Dream

[plumtreeblossom]

I dreamed about an offering for tourists called Coffee Trips. Customers were seated in a hospital wheelchair, handed a cup of coffee poured to their cream/sugar/black preference, and were wheeled around the downtown of the city by a Coffee Trips staffer.

When I woke up, I thought how not-implausible this concept is in one circumstance. Minus the cup of coffee, I see this thing almost every day with 5, 6 and 7 year-olds in strollers.

Comments

[beowabbit]

Make it an old-fashioned Victorian-era wicker wheelchair and really good coffee, and I would so totally pay for that!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

For some reason, my high school had one of those Victorian wicker wheelchairs in the props closet of the school auditorium. I never got to ride in it, but I was in the back row of the chorus in a musical wherein it was used by the boy playing FDR. It looked fun to ride in!

[joyeous.livejournal.com]

I think that would be a great service for people in hospitals!

I think we had this conversation after the Topsfield Fair, how absolutely ridiculous it is that children over the age of 3 are not expected to have to walk for themselves, and instead crowds must be bottlenecked and traffic flow completely stopped, because they want a Jeep brand stroller to cart their purchases around in. (Guess what? When your kid's too tired to walk anymore, that means it's time to go home. None of this 6 year old in a stroller bullshit). I actually applaud museum exhibits that make you leave strollers at the door.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

It drives me nuts, especially on the T. My mother never used a stroller with us. She had a pram-style baby carriage for when we were infants, but once we were toddlers and could walk distances, it got abandoned and she didn't replace it with a stroller.

Someone else agrees on this. This blog is funny:

http://toobigforstroller.com/

[joyeous.livejournal.com]

There actually is a big argument going on with the T right now. I think it mainly has to do with buses. They were debating whether people should collapse their strollers before getting on to make more room. But then, this will take just more time and cause delays....and then what to do with the baby if you get stuck standing, because so many Boston people are rude and won't give up their seat to a woman with a baby anyway.

I don't want people with young toddlers to think I'm hating on children here. I just get annoyed at the overly engineered strollers, and how they are used far too often. Now back in the day, parents had a nice stroller, for walks in the neighborhood, and they had a collapsible stroller (no cushioning) that was used for travel. It collapsed to not much larger than an umbrella. If you were going to an amusement park or something, you took the travel stroller, not the Jeep brand 4 foot wide stroller with shocks and suspension. Because there are other people there that have to walk. But many parents are bringing the big strollers not just for the kids but as CARRIERS for their own shopping bags. This is just plain selfish. I have to carry my own shit. I don't bring an empty stroller to the Topsfield Fair in case I buy stuff and don't want to carry it. This is my main complaint.

My mom had 5 kids under the age of 6. You'd better believe they were out of strollers as soon as they could be because they didn't make strollers for 5.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That's just it -- the land-yacht strollers are designed to be more than strollers. They're designed to also carry 6 bags of groceries and a diaper bag the size of an ottoman. It's the double-wides that cause the most disruption on crowded streets and public transportation. They do make narrower doubles where one child rides in front and one in back. I don't see why those aren't good enough for some people.

When I was in Japan, I noticed that the strollers were only as wide as they needed to be to fit the baby. They looked like American toy strollers, with longer handles of course, and the babies looked so cute in them. And they didn't disrupt pedestrian traffic or block doors and elevators, either. And only babies rode in them, not kindergardeners. Another reason to love Japan.

[ron_newman]

this isn't that far off from a real service that Boston and some other cities have: bicycle rickshaws (pedi-cabs).

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Jay and I love those. We've taken them in New York and in Boston. They're a delightful and environmentally healthy alternative to a taxi.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes! The old stroller in the aisle of the bus trick! Even if they collapse them, they will still block traffic in the aisles. The old umbrella stroller works just fine on buses, especially if they collapse it and put it under the seat like I had to when Kurt was a baby (1975-6) After age two, he walked on the end of a leash and harness. People criticized me for that, but hey, we lived in the country, no sidewalks, fast cars on country roads. He survived his childhood fine, learned to stay out of traffic, too. Also, he learned to walk really well. Of course I had to walk a lot slower than I wished when he was 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 years old. On the other hand, on that leash he was not able to bolt ahead on a sudden impulse, so it all evened out. It aggravates me that I sometimes have to climb over one or more big fat strollers when trying to exit a bus or streetcar. That is just wrong! *I'm 70 years old, use a cane, have arthritis, and dang it when I was young I did not create obstacle courses for old folks on public transport - or anywhere else -- it just was not done!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, child leashes make a lot more sense to me than they used to, especially now that strollers are so gigantic. The child gets the exercise of walking, and the parent doesn't have to worry about bolting. Not long ago I saw a mother with a walking cast on her foot screaming in panic as her 3-year-old-ish daughter bolted down the sidewalk toward the intersection and she couldn't give chase fast enough, but luckily someone intercepted the child for her. A leash would have prevented that, I have to say.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Holding hands helps, too. That's what we did.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

By his third birthday, Kurt was off the leash and harness, too. Two year olds are quick and do not understand the need to stay put. Three year olds are a lot more cooperative.

[saturn939.livejournal.com]

This is what we use: http://www.bobababycarrier.com/

-Dee