Bringing up baby

Two of grandchildren are beyond the pushchair stage but the whole pushchair, pram, car seat things are a nightmare.

I simply could not fasten the straps on the pushchair because my hands are hopeless due to RSI. On one occasion when I was out I had to ask a kind mum to do it for me.

When my DH was alive he used to visibly sweat trying to fix up the car seat. We never complained because we wanted to be good grandparents.

I read somewhere that doctors see grandparents with baby equipment related injuries. I do have a GD who is still at the pram/pushchair stage but I live too far away to babysit which is a bit of a relief but only from the baby equipment point of view.

I did it with all of mine (5) I used to put the pram in the garden underneath a tree and the babies were so content. Mums never seem to leave their offspring out in the fresh air nowadays. cat net and canopy or storm cover and hood. Its a shame. I suppose the prams were better built and meant for leaving baby in in those days.

My DD and DiL both have very good quality prams which they always face towards themselves (as the old prams used to) They use a fleece lining and a Very warm Buggy bag to put the little ones in.

I had a big silver cross pram in 1975 when eldest DD was born and walked miles with it. It was deep, warm had links for a harness so babies could sleep in it without falling out. It then did two more babies and then I gave it to my friend for her two children ( my godchildren) and after that I gave it to the local day nursery and it was used for dozens of babies for several years before it gave up the ghost. I worked there in the late 80's and 90's and the older children used to love to go with the staff taking the babies in prams for a walk and we,d put the older babies strapped in a pram in the nursery garden with some toys on their blanket watching the older children play supervised by staff on garden duty. Many times I rocked an overtired baby until they fell asleep. If my own children were asleep when we got back from a walk if it was raining I,d leave them to still sleep in the pram parked in the hall they always slept better in it than their cot for naps. My pram cost me £50 at the time that was very expensive. When the twins were born a twin pram and accessories cost me £ 400 and it didn't last as long! I feel quite nostalgic.

Forgot to say that this was only 5 years ago. My friends were very approving, but hers were horrified!

Gma my grandmother used to tell my mother in the late 1940s that she thought rubber pants, no plastic then, over nappies were unhealthy! And Nana had had 11 children, so she was an expert, also in laundry I imagine
On the thread subject of out of doors sleeping GS 1 used to be put outdoors in his pram to nap in January. He slept so much better that way. When DD moved back to Barbados, she used to put him on the balcony to sleep, but had to have two electric fans trained on him. Still slept better than indoors though!

Back in the early 70s when I had two young children, I asked DHs grandma what labour saving device, which I had, that she wished that she had had when her 3 children were babies (in the early 1900s) thinking that she would say, washing machine (mine was a twin tub) spin dryer, hot water on tap, Burco nappy boiler, sterilising liquid for bottles .......What did she say, Plastic Pants for the babies! She only had an oilcloth for the cot or pram and when the babies were wet everything they had on got wet. Bearing in mind clothes were linen or wool and took ages to dry. What would she have thought of disposable nappies .

Oh yes going to the laundrette. I was eventually able to afford a small spin dryer and used to wash sheets in the bath then carry them to the spin dryer in a bucket! Those were the days

Waitrose was the first supermarket in the town I was living in early60's DD was a baby in the pram. There was a man of what looked like retirement age who did all sorts - tidy the baskets etc. all the mums left the prams in a line just inside the front of the shop and he kept an eye on them - chatting away or rocking a baby that started to cry!!

You couldn't take prams on buses either. Remember with a pushchair, you had to take the baby out, fold the pushchair, put in the storage under the stairs, as well as carrying the shopping, and the baby, finding money for fares at the same time. We had to be jugglers! We couldn't afford a car in those days. The coach built pram had a wire tray underneath and we'd pile all the shopping in that. If you lived near enough to walk to the shops, that is. I used to put the laundry there to go to the laundrette too, so it was handy.there was a toddler seat on top of the pram, so we really had our hands full, didn't we? We didn't have a washing machine either, just a burco boiler for the nappies.

I parked the pram outside the Co-op once and when I came out there was no sign of it. The terror, fear and panic were dreadful, and shall never forget how it felt. Then it dawned on me I had come out from a diffeent door to the one I had entered by, and I tore round the corner, and there it was, baby fast asleep. The relief was indescribable and I never forgot those awful minutes, the worst of my life. It's a wonder more babies were not abducted, but we had no choice, there was no room for big prams in the shops in those days.

When I was about 10, in the late 1950s, my friend and me used to knock on people's doors and ask 'can we take your baby out?' The mothers, some of whom didn't know us from Adam we just knew there was a baby living there, would get the pram/pushchair out and put the baby in it and we would take it to the park or for a walk. When I think of it now, it fills me with horror but the babies never came to any harm. People used to leave babies outside shops in their prams, it was just the way it was.

