Stroller Smack Talk

brooktrout

So, how's a family suppose to get around the slope with their children? I don't have children but I just don't understand the incessant complaints of strollers. Do they run over your toes? Knock into your shins? Dent your cars? Leave tire marks on your sidewalk?

Or is it truly an icon of gentrification?

redmenace

Subject: Re: Stroller Smack Talk

brooktrout wrote: So, how's a family suppose to get around the slope with their children? I don't have children but I just don't understand the incessant complaints of strollers. Do they run over your toes? Knock into your shins? Dent your cars? Leave tire marks on your sidewalk?

Or is it truly an icon of gentrification?

all of the above.

1. yes, there is excessive shoving/sidewalk entitlement among the stroller people. I have been shinned, flat-tired and had my feet run over on many occasions

2. many of stroller tots are walkers, but the parents insist on strollering them for their own convenience. Nothing more annoying than a slow toddler, I guess.

3. many of the strollers are double wide, which blocks the sidewalk. It's impossible to walk around 2 moms double strollering it.

4. a good deal of the strollers cost more than my first car.

5. I am not anti-kid. I have 2 of my own, girls, who have long been out of strollers. The culture of parenting has changed dramatically over the past 10 years.

6. There are just so many of them.

brooktrout

really!?? please describe the multiple toe run-overings!!!

the chipster

It's just a matter of respecting one another. Be it groups, skaters, scooters, strollers, older people, etc..we just have to make room for each other! The problems occur when someone thinks the world must move around them; as often happens with new moms in this nabe, or with dogs on 12 foot leashes...common courtesy...not so common.

carnivore

Subject: Re: Stroller Smack Talk

brooktrout wrote: So, how's a family suppose to get around the slope with their children? I don't have children but I just don't understand the incessant complaints of strollers. Do they run over your toes? Knock into your shins? Dent your cars? Leave tire marks on your sidewalk?

Or is it truly an icon of gentrification?

Surely the solution to the "incessant complaints of strollers" is to start yet another thread about it... :roll:

booklaw

We raised two kids in the Slope. We generally have no problem with kids in strollers... or with their parents. We tend to be understanding about how frazzled parents can get while out with little kids.

On the other hand, my wife... then about 60, and suffering from both arthritis and osteoporosis, got knocked down by a small child moving fast on a kick scooter. The kid's mother completely ignored my wife, lying on the ground, in her anxiety to assure the kid that "it's not your fault".

The mother was right... it wasn't the kid's fault. It was the mother's fault, for not watching where her kid was going.

So I agree, we should lay off the strollers... the next thread should be about the evil Park Slope moms :evil: and their demonic broods :twisted: riding kick scooters! :P

karl the druid

strollers

the gateway ride to scooter rage

raw

You will not notice any classy people with good manners who were not raised in a barn pushing strollers. Because these mindful folks kindly watch where they push strollers and politely avoid hogging sidewalks and running over feet.

It's jerks who lack manners that give stroller pushing a bad name.

daver

Strollers are Park Slopes answer to useless SUVs. First you have all these folks getting fancy 4x4 SUVs that never even see dirt roads, consuming far too much fuel and spewing too much crap into the environment. Now you have these huge jogging strollers that require a fucking eight foot radius to turn, taking down all in their way, and you see maybe 2% actually being jogged. Um, consuming far too much, spewing crap, etc.

eggcream

Only in Park Slope could someone equate strollers with SUV's and the environment.

I agree that it's not the strollers it's the people using the strollers that is the problem some of the time. Same for bike riders. They have their bike lanes yet still use the sidewalks. Scooters, large groups who move at a snail's pace, it's any number of things and you just have to hope the person behind these things have manners.

daver

eggcream wrote: Only in Park Slope could someone equate strollers with SUV's and the environment.

armchair_warrior

in defense of stroller moms. how do you know its not the nannies or babysitters?

daver

armchair_warrior wrote: in defense of stroller moms. how do you know its not the nannies or babysitters?

And quite beside the point.

armchair_warrior

how bout we put their heads on pikes, so the next group of stroller moms and babies would see the warning.

karl the druid

if you can

but these are 12-level nannies with at least 200 hp

rtraindweller

eggcream wrote: Only in Park Slope could someone equate strollers with SUV's and the environment.

I agree that it's not the strollers it's the people using the strollers that is the problem some of the time. Same for bike riders. They have their bike lanes yet still use the sidewalks. Scooters, large groups who move at a snail's pace, it's any number of things and you just have to hope the person behind these things have manners.

