In my day these things consisted entirely of "grout" puns.
"Here I sit all broken hearted. When to shit and learned my backpack is putting me at significant medical risk."
When s/b went. It's hard to poop and type.
2,000 injuries among 79 million people doesn't seem like that many. 1 per 40,000? That isn't nothing, but I would still think it would rank low among risks to college students.
Wait a minute. If 4 holds, then it calls into question the entire merit of this edition of the Stall Street Journal. What.
Also, limiting a backpack to 10% of your body weight is basically making backpacks pointless.
With talk like that, you're going to drive the injury rate up to 1 in 38,000, young man.
If something is only 10% of my body weight, I'm going to use a messenger bag or something else that doesn't scream "king dork" the way a backpack on an adult does.
6, 8 - I knew there was an advantage to gaining weight.
My four-month-old is more than 10% of my bodyweight. NO BABEEZ IN BAKPAKS.
re: 10
Good point. xelA (at 23 weeks) is nearly 15% of Mrs ttaM's bodyweight.
I remember similar stern warnings in high school. We were all going to get scoliosis or something.
And look at me now!
(Still prefer a backpack to an over-the-shoulder bag, and still prefer to have both straps on. King dork checking in!)
I'm going to use a messenger bag or something else that doesn't scream "king dork" the way a backpack on an adult does.
Hey, I practically never go out without a backpack. I need my mini-library/security blanket with me at all times. Otherwise I might be stuck obsessively reading the small print on the subway ads and obnoxiously looking over the shoulder of anyone with any printed material.
We were all going to get scoliosis or something.
I have scoliosis. I'm pretty sure it's congenital.
I largely carry a backpack to and from work. My bag isn't excessively heavy, but camera plus netbook and/or kindle, plus the usual odds and sods [wallet, phone, headphones, 3 sets of keys] add up. That said, when I get away with it, I carry a shoulder bag.
13: I'm sure it looks good on you.
And yeah, I have mild scoliosis. Don't know if the curve is enough to meet the diagnostic criteria, but when I had physio on my back a while ago, they mentioned I had some curvature.
16 to 15, also. But nobody else try it.
17: I met the criteria for diagnosis, but not for them doing anything about it medically. They told me not to lift more than 80 pounds, which really hasn't been much of a limitation.
19: I've put off seeing any kind of specialist who might want to do any medical intervention on mine and can make some of the periodic numbness and constant pain better if I do my physical therapy exercises, which I still often don't. I don't lift 80 lbs., but as Nia has gotten progressively closer to 70 it's sure made it hard for me to keep her up in the air for as long as she'd like. Mara, only 55 or so, still sometimes gets to ride on my back in a backpack despite being way over the weight limit for that. Oh well.
Because I'm really dedicated to not getting much done today, I looked up the American Occupational Therapy Association. It appears that the 10% rule is specific to children.
20: I haven't seen anybody for it since shortly after they did the high school check-up thing.
Which is not to say that I'm advising against going to a doctor for periodic numbness and constant pain.
22: It's only been 4 or 5 years for me and I'm supposed to monitor by paying attention to whether it feels like my body's changing, which I do. So I'm following orders, except possibly not on the lifting kids part and I'm not going to follow that one anyway because it would be too inconvenient. The numbness is just sciatica-related and the physical therapy would be the medical response anyhow.
When I was in school, wearing your backpack with both straps on your shoulders automatically made you a social outcast.
They told me not to lift more than 80 pounds, which really hasn't been much of a limitation.
What they meant is that you shouldn't weigh more than 800 pounds.
I haven't worn a backpack in a long time, but I'm considering trying to find a carrier in which I can tote Zardoz to day care, which would preclude carrying the rest of my stuff in my messenger bag. It seems like a hassle, but the stroller is a little bit of a bulky hassle, too.
Messenger bag plus front carrier is entirely workable; I did that for a while with the kid.
Front carriers work great until the baby gets too long. Because balls.
Are there better options than Baby Bjorns these days? I used to have the worst time putting that thing on.
