes her mum had sent her in

I left DS2 outside the sub Post Office when I popped in for a minute to collect my family allowance as it was then called. In that short time, someone went off with his yellow fluffy rabbit. I was furious, but there was nothing I could do about it and he wasn't complaining as he was only a couple of months old.

Flowerofthewest,I helped out at a church child care and there was a child that was from Iran or Turkey that came dressed in diaper,winter long wool underwear,wool socks,corduroy trousers and flannel shirt. In the summer with 90 plus degree weather! We always ended up dressing him in his extra set of clothing which thankfully was lighter.

The main problem about leaving prams outside shops was not the fear of someone taking the pram - as these days - but of forgetting to take the pram home again. I have left my very new baby outside a book shop to meet my then husband in Mothercare, he looked surprised to see me babyless. Luckily the baby was still outside the book shop.

We often stay in Portree on the Isle of Skye and often see the 'big' prams outside shops. Seems much safer there as on the Outer Isles.

We were, I remember my DD telling me a story about her DMiL, my DD is married to a British Italian man, his mum is very caring and very interferring mother. On day the neighbour had her son sleeping outside in the shade of a tree on a hot summers day (remember them?) the baby was sleeping with no blankets due to the heat. She went to check him and found he had a blanket tucked up to his chin. She removed the blanket to the bottom of the pram. 30 mins later she looked out of the window and there he was tucked up to the chin again. He was only 2 months old so couldn't have done this himself. She again lowered the blanket and went indoors to watch. About 5 minutes later my DD MiL crept out of her back door, down the neighbour's garden path and gently covered the baby up.. Just a little anecdote ! This dear lady was very very fearful of one getting cold. I used to look after her DD who had a learning disability. She used come to our daycentre in a vest, t-shirt, sweatshirt and coat in 70 degree heat.

flowerofthewest love the story of the wheel coming off the pram because that also happened to me. With baby in pram and toddler on pram seat (how unstable that must have made the pram!), shopping loaded underneath and dog on lead beside me. We were on our way home when the wheel fell off. Loved those prams because the baby could sleep properly in it. I used to leave it outside the front door so that DS, and later on DD, could get some fresh air. We were also relaxed enough 40 years ago to leave a pram outside the shop complete with baby in it. Can't imagine anyone daring to do that now

Oh! the buggy puzzle, why oh why are they so flippin' complicated and why oh why do they just pop up when DD does it, or fold down when DD does it. I bet my 2 year old grandson can do it better then I.

16 years ago I was on the doorstep of my then DiL home trying to open her buggy when this enormous woman balled at me 'WANT SOME 'ELP LUV?' Err Yes please I replied, she then stamped on something at the back of the buggy and broke it in two. 'Sorry luv' she said and walked off. I ended up buying new buggy!

I catch my finger in the fasteners on harnesses and get numerous blood blisters.

My first DiL (owner of the buggy) gave me a minute by minute list of what and when to feed her 18 month old son when I first took him out for the day. Honestly! it went: put finger of bread in right hand. watch he doesn't choke, when he has finished mouthful pass him another one and watch him all the time. on and on ad nauseum it went. I was too amused to be offended. We took him to a cafe and he ate chicken nuggets and chips, loved it and didn't choke once.

The boy is now a strapping 16 year old, a lovely lad.

Agree glammananna, I love love love the old original large prams. Can't beat them. I have had two wonderful 'marmet' prams and absolutely love them. Our local hospital uses nothing but these for getting babies off too sleep. they are lined up in the corridor of the childrens' unit.

Mind you my first pram lost its wheel while I was stranded on a small roundabout while crossing a busy road. It rolled down the road until a passing motorist brought it back and clipped it back on. Very traumatic for a second time mum. I had a one year old sitting on a pram seat (don't see those now) and a new born in the pram, all balancing on three wheels.

I'm not at all sure about qualifications for being a grandmother but I do remember thinking that I had got it right as a mother when I changed a terry nappy with one hand while holding the phone with the other and negotiating a ridiculously high fee for some fairly straightforward work at the same time. I was also in the loo when the phone range so had hopped downstairs with my jeans around my ankles.

I used to push my twin daughters in a double mcLaren buggy whilst carrying their baby brother in a sling. The other alternative was baby in single pram, one twin on pram seat and the other on reins. (21 month gap)
At least i could easily put up the buggy in those days. I recently had to ask my neighbour how to take the brake of my GD pushchair. I need an idiot's guide to using one.

I loved the old Maclaren buggy and still have one in garage, 30years old now and has been used over the years for so many things. at ten years old was pushing daughter around on holiday as she broke ankle just prior to going. Also was used as a trolley for paper rounds for all 3 children as they each got a round. And is still used as Dolly pushchair for granddaughter.

