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
Um, 3:21 and Biff. I don’t know how to break it to you, but yes, my future children will be better behaved at pricey, upscale restaurants than yours, because I wouldn’t dream of bringing a small child who understandably can’t sit still for more than ten minutes to the fucking restaurant in the first place. If you can afford the restaurant, you can afford a baby sitter. Thank you. We now join our regular circle jerk already in progress…
Oh man, don’t let this thread die without someone telling me what “candyass central” means!
I’m so curious! I keep thinking of that board game candylane or whatever it was called.
you just described hippies, 3:35.
not yuppies.
basically total opposites.
you sound like you didn’t finish 3rd grade.
LOL!
Damn you babies and your cute little feetsies!
3:21, thanks. I do appreciate it when someone can see eye to eye with me – if only on one issue, so be it. It’s better than nothing. Anyway, it’s proverbial famous last words thinking you will somehow be a better parent or more capably be able to “manage” your own kids behavior before you have any yourself. And it’s amazing how much more empathy one suddenly feels for other parents once one has their own children and knows first hand the sacrifices and challenges of trying to be a good parent.
153 posts. Now that is funny.
Unless you were never a baby…you all should just shut up and live and let live. Or don’t pro create.
A rude person is a rude person, whether they have a stroller or not.
you just described hippies, 3:35.
not yuppies.
basically total opposites.
you sound like you didn’t finish 3rd grade.
You people are all YUPPIES! My brownstone has has been in our family for generation. My grandparents and fatehr lived there when it was a “slum” now we are being pushed out by all of you IDAHO, burkanstock wearing, back to the land shopping, soy bean eating, tree hugging YUPPIES! You would never catch any one of you in a rea lbar like Farrels bc you all know better, NA you guys can have your LOKI lounge and Lighthouse, the real ppl in this neighborhood are becoming outnumbered bc you fools are willing to pay 1600 for a studio apartments! SUCKERS! you people call this place your home! It makes me laugh..THIS IS MY HOME!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Despite your reasonable comment, it is clearly an arbitrary lie or exageration to say that someone approached you and asked you why you don’t have a bugaboo or mcclaren. That is simply NOT believable. No one gives a SHIT what “brand” their stroller is – they’re just making a decision based on their assessment of which stroller will make walking miles every day, riding subways, going up and down stoops, etc. easier. And biff, for the first time, thank you. Whoever the jackass is who more or less said “when I have my OWN children MY children will not be loud and obnoxious when I bring them to restaurants” – good luck – you’re in for a horrifying surprise.
In general, to those of you who don’t have children but are planning on having them at some point: the less said, the better. I can tell you that the more you talk and judge now, the more you’ll feel like a naive and deluded asshole when you get around to procreating.