Weaning them off the Stroller

[HouCuseChickie]

First off...I'm not trying to start an epic stroller debate. I know there are pros and cons to using them, I know some people are quite passionate about their hatred of them while others wouldn't leave home without them...and that's all fine, but that's not what this is about.

OK- so I want to wean the girls off the stroller this trip. Our pediatrician thinks it's too soon and we've probably got a couple more years since our younger one is 3 (will turn 4 right before this upcoming trip) and our older one who's 6 is exceptionally small. i.e. less than 5th % tiny. The doctor actually suggested having testing done next year for congenital issues if she continues to rank so far behind her peers in height. We'll cross that bridge should we get to it. Still-we feel like it's time to break from the stroller, but we're also definitely not ready to go 100% stroller free.

We're renting a stroller, but the plan is to use it mainly for when we need to make it from pt A to pt B more quickly, if the girls need to snooze, and more frequently at night when the rest of the day is starting to catch up with them and zap their energy. We plan on being totally stroller free by our last day since it's not a full day. The girls already do like to walk on their own in the parks, so it's not like they're just vegging in there the whole time refusing to walk... I just need to find other ways to encourage even more walking to foster this weaning process.

Any tips?

 

[NYwdwfan]

I'm going stroller free for the first time in a couple of months. The kids are excited. I am going to really miss having somewhere to put all of our stuff!!! Although I am looking forward to not having to remember where I "parked".

 

[englanddg]

Well, when my kid was 5 and 6, she spent most of her time on my shoulders on the "A -> B" trips. I only rented a stroller once, and that was because we did a lot of shopping on the last day, my hands were filled with bags, and she had fallen asleep on the monorail over to EPCOT...

This year she was 7, and she's tall for her age. I should note, the "ages" here are deceptive. We go in August, and her Birthday is in Oct, so keep that in mind. While still 7, she's basically the size of an 8 year old.

So, this past trip, I couldn't do it. We tried a few times, but she's just to big for me to shoulder her and it be safe (center of balance, etc.), at least not in crowded situations.

I expected her to gripe about walking, and she did...many times. "Daddy, can we please do your shoulders just for old times sake?" "Not happening kiddo." "Hrmpfh"

Mind you, it didn't spoil the trip, but it did slow it down dramatically, as basically she set our speed limit, instead of me!

Anyhow, for tips... I came up with a variety of ways to keep her moving...

1) Play Tag
2) Play "Silent I-Spy" (where you have to touch or get close to and point at the object spied instead of just calling it out)
3) Play "you can't catch me" (great for when they start to lag behind)
4) Play "beat me there" (also great for when they lag)
5) Imitate speed walkers (she saw them at CBR last year and finds them extremely funny)
6) Play "scare me!" (basically she runs ahead and finds a hiding place, and then jumps out and scares me...sortof like hide and go seek)
7) Play "Rabbit" (basically, imitate the Rabbit from Alice, walking quickly and saying "we're late, we're late, for a very important date!"
8) Mention Rockin' Rollar Coaster (she'd run for that!...first year she was tall enough, and is now her favorite ride by far)
9) When at EPCOT, play Agent P.
10) Get ice cream and eat while you walk.

These were all things I did at various times to keep her moving. Still, there were times that no matter how slow I walked, she would stay 10 ft behind me...cause she was trying to get me to pick her up. I never gave in...but man, sometimes I wanted to!

I remember when my dad started to say "sorry, son, too big for the shoulders"...so I know what she was going through. Hopefully next year she'll be over that.

 

[GoofGoof]

2 good replies. Not sure I can add much more. We are planning out next trip when the boys will be almost 4 and 6.5 as stroller free. I think my wife and I will miss the stroller storage as much as they will miss riding. I also anticipate that the pace will slow, especially when leaving the parks. It's amazing how fast they can move when motivated and how slow they go when they don't really want to go. Since you will have a stroller with you if you are really struggling early in the week you can always abandon the plan and go back to using it full time. Good luck.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I'm going stroller free for the first time in a couple of months. The kids are excited. I am going to really miss having somewhere to put all of our stuff!!! Although I am looking forward to not having to remember where I "parked".

It is really nice to have the extra space the stroller affords, but it seems so liberating to be able to go stroller free. I still need to figure out how I want to mark our stroller this trip so I can pick it out in the sea of strollers. At least your kids are excited about this. Ours down know about this trip, so they have 0 clue that this is coming. Hopefully the excitement will hide my little plan.

Well, when my kid was 5 and 6, she spent most of her time on my shoulders on the "A -> B" trips. I only rented a stroller once, and that was because we did a lot of shopping on the last day, my hands were filled with bags, and she had fallen asleep on the monorail over to EPCOT...

This year she was 7, and she's tall for her age. I should note, the "ages" here are deceptive. We go in August, and her Birthday is in Oct, so keep that in mind. While still 7, she's basically the size of an 8 year old.

So, this past trip, I couldn't do it. We tried a few times, but she's just to big for me to shoulder her and it be safe (center of balance, etc.), at least not in crowded situations.

I expected her to gripe about walking, and she did...many times. "Daddy, can we please do your shoulders just for old times sake?" "Not happening kiddo." "Hrmpfh"

Mind you, it didn't spoil the trip, but it did slow it down dramatically, as basically she set our speed limit, instead of me!

Anyhow, for tips... I came up with a variety of ways to keep her moving...