There are different options; better is a matter of taste. I liked the Beco Gemini, but my wife hated the "safety" buckles (webbing clips that take three fingers to unfasten) and we ended up with an Ergobaby Performance, which is pretty good but I find a little more difficult to put on.
Locally there's a group with a lending library of carriers to try out, which is pretty awesome.
Slings worked spectacularly well for us, from newborn up to almost two (and that's with large children). Much easier to get the kid in and out, and much easier on the back than front-pack style carriers.
In retrospect, I wish we had figured out the sling.
I like the Ergo a lot and find it easy on the back. The Moby wrap is also good but I have a hard time putting it on without dragging it all over the floor.
We have some of the sort of unstructured sligny thingies -- I think a Mai Tai or whatever it is and a K'Taan? -- but Zqrdoz doesn't really cotton to 'em. I was thinking of one of the more structured things like the Bjorn but without the part where it's bad for the baby legs. You can really use one of those with a messenger bag? How?
I'm walking a mile and a bit each way, for reference.
Ace does great in the Bjorn. It annoys me for various reasons, but I do find it extremely easy to put on and take off. It was great for exercising in because she was absolutely not going to slip out of position. I didn't know I was ruining her legs, though.
I'm partial to the Master Blaster scaffold carriers.
The Björn is supposed to be bad for the baby's hips, because it puts pressure on the joint rather than supporting the baby under its thighs.
Zardoz doesn't want to do anything that isn't front facing right now.
Alex doesn't like the Bjorn unless he's facing forward, and we've only used it once, I think. He successfully managed to piss all over it. We have one of those unstructured slings, too, but it doesn't seem to work for us.
[I say we, but it wasn't me, in either instance.]
Tbh, I find the buggy [US: stroller] much more convenient. You can chuck your stuff under it, and just wheel.
I really hated the Moby Wrap. Even when tied up (what I thought was) correctly there was always a feeling that the baby was about to fall out onto the floor and generally the thing was a giant PITA. The hell with that stupid piece of fabric.
I liked the Bjorn a lot, plus I called it the "Njarl" as I was reading Njarl's Saga at the time. Very easy to use. My kid's legs seem to work fine now but maybe they're ruined somehow.
Njarlathotep is a major figure in the Leifcraftson mythos.
21: doesn't that rule mean that primary school children basically aren't allowed to carry anything at all? What are you supposed to do? Shopping trolley? Native bearer?
48: They don't call them "helicopter parents" for nothing.
I mean, judging by some of the comments in this thread they're clearly already experienced with slingloads.
My own mother and father followed an approach better described as Arc-Light parenting. Most of the time they left me alone, but I always knew I could call them in if things ever got really horrendously bad.
When I was in school, wearing your backpack with both straps on your shoulders automatically made you a social outcast.
When I was in seventh grade, the trend suddenly became to wear your backpack with both straps—but with the straps let out all the way, so the book bag sagged off your back. I found this strap arrangement uncomfortable, so I stuck with one strap. Then I found five messenger bags.
O really dug the Bjorn (forward facing) and I walked miles and miles with him in it. He seems somehow to have emerged uncrippled.
One vote each for bjorn and ergo. No problems with legs. Moby's right about the height of the child though!
The problem with a backpack is that, if the adult carrying the backpack trips and falls flat on his face, he becomes mechanically equivalent to an atlatl, and will launch the child headfirst out of the backpack and into a nearby snowdrift at some considerable speed. Modern backpacks have harnesses for the baby to stop this happening, which is why it's important to have a modern backpack.
Really modern backpacks have proximity sensors so you don't forget and run the baby into an overhanging branch.
I think that there's a risk of aggravating hip dysplasia with the Bjorn, but many people use it with no problems. The Ergo doesn't have that risk but can't be used forward-facing.
The Ergo I really like for shopping or anywhere there are crowds and not a lot of room for strollers. If I were walking a mile every day for a commute, however, I think I'd prefer a stroller. One of the big urban assault jogging ones with the giant wheels.
I think that there's a risk of aggravating hip dysplasia with the Bjorn, but many people use it with no problems. The Ergo doesn't have that risk but can't be used forward-facing.