Not all bike riders are inconsiderate d-bags. Same as with stroller pushers. There are some out there who are respectful of other people using the sidewalks. Not every biker rides on the sidewalk, it's not something I see very often. The only time my bike is on the sidewalk is if I'm locking it up cause I got where I'm going. Or my damn chain fell off and I don't wanna try to fix it in the street :P

sweet tea

the first time i pushed a stroller with ordinary (~6" diameter) wheels a few blocks down 7th Ave, i suddenly understood why people get the kind with monster wheels. it's really hard to push the small-wheeled kind down a block that includes sections of beautiful but bumpy bluestone. and this section isn't even very bumpy -- i'd never noticed it was less than perfectly smooth when walking on my own.

those quaint perambulators of the era of bluestone sidewalks often had very large wheels, i now realize.

probably we should have just made the kid walk. she WAS four months old, after all. no sense coddling her.

littleredmenace

raw wrote: You will not notice any classy people with good manners who were not raised in a barn pushing strollers. Because these mindful folks kindly watch where they push strollers and politely avoid hogging sidewalks and running over feet.

It's jerks who lack manners that give stroller pushing a bad name.

It's jerks with bad manners who give EVERYONE a bad name, no matter what group you happen to fall into.

To me, it's just that simple. There are good people and there are assholes. Unfortunately, the assholes seem to outshine the good people. Maybe it's because as a society, we actually reward those people (via Realty television, for one).

Just sayin.

daver

LittleRedMenace wrote: It's jerks with bad manners who give EVERYONE a bad name, no matter what group you happen to fall into.

To me, it's just that simple. There are good people and there are assholes. Unfortunately, the assholes seem to outshine the good people. Maybe it's because as a society, we actually reward those people (via Realty television, for one).

Just sayin.

When I was in gradeschool, I remember when EVERYONE would have to stay in for recess because of what ONE kid did.

Bastards.

garfunky

LittleRedMenace wrote:

It's jerks with bad manners who give EVERYONE a bad name, no matter what group you happen to fall into.

To me, it's just that simple. There are good people and there are assholes. Unfortunately, the assholes seem to outshine the good people. Maybe it's because as a society, we actually reward those people (via Realty television, for one).

Just sayin.

said well !
incredibly astute.
agree.

peanuts

Unfortunately, it seems that there are a lot of inconsiderate parents out there and they give all parents a bad name.

I was in Barnes & Noble by the calendar section, and a woman with a stroller literally almost knocked me over to get to the elevator...she didn't say "excuse me" until she ran into me.

I've walked on 5th Avenue with my shopping wagon, and a group of women w/strollers are in front of the art place by Save on Fifth taking up the entire sidewalk as if no one else may be walking on the street. I shouldn't have to say excuse me 5 times to get by.

I don't know when or why this behavior has become acceptable in the Slope, but unfortunately, it's given a lot of people a bad rap.

littleredmenace

Like I said, bad behavior in all forms has become acceptable everywhere. Period. I am not sure of the exact reasons, although one bet is just the idea that we live in a society that preaches self and instant gratification.

What to do about it? I'm not sure other than just setting examples of good behavior and not caving in to people who don't fit the bill.

belzjm

here's a perfect example of how an ahole is rewarded in our society...

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/05/analyze_this_ne.php

hamilton

I think it's time to invest in a airhorn

linusvanpelt

People who obliviously get in my way / bump into me / block the sidewalk in Park Slope:

* parents with strollers
* people with dogs on leashes
* people pushing laundry carts
* groups of adults walking three or four abreast
* people with grocery carts
* guys riding bikes on sidewalks

Some are more common than others, but I don't find one group to be more or less considerate than another--nor have I found that to have changed in 15+ years living in Park Slope.

I agree with LittleRedMenace. There are entitled assholes everywhere; some of them have kids eventually; and fewer of the ones with kids move to the suburbs nowadays.

caaahyoko

Peanuts wrote:
I shouldn't have to say excuse me 5 times to get by.

People, people. Don't say excuse me. Just give them your best Clint Eastwood squint and say, "MOVE!" Works for me.

If you have to, say "excuse me" in a way that really says, "MOVE!"

You're all too nice.

littlegal

For what its worth, I agree with Caaahyoko...Only difference is that, firmly and with authority, I say, "Excuse YOU." I am patient and kind, but I let people know when they are stepping over the line.
Hell, I have to push a stroller myself several times a week. The baby inside may not be mine, but I take care not to get in the way of other people and don't appreciate it when I don't get the same respect.