1) Play Tag
2) Play "Silent I-Spy" (where you have to touch or get close to and point at the object spied instead of just calling it out)
3) Play "you can't catch me" (great for when they start to lag behind)
4) Play "beat me there" (also great for when they lag)
5) Imitate speed walkers (she saw them at CBR last year and finds them extremely funny)
6) Play "scare me!" (basically she runs ahead and finds a hiding place, and then jumps out and scares me...sortof like hide and go seek)
7) Play "Rabbit" (basically, imitate the Rabbit from Alice, walking quickly and saying "we're late, we're late, for a very important date!"
8) Mention Rockin' Rollar Coaster (she'd run for that!...first year she was tall enough, and is now her favorite ride by far)
9) When at EPCOT, play Agent P.
10) Get ice cream and eat while you walk.

These were all things I did at various times to keep her moving. Still, there were times that no matter how slow I walked, she would stay 10 ft behind me...cause she was trying to get me to pick her up. I never gave in...but man, sometimes I wanted to!

I remember when my dad started to say "sorry, son, too big for the shoulders"...so I know what she was going through. Hopefully next year she'll be over that.

Those are all great suggestions. Of course we'll have to use a different roller coaster to bait them since I think DD6 will probably be 10 by the time she's tall enough to ride RnR. Thanks! These will all definitely come in handy!!!!

2 good replies. Not sure I can add much more. We are planning out next trip when the boys will be almost 4 and 6.5 as stroller free. I think my wife and I will miss the stroller storage as much as they will miss riding. I also anticipate that the pace will slow, especially when leaving the parks. It's amazing how fast they can move when motivated and how slow they go when they don't really want to go. Since you will have a stroller with you if you are really struggling early in the week you can always abandon the plan and go back to using it full time. Good luck.

I too will miss the storage on future trips. Hopefully having the stroller as a crutch will help. Thanks!

 

[Cosmic Commando]

If I were going to go stroller-free, I would put a little thought into doing attractions with lots of sitting breaks spread throughout the day: Carousel of Progress and Hall of Presidents in MK; Energy, SSE, and Living with the Land in Epcot; the various shows in DHS and DAK. Use them judiciously before your kids have a chance to get past their breaking point. Once my kids decide their done with something, they're done.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

If I were going to go stroller-free, I would put a little thought into doing attractions with lots of sitting breaks spread throughout the day: Carousel of Progress and Hall of Presidents in MK; Energy, SSE, and Living with the Land in Epcot; the various shows in DHS and DAK. Use them judiciously before your kids have a chance to get past their breaking point. Once my kids decide their done with something, they're done.

That's exactly what we're doing on the final day when we go stroller free. It's an AK morn EMH day- so, we're starting out over at safari and Pangani, then Tusker for breakfast, then trying to get in FotLK & Nemo...with the possibility of Flights of Wonder if there's time before we leave the park and head to AKL/Kidani for lunch/snack at Sanaa. AK feels so huge, but hopefully the shows in between will make this a good introduction to walking the whole time.

 

[NewfieFan]

You've got lots of good advice already. I took my kids out of the stroller when they were around 5. One of the things I did when I was weaning my daughter off the stroller was to park it in stroller parking in a certain area (for example Fantasyland) and then make her walk between all the attractions in one area. Sometimes she would ask for the stroller but I would just say, "Let's do this ride and then we'll go get the stroller." I was pretty much just using the stroller to go from one area to another (not pick it up after every attraction) and using it at the end of the day. There's still days I miss stroller but for the most part it's a wonderful freedom. I find we can actually move quicker b/c we don't always have to backtrack and find the stroller, plus we can move through crowds and stores quicker. I miss having somewhere to store stuff (that was probably the biggest adjustment for me when we went stroller-free) and it was nice for the kids to have a place to sit down at the end of the night (especially if they fell asleep). Now we just have to take the time to rest and sit down, which is refreshing for all of us.

 

[Britt]

I think you'll do great! Make sure they have good supportive shoes and let them soak their tootsies in the tub when they get back to the room.


Definitely dont force it though...if they're starting to complain about hurting feet, I would rent the stroller...lol. The first DAY, I got a horrible blister right on the bottom of my foot and it was MISERY. I couldn't just stop and take a break and you dont want the kids to end up with the awful things. Luckily, we had a car so I could go get the coushy bandaids and inserts (I wear flat converse shoes...DO NOT BUY THOSE FOR DISNEY...LOL).

 

[Gabe1]

When we finally were breaking the stroller thing, Epcot is where we rented one. WS has very little sitting time unlike the MK on attractions. That is so much walking and she was also very, very tiny. (Still in preschool sizes in 1st grade, now 5'4" she caught up in a year and a half in middle school) The one thing looking back is how you want to tour. We did two weeks so when they were tired we went back to the resort. All that walking at a young age will wear them out much quicker. As we were break'n it we always thought what was worse for the days plans, a worn out kid or stroller free? DHS is a great park to put them to the test, so compact. That would be my "test" park.

 

[angela02]

We do what the previous poster said - we park it in the area we are in and walk from ride to ride. We pick-up the stroller when we are moving on to another area and sometimes one of the kids will sit in it but we mainly use it to haul our bag around. I guess you can try that and attempt to redirect them if they start asking to ride. Honestly, with my older two, they no longer want to ride in the stroller. I hope it works out!