The Ergo I really like for shopping or anywhere there are crowds and not a lot of room for strollers. If I were walking a mile every day for a commute, however, I think I'd prefer a stroller. One of the big urban assault jogging ones with the giant wheels.
I don't see how you keep any but really young babies facing in.
Granted, I've only ever managed one particular baby. But other babies I see around seem to enjoy looking at shit.
I'm hoping that the Calabat will be big enough to put on my back by the time he cares. Right now he's content as long as he can chew on the Ergo straps or anything else for that matter
But other babies I see around seem to enjoy looking at shit.
Playing with it too, if you don't keep an eye on them.
The Ergo is what I use to haul Mara, even though I think the weight limit is 45 lbs. I love it and it really didn't bother my back until she got to about 55 lbs., though now we usually only use it around the house when she needs to feel squeezed. And she might have actually used it for the last time. At any rate, you babysplosioners should be able to get several more years' use out of yours.
At the college where I was teaching a few years ago, the health center used the back of the women's stall doors to tell us that (1) soda makes you fat, (2) your kitchen is crawling with bacteria, and (3) that you think everyone is sleeping around as much as you, but they're not, and they think you're being a slut.
One of the big urban assault jogging ones with the giant wheels.
Your sidewalks are clearly pretty different from ours.
Our stroller was chosen in the hope that it would be a nice compromise between all-terrain (that is, buckled brick sidewalks and snow) capability and total sidewalk-hogging annoyingness for everybody. As is it's still bigger than I would like.
There are relatively narrow strollers with giant wheels.
Ours is 25" wide, which I think is not terribly wide at all. But... I dunno, it's bulky.
You can get after-market wheel-mounted scythes to keep people from crowding the sides.
We did the K'Tan with Jane until she was about 6-ish months old -- but it always worked better for me than for Snark, and we had to wash it often to snug it back up. Then later we adored the Beco Gemini, which is rated to something like 55 pounds. But Jane was small and light, and also vastly preferred facing in, so I don't know how relevant that is to any of your babies.
We had an all-terrain stroller for a while but once they're old enough to sit up and stay that way I vastly prefer a Maclaren something-lightweight, even in snow.
Granted, I've only ever managed one particular baby. But other babies I see around seem to enjoy looking at shit.
Ours liked looking at shit by turning her head to the side.
The sign in 64 is amazingly cruel.
Particularly cruel when you realise that it was addressed by name.
My employer has decided to push for a paperless office (yes, people still use that phrase) and is putting posters about How To Be Paperless on the back of the toilet doors, which is...unnerving.
65: The sidewalks here near my house are hilariously awful. As in, they'll run along one block of the residential street, and then stop, because the city never had money to finish them, and so returned the land to the homeowners. But on the next block it will start up again, because it's near the school. Etc., etc.
So we take our urban assault stroller and walk in the road. Here, that's an option due to low traffic. The bigger wheels are nice for getting over cruddy pavement.
Catching up: The Ergo people will try to tell you that facing outwards is bad, because the baby can't hide away from the world if they get overwhelmed. Not sure i buy it, but it's easy enough to look to the side in the Ergo that I don't worry about it (and if he falls asleep, the pull-out nap cover is pretty nice).
With a messenger bag: Put the messenger bag on first. Then put on the front carrier, put the baby in, and strap up. The front strap of the messenger bag is between you and the baby, but I didn't find it to be a problem.
re: 67
Ours is relatively small, I think, by modern standards. But yeah, it still feels fairly bulky. Ours is also 25inches wide.
http://www.mamasandpapas.com/product-moove-package-poppy/230342000/type-i/
[We didn't pay anything like that much. It was on promotion when we got it.]
I'd guess in a month or two, when Alex wants to sit facing forwards all the time, we'll just get a super-light umbrella-fold type one [Maclaren, or whatever].
...and is putting posters about How To Be Paperless on the back of the toilet doors, which is...unnerving.
It is. Wait until you see the bidet before you give up the paper.
I'm weirdly adverse to strollers and haven't really used one at all since barely age 2 (though its obviously different if you have a more than 1 mile walking commute with baby) but the one I liked best, after the newborn/can't sit stage where we had the car seat/stroller combo, was a cheapo folding stroller I got for like $20 from a discount store. Lightweight and really easy to use and fold and put away. I had a jogging stroller that pretty much never got used.