Both of mine had big prams and were left out in the garden, come rain or shine. In fact, my DS had jaundice so I had to put him in his pram with just a nappy on, no sunshade and let the sun do it's work on his skin. Either that or he was back in hospital and that was a no go. He was fine after a couple of days.

The prams these days look so cramped. It's either a small carrycot type body or a bucket seat, both look quite uncomfortable really.

I do wonder if today's children will grow up any different of mood because of not going outside as much as we/our children did?

I would do but the house i'm living in at the moment isn't really suitable for it.

When I stayed with my mum over christmas though DD2 had all her naps in her pram outside. She slept better and longer than she ever does at home!

I'm in an antenatal group and one of our mums is from Sweden. Her little boy has all his naps in his pram in the garden. She says is still the norm over there and everyone does it.

Congratulations Bez.

I used to put my babies in the pram in the garden when it was warm enough and also I used to put the playpen on the grass when they were older so they could get fresh air in safety. The trend seems to have gone out of fashion.

Back in the day prams weren't welcome in shops and you often had to leave the pram outside with the baby in it.

I trend that worries me is the way dads carry their children on their shoulders nowadays. I think the dads may suffer from arthritus in the future.

We used to give the kids piggy backs.

Bez a mother's nightmare!

The only problem with my Silver Cross pram was that the top took up all the back seat and the frame and wheels the car boot, so not exactly easy to take anywhere. However it was a beautiful pram and certainly I walked miles and miles with it.
Today's combination 'travel systems' are clever but bewildered me when it came to actually assembling and reassembling!

During the war my mother left me in the pram outside David Grieg and went in to get something - came out to an empty pram! Started crying out and a woman told her she had seen someone pick me out and take me into Woolworth's next door. Mum went rushing in and could here me screaming - ran to the noise and grabbed me form the woman saying 'this is my baby' - bit like a stolen doll I imagine - the woman gave some excuse that I was crying. Mum said she had left me asleep and I slept all the time when we were out. As soon as she took me the wailing stopped. - my claim to fame!

Perfect timing for spring walks Bez. These 'travel systems' are expensive aren't they. We paid for both DDs and grudged having to pay extra for the carry cot which they were only in for a week or so especially as DDs both drive. DS now has both and the Mamas and Papas one is now on it's third baby and on it's last legs, not like the pram I had which lasted five babies (and at times carried all my three children plus spaniel!). I have noticed that better off mums are now seen walking out with big Silver Cross prams - perhaps they're on their way back in.

I took 15 month DGS plus dog for a walk on Sunday and needless to say he fell asleep two minutes from home. DS was all for wheeling him indoors (the heating was on). Luckily their neighbour was there to back me up in leaving him to sleep outside. I'd sat him on a blanket as well as wrapping him up. He slept happily on for half an hour. (He hates having naps). If he'd been indoors he'd have woken hot and horrible within a few minutes.

When I was young it was not unusual to see the prams in the street with sleeping babies. No gardens where we lived. Also outside the shops. How times have changed.

That is lovely news Bez I hope they are soon home and family life can start properly.

The prams today have no insulation really. We have just had twin grandchildren born - non-identical boys. It was amazingly difficult to get a twin pram as DiL wanted the children one in front of the other rather than a two wide contraption. We actually had the choice of two which would take carry cot type tops - and then take pushchair seats and car seats on the same chassis. DiL does not drive so will be walking with the pram many days. The best place with most information was JLewis - the two Mothercare shops in Cardiff were totally useless with their stock and knowledge of the staff.
We bought the travel system() in JL because of the sales girl. She was very knowledgeable and demonstrated the two makes they stocked. To buy the chassis, two carry cot tops and two push chair seats cost over £1K and even at that price I did not think the pram is that well insulated. Many of the pushchair types had the babies facing into the wind. I ordered the pram etc and it was stored by JL and delivered when they wished to have it. The service and the conditions/guarantees they gave us were extremely good as you would expect.
Interestingly the advice given by the manufacturers was that babies should not be in a car seat for more than two hours at a time. In effect this means that the dual purpose seats are not really recommended to have as the only seats for the babies.
The boys are now a week old and doing well - one was very small and is still in ICU but now out of the incubator etc and we are hoping everyone will go home this week and the pram will start to get some use.

Yes, just like you, I used to put the pram out in the garden. We didn't have a tree with fluttery leaves, but baby loved to watch a line full of nappies blowing in the wind. When did you last see a line full of nappies??

The springs snapped on my pram during the big freeze of 1947, fortunately I thawed out.

I think mine were only out in the garden if I was out there. I don't know why, it's just the way it was. None of the grandchildren have got gardens so it's a non starter for them.

I've got photo's of me out in the garden in my pram during the big freeze in 1947.

I used to put both of mine in the garden I could never get them to sleep out there though.
The only picture I have of me as a baby is sitting up in the coach built pram in the garden. I must be about 6-7mths.