Fully qualified Grans?

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.

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'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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.