I hated strollers with a passion, but my life has a whole lot of stairs in it -- our building's front steps, subways, we're on top of a hill with stairs down to get to Broadway. Having the kid off the ground was key. There was a really annoying six month/year when Newt was an infant and Sally wasn't a great distance walker yet, but we suffered through it.
Our babysitter used the stroller a lot -- she's little, and it just wasn't practical for her to carry the kids far at all.
Get a llama and bungee the baby to its back. Practical, ecologically friendly and off-road-capable.
We have a urban assault stroller that we use as long as we're pretty sure there's no bus-riding involved, but it's narrow-ish (also 25"). It was so much better than the snap-and-go in the winter snow it wasn't funny; more than once I ended up having to pick up the entire snap-and-go stroller mid-block and carry it to the next street.
The day care we go to has a fascinating design flaw. They seem to have forgotten that they were building a day care with no parking right next to a major transit point and sized the stroller storage more for a car- and car-seat-centric location, so half the time I'm there I have to stash the stroller in some other half-full closet and hope that my wife can find it there at the end of the day.
and is putting posters about How To Be Paperless on the back of the toilet doors, which is...unnerving.
And they really missed a rare chance where officially-sanctioned graffiti would have made more sense.
The sign in 64 is amazingly cruel.
Probably a standard student health / public health informational campaign. A lot of people become defensive at such things.
80.2: I was sure the stroller storage was going to be a problem at our daycare (it's one of those prefab sheds) but I guess more people drive than I expected. It was sort of crowded (but still with room for our stroller) on the first day, but part of that was that somebody parked a giant two-twelve-year-olds-side-by-side stroller right in the middle of the thing.
I have been meaning to out myself quietly in emails, but I've been following the stroller/carrier part of this thread closely and it's because we were just selected as the pre-adoptive family for a little girl who just turned one. I had never really expected to parent a child that young but something about her description just felt right and I have several months of parental leave to get it figured out. This isn't an emergency placement, so it will probably be a few weeks before she moves in for good. And I'm aware how much I've complained on here and individually about the state of my relationship and mental health and all that, but I also thought long and hard about whether this would be a good thing and I truly believe it is going to be positive for all of us. But I'm open to skepticism/horror/whatever, too, which is fair.
I'm not 100% sure how the process goes in Cali, but my sister's adoption hearing on her foster-to-adopt daughter is tomorrow. So in 24 hours or so, I may be an official uncle at last! I don't want to be accused of premature avuncularism though, so I will make the sign against the evil eye.
I can't believe no one's yet suggested baby harness and quadcopter.
OMFG, Dune Babies would be the best Saturday morning cartoon show. Evar.
I will not tantrum. Tantrum is the mind-killer.
Thorn, congrats and good luck! Natilo, congrats as well. Uncles don't need luck.
85: Usually by the time they give you an adoption date, it's a done deal and all you have to do is smile in front of the judge and pose for pictures. Nia will probably be at that stage late winter, and Baby Selah mid-spring or early summer.
Thanks, all! I am so excited about this. We have to tell the girls tonight and then she's coming to stay the weekend (!) and so it'll pretty much be trial by fire, but I hope in a good way. I think her first birthday was in August, so she may be sort of the alpha and omega of the babysplosion. She is outrageously cute and has cheeks and eyes like Nia's and a mouth and chin like Mara's, so the world will probably go on believing they're blood relatives.
Congrats!
Congratulations Thorn, that's wonderful news.
Congrats, Thorn! I was just telling my husband about your gorgeous girls this afternoon. I'm curious and ignorant -- what does pre-adoptive mean? Will she likely be with you permanently?
96: In her case, it means that her case goal has been changed from reunification with her parents to adoption, which has also been Nia's situation since early summer. Her current foster family knew they weren't going to adopt her, so they asked the state to find an adoptive home to move her to once the case goal changed.
In both cases, the next step is that the girls' parents' rights will be terminated and then there's a waiting period for the parents to make any appeals before that's finalized. Once it's final, we can sign intent-to-adopt paperwork that starts the process of getting an adoption going and then eventually we get in front of a judge in our county and the actual adoption happens.