The demon Bugaboo defeated me too, both DH and I wrestled with it in large shopping centre car park one busy saturday afternoon, I honestly thought I was going to have to get on the bus with it and send DH and gkids in car. DD just sighs and shakes her head at us like we are simpletons

Oh, you've taken me back - Harrington's gold seal with a muslin liner, and a bucket of napisan in the corner of the kitchen. There was nothing nicer than a washing line full of bright white nappies on a sunny, blowy day. (Of course, nostalgia has erased all the bad memories of rinsing, washing and drying the blessed things!)

Oh yes, Harrington's Gold Seal. Saw me through 3 babies and then got passed on while the Silver Seal ended up as floor clothes. And they were proper nappies - took real skill to fold and put one of them on a squirming baby. Needed changing a lot more often though.

Oh I can do most of the above but the flipping bugaboo is a nightmare, everytime I have to try to put the thing up I am embarrased beyond belief in a supermarket carpark. And let me tell you my daughter in law uses cloth nappies........ they are all sorts of shapes, have different liners and funny three pronged contraptions to secure them. My DGD 7months seems to be all nappy and unable to move. Bring back Harringtions gold seal nappies, and the Mclaren buggy.

Stansgran, I asked the ferry company if I could take my sister on the Evian-Lausanne ferry with her wheel chair and they said there would be no problem. Hmmmm.......I had the dickens of a job folding it when I took her to meet Juragran at Montreux but some young people in the car park came over and did it for me.
I had to catch three trains after I flew into Geneva last week and I just positioned myself near some strong looking men and asked them to help me with my suitcase. They looked a bit surprised but then they were very nice about it - they obviously sussed my English accent and replied in English.

I had DGD as a toddler but not yet talking and decided to take one of the little boat buses across the lake in Geneva . I blissfully assumed that the signs about folding up push hairs before getting on board couldn't possibly refer to me and bulky American push chair and that some burly Swiss would manhandle it on board. But not so in Switzerland every rule to be obeyed and I held up queue as I struggled with toddler carryall bag and push chair. Then small child ,as I said we should give up and walk back round the lake, pointed to one catch then another and then a third. Enormous pushchair collapsed burly Swiss suddenly smiled and heaved the thing on board and the timetable was adhered to.

Gracesmum a brilliant idea.

When you start with your own you get gradually used to anticipating the grabbing of everything and rolling over etc etc. After 30 or so years with no practice it comes as a bit of a shock again.

greatnan I had a boy first so covering up "the hose" with the end of the nappy was second nature. DS always peed as the nappy was taken off.

I am thinking in inventing a sort of straitjacket attachment for changing mats/tables and then I could give up the day job (if I had one) and retire to my Caribbean island It could hold ankles as well as upper body but I think it might contravene the Geneva Convention.
Never forget how wriggling little boy once "caused" me to include a discarded sock in his bedtime nappy after his bath. No end of hilarity on the part of his parents at poor Granny's ineptitude I thought there were d**n lucky he went to bed with a nappy on at all - as a crawling escapologist baby is a lot speedier than a Granny kneeling on bathroom floor!
And what's that thing about running your finger round the elastic to make sore it doesn't leak? Nobody told me that until it was too late.
I am surprised they actually ever ask me to do Granny duty - maybe I should perfect my cack-handedness???

I think you should be nominated for Grandmother of the Year award, when! And all the other members with multiple grandchildren - at least my last two were 14 months apart and that was tough enough when babysitting. My first three grandsons were born in 2 years 8 months (two daughters) and I used to babysit quite often as I was living within 30 miles or so and I remember how exhausted I used to get. When two were asleep, the third would start crying and wake them. And I was in my early 40s then!

when would make a great video I think.

No, Greatnan - they have that much twin equipment that it all gets folded away or put in other rooms so the main play area is childproof, the sofas are rammed at right angles to each other so they don't head for a radiator valve and turn the heating off, and there are stairgates and various other strategic obstacles to keep these two little monkeys in roughly the same area. Mum is used to changing them at high speed, and so doesn't need containers for her little cherubs like I do!

Respect, when! You could put one in the high chair or bouncer, I suppose?

Nappy-changing twin 16 month-old granddaughters is like trying to put an octopus in a small bag! I have everything at arm's reach, otherwise they grab it before me. I need eyes in the back of my head because the other twin runs off with things, too. I change them on the floor, as that's where they'd be headed from the sofa, and the changing station is no longer safe - too high. I have a supply of objects to distract them - toys are not acceptable - TV remote, mobile phone, car keys or my purse. If I get most of their clothes back on, that's a result, and getting the soiled nappy into a nappy bag before it disappears into the toy box with my specs (that happened once) makes me a qualified gran, I think!

Managed to open the complicated,expensive buggy which DGS then refused to travel in, went to the park, came back to car. Totally failed to close buggy. Several kind passers-by offered to help but it was the time of day when young parents are in short supply. Fortunately, we had parked outside a hairdressers and one of the staff came out to help. She noticed our problem because of all the hearty laughter from everyone involved. With a wiggly baby or a crawler, I think occasional nappy changing takes two pairs of hands!