Sign up for a free recipe e-book →

Clarissa's Blog

, , , ,

Taking a Baby Out in a Stroller

Published by

Clarissa

on

One of the complaints about motherhood that the narrator of Katixa Agirre’s novel Mothers Don’t makes has to do with taking her baby out for a walk in a stroller. She feels terribly aggrieved by having to do it. There are several pages of intense whining in the book about how the stroller limits her movements and prevents her from spending enough time admiring her appearance in the windows of the shops she passes by.

This is curious to me because taking my baby out in a stroller was the most intensely enjoyable experience of my entire life. I’m eagerly anticipating grandchildren to repeat the experience. It was like meditation times a million. I felt the most intense calm. It was incredible.

This is not to say that I’m not neoliberalized. I might be more neoliberal than Agirre’s character. She’s not doing neoliberalism right, is what I’m saying.

5 responses to “Taking a Baby Out in a Stroller”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I’m squarely in the anti-stroller camp. Went through half a dozen ergo type carriers for strapping baby onto my person, despite the hot climate and the discomfort of sharing a huge communal sweat reservoir with my kid. Neither the stroller nor the ergo could ever compare to the hell that was those “baby carrier” car seat handle-bucket thingies. I reckon those are responsible for more hernias and back injuries than any other baby device in existence.

    Probably just depends on what you’re trying to *do*. Never had a lot of parks or sidewalks around, so if I was going places with a baby, it was errands, which meant lugging it in and out of the car, navigating through heavy spring-loaded doors, up and down stairs, trying to figure out what the heck to do with this huge piece of equipment once we got to the doctor’s office or wherever, that sort of thing. Constant hassles.

    My friend has a gigantic three-wheeled tactical all-terrain assault stroller that she *loves*… and she also lives near nice parks and in a low-traffic cul-de-sac neighborhood where it’s practical to take the baby out for a jog. I think there’s a connection 😉

    ethyl

    Like

    Reply
    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I received two very pretty baby carriers of the type that you strap onto your body. The very first time I tried, my baby reacted with such visible outrage that I never repeated the attempt.

      Also, the car seat carriers are, indeed, horrid.

      We live in a very walkable neighborhood. I would walk for hours with the baby in all weathers every day. When COVID came, we had to get the stroller back out of storage because I wanted to go for three- to four-hour walks every day, and she was only four and couldn’t walk for that long. That’s the only part of COVID that I remember fondly. That, and breaking all of the stupid regulations.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. Avatar
        Anonymous

        That makes sense. Used the stroller tons when I was a nanny and we walked to the park all the time. The crucial decision point is: do you have to get it in and out of the car? If you’re not going in the car, the stroller is awesome. If you are: ??? On the other hand the kid I nannied had zero walking endurance compared to my own kids, in that sort of 3-5 age range. Way too used to the stroller.

        ethyl

        Like

        Reply
        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          We had this cheap Walmart stroller that opens and closes with a single movement of one hand. Really convenient.

          Like

          Reply
  2. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “prevents her from spending enough time admiring her appearance in the windows of the shops”

    Without having read (and having intention to read) the book, I think this is the crucial detail. In a very real exsitential way for survival of the species a baby is more important than the parent. The neoliberal mentality seems to overlap with some traits of narcissism a good deal as the neoliberal subject becomes the center of their solar system and the mere presence of any other star dims their own.

    Without the baby she sees her ideal all-consuming self, with the baby she sees a handmaiden to the next generation…. a servant! The comedown must be intolerable for a certain type of person….

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

A conservative literary critic and college professor

Recent posts