Life in a pram with a fit mum

The birth of twins, triplets and other multiples appears to be the norm at the moment. This seems to be due to an artificial boosting of the birth-rates. Parents arriving in their hummers at the beach, unpack their 4WD-like prams, usually while the motor is running. Manly Beach parade lacks pram lanes wide enough where kids are lined up in threes or more. From dawn to dusk all lanes are taken up with mums jogging, one hand on the kid-mobile, the other on the mobile and/or dog. Pramwalking wards off depression and obesity it is said. But for the infant, toddler and/or pre-schooler the double/triple decker prams often turn to isolation chambers and physical restraints. Many of the older children could easily walk and explore their environment or cycle along, but that would interfere with mum's jogging speed. Some are allowed to develop their motor competence on dysfunctional Chinese throw-away-bikes, girls push pink mini-prams (of course). The point is that children are often too old to be in a convenient pram. Additionally, the overtaxed parent offers junk-food and sugar-rich drinks, or worse medication to create silence. This is obesity in the making, but most of all hinders the age-appropriate development of the childrens' muscles and coordination system.
Cafes have even resorted to putting up 'pram rules' to allow access for non pram wielding customers. The primary caregivers tend to seek interaction with anyone, but their off-spring. The revenge turns the venue into a sound-scape of a crèche without care.

Cartoon: "This is our most practical model. It comes with a 21-year warranty."
Beware of fat kids in strollers - they hurt, SMH
Dyspraxia

Updates:
- hild Development: Lack Of Time On Tummy Shown To Hinder Achievement. American Physical Therapy Association (2008, August 7). >How to to get infants out of devices that constrain mobility and learn how to carry, hold and play with a baby (pdf)
- How best to walk your baby, The Independent, 211108
- Dr Suzanne Zeedyk, Dundee's School of Psychology
- The ability to engage in joint attention is crucial for language development. Joint attention is the shared focus of two individuals on an object. (Jogging and communicating on the mobile while the infants scream their heart out in a covered plastic capsule (pram) on Manly beach's Poodle-Pram-Parade. Shelly beach to Queenscliff with a cafe stop in between.) Eye-gazing, word learning & developmental disorders 042012

80 per cent of brain development occurs before a child is three years old. abc 052012

Want a child who is "emotionally secure, self-confident, curious, and autonomous"? Ditch the pram and carry them upright, tribal-style. Jared Diamond on child-rearing techniques used in indigenous societies 012013


Babies' brains may be tuned to language before birth Nature 0213