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
“the guy writing this nonsense is a jerk and should probably move elsewhere”
There are many responses above saying those who don’t have kids should just leave Park Slope. However, on previous threads where people stated that singles don’t like Park Slope so the amenities are getting worse not better, the Slopers get all furious and defensive telling us the neighborhood is mostly all singles without children. Which is it?
If the singles start to hate Park Slope because of the huge family emphasis and if kids are running around all the bars and restaurants in Park Slope, then eventually there will be no decent restaurants and bars anymore. Who eats dinner out who drinks and therefore keeps the restaurants open because alcohol is the number one profit maker for restaurants? Singles.
A few things: some parents with strollers are considerate (probably the majority) and then there are the ones who run you over and act like they have the right of way just because they decided to procreate. The latter is insanely annoying.
I agree that there seems to be a trend with many parents (white, upscale) these days who come from the “all about me” school of selfish parenting. They don’t want to accept the fact that guess what… life has changed for them now that they have a baby. So they drag the kid in a stroller to the nail salon/R-rated movies/expensive restaurants/local bars. My mother NEVER took me to these places because it’s f*cking rude to impose a screaming baby on people trying to watch a movie, sip a beer or get their nails done.
But some of these New Yorkers are so self-centered! They want to do what they want to do and they don’t give a shit if their kid disrupts everyone else in the process. Either hire a babysitter or DON’T GO. That’s called being a parent. There are certain places where kids just don’t belong, period…end of story. I’m sick of parents these days justifying this kind of thing.
Second, I understand that there are some situations out of a parents’ control, but if your baby/child cries, please take them outside…I can’t STAND it when parents allow their kids to throw temper tantrums in public places. The other diners/moviegoers/etc. shouldn’t have to suffer. If you miss your entree or the rest of the movie – too bad! That’s called being a parent. We shouldn’t all have to listen to your kid yell at the top of their lungs because you’re too lazy to discipline them or pull them outside for a time-out.
It’s not about the kids (they’re always going to cry, that’s just what they do) it’s about the lazy parenting. People in our parents’ generation didn’t drag kids around with them everywhere like Paris Hilton does with her chihuahua.
4:24, I’m genuinely happy for you, but I’ve also seen remarkable parents whose children will act up no matter how many different ways they try to modify the behavior. Everyone’s kids are different with different tempermants and some will act up periodically no matter what their parents do at home. That’s all I’m saying. I’m sure you’re a very good parent, but there are other very good parents who simply cannot always stop their kids from sudden outbursts in public. The best they can do is try to diffuse / remove them from the situation. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work either.
how can you still be talking about this???
most of you seem to be missing a chromosome.
seriously.
it doesn’t bode well for your intellect that you can talk all day long about people pushing a stroller, while 22,500 people just died yesterday in a cyclone.
Right, and it’s the parents who are the only entitled ones, clearly.
i shoved your kid out of they way,
why because your precious little genius savior of the world is not that important to me, see i have things to do and places to go, its not cute that you want to play teach your kid how to walk up steps at any store or on the subway steps.
move your kid out of my way or carry him inside, if you want to teach him how to walk up steps, do it on the stoop of your overpriced brownstone
Biff believe it or not some of us parents(I have 3 kids ranging from 13-2) actually enforce what’s appropiate behaivor in the house so we won’t have to deal with what you describe outside of the house. My kids have NEVER acted out in public.
3:52, you’re (unintentionally) hilarious!! Oh, I need to have a front row to see your face the first time Junior screams in a grocery store because he’s tired (yes, it will happen and you will find out that even well-behaved children get cranky when tired or hungry and you will inevitably be in public when it happens). Or will you also not dream of bringing a small child to the grocery store? Will you hire a sitter for that too, and every other time you go out in public? Who was talking about bringing kids at night to upscale restaurants? We were talking about kids walking in the street during the daytime. You were the one talking about parents “in the MIDDLE of the sidewalk with their 2 huge strollers.”
Damn, you’re in for one hell of a rude awakening, sister!!!!
I would agree with the entitlement issue being a lazy metaphysical argument to a point. So instead of arguing since I am a childless individual I have chosen to do the following:
Create the largest carbon footprint I can so there will be no earth left for those children
Use as much of the earths natural resources as possible. Why should these children have anything. They are entitled to earn it.
Any other ideas to create scorched earth for the gen-entitled?