[HamRadioRocks]

Have any of you been to Disney World in the past few years? The last time I was there was 16 years ago.

The standard travel tips for Disney World now include renting strollers for kids upwards of age 7.

Am I that hopelessly old-fashioned? Why do today's 7-year-olds need
strollers when the 7-year-olds of the 1970s, 1980s, and even early 1990s did not. The 1980s were NOT the Stone Age. We didn't walk 6 miles in the ice and snow to go to school.

Since when do non-handicapped 7-year-olds need strollers? I never sat in a stroller when I was that age. I wouldn't have fit in one anyway. I don't think I sat in a stroller since I was about 3 or 4. And I don't think most 5-year-olds can fit in a stroller, either. Besides, 5-7 year olds wouldn't be able to stand the confinement or embarassment anyway. I know that there are a few handicapped kids out there who need special accomodations, but this thread isn't about them.

YES, I have been to Disney World MULTIPLE TIMES. I was there at age 6
in 1980, and I would have recoiled at any request that I sit in a
stroller. I visited Magic Kingdom AND Epcot Center at age 10 without
a stroller, and the concept of grade school kids in strollers would
have seemed ridiculous to me. I also went to Disney World twice in my
teen years.

NO, I was NOT particularly athletic. In fact, I was often among the last to be picked in gym class. I was never on a track team. I couldn't open or close our manual garage door until I was 12 or 13 years old. And even today, my arm-wrestling ability is pathetic. (I cannot win fair and square.) If I could handle Disney World at age 6 without a stroller, any able-bodied child can.

YES, I also know about stranger danger. We were drilled on stranger danger in the 1980s. We knew not to accept candy, rides, or unwelcome touches from strangers. We didn't need strollers for protection. If my generation of elementary school kids could understand this, so can today's.

I know that a Disney World is a lot more than a stroll in the neighborhood park, but able-bodied people should be able to survive it with the application of common sense. Just get a reasonable amount of sleep each night, drink plenty of water throughout the day, and take occasional sitting breaks
(either on a bench or at a sit-down show).

Some even more shocking things:
1. People on discussion forums have reported seeing kids up to age 10 in strollers. I can only imagine how ridiculous that must look. From what I've heard, big kids in strollers are now a common sight. Yes, there are handicapped kids out there, but they're only a very small percentage of the population.
2. People on discussion forums have complained that walkways in Fantasyland are often impassable due to stroller congestion. I don't remember this EVER being the case during my visits to Disney World. If the normal age to stop sitting in a stroller has stretched from age 3-4 to 7-10, then it's no wonder that walkways would suffer from so much stroller congestion. When I was a kid, it was normal for 4-10 year-old kids to walk, so fewer strollers were needed back then.
3. Some people reportedly use strollers as shopping carts. Just how much stuff do do people need to bring through the gates at Disney World? And how much stuff do people need to carry out? Now I'm wondering if Disney rents so many strollers to inflate sales revenues, as the extra storage space available would tempt more people to buy more of the tacky, overpriced merchandise sold in the stores. When I was at Disney World in the past, strollers were for wheeling babies and little toddlers around, NOT for wheeling grade school kids or merchandise.
4. Some people actually recommend exercise programs before a trip to Disney World in order to "get in shape". True, a Disney World trip was never considered easy, but when I was a kid, working out was for 5K runs, not Disney World vacations.

Am I that behind the times? Are all the comments about today's out-of-shape kids true? A scary thought: If my much-younger self from the 1980s could be moved to the world of 2007 through a time warp, would he be considered athletic?

[I_Like_Plants]

man, 10 years old in a stroller?? You'd have been laughed out of the school yard in my day. You'd get a nickname, "Stroller baby" or something, it would take forever to live down.

[Niagara]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('HamRadioRocks', 'W')hy do today's 7-year-olds need
strollers...

[jboogy]

Yes Hammy, it's truly a weird world in orlando ,what with all the old fat kids in strollers an all....but,...while perusing your post a somewhat more relevant ,pressing question rose unbidden into my cerebrum:how the hell does this trivial bullshit merit so much consternation and effort on your part?maybe your just bored and can't think of any other excruciating minutia to share with us?don't get me wrong, it's worth mentioning and maybe even deserves "new topic" status, but dude,c'mon man..80gazillion words,20 paragraphs with numerical subsets and a brief personal history? Perhaps you need to open up a little and tell us what really bothers you about the old,fat,lazy kids in strollers.I sense there's more to the story than your letting on.Pleaze to share?

[HamRadioRocks]

jboogy, this thread fits in with all the other peakoil.com articles and threads about laziness, aversion to walking (particularly noted in the picture showing someone driving WHILE walking a dog), etc.

