Slope Stroller Overabundance Making One Guy a Shut-In
Longtime New York Press columnist Jim Knipfel has a new rant about Park Slope stroller culture that sets the bar high for future diatribes on the subject. This is how it begins: This morning as I was leaving the bank, a woman recklessly pushing her armor-plated double stroller down the sidewalk veered sharply and unexpectedly…
Longtime New York Press columnist Jim Knipfel has a new rant about Park Slope stroller culture that sets the bar high for future diatribes on the subject. This is how it begins:
This morning as I was leaving the bank, a woman recklessly pushing her armor-plated double stroller down the sidewalk veered sharply and unexpectedly into an elderly man walking with a cane. He, in turn, fell into me. I was able to catch him and hold him upright and he seemed to be okay. Just a little flustered. The woman, of course, had said nothing, apparently considering an apology or even a simple excuse me unnecessary under the circumstances. She was a mother after all, and therefore privileged, so she simply continued careening on her way.
Knipfel says that the number of strollers in the Slope, as well as the neighborhood’s dog breed preferences (it’s really mostly the strollers, though) mean he can only leave his apartment for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time, because he finds the situation out on the streets too harrowing and exhausting. The writer says that for the past year he’s been counting the number of strollers he sees in the Slope (“I’m averaging 1.45 strollers per block. Think about it—there has been at least one stroller, and usually more, for every block I’ve walked. It’s insanity.“) Knipfel takes issue with the air of entitlement that he sees a lot of the neighborhood’s parents displaying and notes that he sees a good number of kids being pushed around who look too old for strollers. Also, he says, it’s not a subject that can be broached in polite, public Slope discourse: “The child-free adults in the neighborhood mutter and complain about the problem, but only behind closed doors, and usually in whispers. They don’t dare say a negative word when they’re outside, for the simple reason that they’re terrified, most of them. Indulgent, affluent parents are too powerful a lobby (and what’s more, those strollers can really hurt when you get rammed).”
The Statistics of Contempt [Slackjaw]
Photo from dailyheights.com
I live in PS without kids – I am a woman who plans to have kids soon and I couldn’t AGREE more with the writer! – sorry but it’s not about being a parent with children – it’s about being a certain TYPE of person with children that sparks this type of discourse. I am amazed at the level of “lacksidasical/non-plussed” sensibility of these parents who allow their kids to run amok on the sidewalk, while they stop and chat with other parents in the MIDDLE of the sidewalk with their 2 huge strollers. This group of 5 is usually accompanied by another adult who was out walking the dog and now you have a complete menagerie. I usually find this mixture when I am trying to walk home from the F train on seventh avenue. I love kids, I love park slope – but there is an element of weird parenting that goes on that’s a little too “grains&granola” for me!
“In Park Slope, given the same scenario, at least half the time the kid(s) is shrieking and running amok within five minutes. Why is that?”
Because entitled white people do not discipline their children.
Judging by 1:19’s comment, seems there are will be a run on therapists in about 15 years with all the kids having to deal with their alcoholic moms.
My mom NEVER took me to a bar as a kid. Never.
I think it’s shameful.
Daveinbedstuy:
You win, my hat is off to you. Nothing to kill the libido like mutilated beggars!
As long as the bar is empty (weekday), and it is before 6 pm, then bringing my kid into the bar is fine (by me). This is a rule of convenience for me, sure.
Ahhhhhh, beer.
Yes, 1:03 is right…Being a mom is the hardest thing in the world living in a Park Slope brownstone with a $900 stroller.
12:52.Ever heard of moms in places like India and Thailand who cut off one of their child’s arms because it makes them more pathetic when they are begging and they usually get more money that way????
Remember the old saying…
KIDS SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD…
How about we fix it up for the 21st century, and make it heard and not seen…???
or never heard or seen!
I hate to say this, but Park Slope is just a scapegoat – this happens everywhere, and it’s not limited to pushing strollers. It seems to be part of a new attitude that people who choose to have children feel as though they can continue to live their lives as they did before they had kids – hence they bring kids everywhere, in any form of transport and even to places where kids probably shouldn’t be. It’s a prevailing attitude that EVERYWHERE should be child friendly and accomodating, be it a Park Slope street or a bar or a movie theatre (rated R, on a Saturday night – I’ve seen kids under 2 numerous times). I feel like kids today never hear “Well, no you can’t come, this is for adults only.” That’s the kind of stuff I heard all the time when I was a kid. That, added to an overall lack of consideration people have for others makes for a nasty combination.
As a disclaimer, I am a mother with Bugaboo, who will never bring my baby to a bar or a Rated R movie!
12:45
make love, not war. What’s your number?