[I_Like_Plants]

It's as viable as any other subject, this is the Open forum after all.

HamRadioRocks can probably tell us about the latest motorized scooter madness at Dayton, that's home to the BIGGEST kids in scooters - essentially self-steered strollers.

[HamRadioRocks]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'I')t's as viable as any other subject, this is the Open forum after all.

HamRadioRocks can probably tell us about the latest motorized scooter madness at Dayton, that's home to the BIGGEST kids in scooters - essentially self-steered strollers.

[Roy]

Disneyworld. I was there two years and my experience concurs with what you observed and heard on message boards.

My kids walked! At the end of the day they were worn out. That's not a bad thing for mom and dad!

Regarding the physical condition of youngsters nowadays, I have some direct experience.

I was a volunteer basketball/baseball/softball coach for 11 years at a YMCA.

What I saw on the 8-11 y/o age groups were kids that would struggle to run 1 or two line drills, aka suicides. When I was 10, we ran 10 at every practice. Honestly I don't think more than two or three kids on any team were really in shape.

Many, sometimes as many as half the kids on any given team would be obese. It was a struggle for me to get them into shape without their parents complaining or outright quitting the team. I had to soften my methods in order to keep a team together.

Some of the parents, in their defense, loved what I did. They commented to me that other coaches they had would do no conditioning work. Some complained to me that I was making it too hard. In my mind, compared to what I did (walk 6 miles uphill to practice each way LOL), my practices were laughably easy.

Yet I had a reputation among my peers of having 'running' teams.

Again, the practice regimen that was common in my childhood would have caused a lot of pain and whining, and low attendance at practice.

I chalk that up to video games, fatty foods, and a car culture where kids have to be shuttled everywhere. Kids don't ride their bikes to the park anymore, they don't walk anywhere, and many are so addicted to air conditioning that the very idea of playing ball in an un-airconditioned space was horrifying to many.

Not so in my day, and I'm not THAT old -- 39.

Yes, on average kids now are fat, out of shape, and whimpy when measured against the kids of 30+ years ago. Not all of them though. I make every effort to keep my kids active, limit their intake of crap food, and make sure they don't spend a lot of time watching TV.

The state of the children directly reflects the lifestyle choices of the parents. Just look at the number of overweight American adults anywhere you go. Not surprising at all really. Just depressing.

Using the old adage : "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you", kids that are physically fit now will have better odds in a hard future.

There you have it. My 2¢.

[I_Like_Plants]

Yes we were in what today would be considered incredible shape. Climbing up to the neighbor's tree house hand-over-hand up a rope, running up hills, riding bikes all over, swimming/playng/wrestling in the ocean, you name it. AC was unknown, at home and at school - the school was designed to be cool in hot weather which was the only kind there, and we were very active kids at recess.

Our weight/strength ratio was so good as a rule, that it took more than simple running around to exhaust us, really.

Yes there was the occasional fat kid - I think those fat kids were spoiled and allowed to sit around and read comic books, do other sedentary things like watch lots of TV, and snack a lot. That's how you've always gotten fat kids - it's just how the majority of kids are raised now.

We were, conversely, underfed. We were always on the lookout for something to eat, but we generally had to walk somewhere like up to the store to spend like 10 cents on candy, or a neighbor who'd seen us running around the neighborhood might invite us in for ice water and crackers or something. Or we'd pick some local fruit and eat that. So snacks were small, fairly far between, and involved expending energy to get.

We could walk/hike for miles by the time we were 10 or 12. I'm not sure which is the best way to raise kids, but the obese ones have a lot of health problems early on, and in a TSHTF scenario* the fit kid who's used to some hardship will fare much better.


*I'm with Ran Prieur though, all observed collapsed empires have taken some time to fall, sometimes hundreds of years, while quick collapses only happen in books and movies.

[Aaron]

[jupiters_release]

Strollers should never have been invented. Carry the baby on your back, or let it walk...

[jboogy]

Was I too hard on him plants?I'm sorry Hammy,looking back maybe "trivial bullshit" and "excruciating minutia"were a bit harsh.I did say that your peeve was worth mentioning and even possibly new thread worthy so there's that on the bright side. The main point I was so inelegantly trying to make was the amount of time and effort you put into your rant.I can't muster that many words for a diatribe about politics,and I love talking politics.It seemed to me(this may be an incorrect assumption)that the fat,old and lazy children in strollers were possibly a metaphor for something else that was so dark and sinister that you couldn't even give voice to it. Perhaps a childhood trauma that was trying to claw it's way back into your conscious mind?Anyway ,I was trying to let you know that you don't have to hold back your true feelings here,you can talk to us, I believe there may even be a few licensed therapists lurking about if that helps.