But yes, by this time next year all three girls should be legally adopted and I suspect that means our family will be complete, though Lee may still be hung up on the idea of a boy even though that would also entail a minivan. We'd been getting a lot of calls about emergency foster placements, but it seemed hard to do that in a way that wouldn't be too painful for the big girls, both of whom still miss prior foster siblings,
But yes, by this time next year all three girls should be legally adopted and I suspect that means our family will be complete, though Lee may still be hung up on the idea of a boy even though that would also entail a minivan. We'd been getting a lot of calls about emergency foster placements, but it seemed hard to do that in a way that wouldn't be too painful for the big girls, both of whom still miss prior foster siblings,
Oh, that is even more exciting than I originally thought. How lovely.
Best wishes to Thorn and the growing family.
Also, happy new year to you anti-goyim.
Woo Thorn! Sneaking your way into the [almost] babysplosion!
105: Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?
Yay, Thorn! Such good news.
(And in case you're still tracking this part of things, one more vote for both the Ergo and the K'Tan.)
Hey, I practically never go out without a backpack. I need my mini-library/security blanket with me at all times. Otherwise I might be stuck obsessively reading the small print on the subway ads and obnoxiously looking over the shoulder of anyone with any printed material.
This is what 7"/8" tablets/e-ink devices (combined with pirate ebook libraries) are great for. Everything you could possibly want to read in your jacket pocket.
Congratulations Thorn! Also congratulations to Incipient Uncle Natilo (being an uncle is a great gig) and to Eggplant, for the mini Harkonnen comment.
Excellent news, Thorn! You'll need a bigger house at this rate...
Great news, Thorn and family. Congratulations.
I think, based on sister's ex's liveblogging on FB, that they are in the adoption hearing right now! Suspense is killing me!
PS: Formal congratulations to Thorn, Lee & family!
BOOM! I'm from U.N.C.L.E.
Congrats to both Thorn and Natilo. Being an uncle is great.
one more vote for both the Ergo and the K'Tan
A tawny K'Tan?
And congrats to the Thornseses!
Congrats to Thorn and to Uncle Natilo!
122: Congratulations! But I of course think you were an uncle even before the judge said so.
Baby Selah is charming. She doesn't talk at all, but is very clear about expressing her needs. She stomps around exploring happily and is also delighted to snuggle and be held. Mara and Nia both had some second thoughts during the school day, but their teachers were supportive and did a lot of talking about siblings and even showed the classmates the photo we had of Selah on their smartboards.
Mara at one point turned to me and said, "I think she's Just Right!" and Lee immediately agreed. We'll bring her back to her foster family Monday, but they have a new baby coming next week and may want to transition her sooner than I'd expected. I assembled her crib and tomorrow will get the shelving unit/changing table put together and attached to the wall. By the time she moves in, we can be babyproofed, I think!
Good luck, Thorn and family!
Congrats, Natilo!
129: even showed the classmates the photo we had of Selah on their smartboards
That was before they took their food pills, and after they came back from the field trip to the android factory in the school's air car, right?
Mara at one point turned to me and said, "I think she's Just Right!" and Lee immediately agreed.
So cute! Congratulations! I expect there will be complications, but that sounds wonderfully positive.
Late to the thread, but: Woo Uncle Natilo! So so lovely. My sobrinos are one of the greatest joys in my life.
And wow awesome Mama Thorn! Baby Selah sounds like a delightful new addition.
131: I know, I know. But I think that's the generic term. These are slightly more efficient than giant projectors and it's not as if every student gets one, just one for the class that's controlled by the teacher. I'm not sure if they had a grant to buy them or what, but the message definitely goes out that they're important and a big deal.
I do love the girls' teachers. I'd sent them an email message about Selah and the way we talk about foster care, assuming both would come up. (The generic little-kid language is that there are "mom jobs" and "dad jobs" someone has to do for a child and if the parent isn't doing them, a relative or friend steps up as has presumably happened for several of the kids in the girls' classes already or else they go into foster care where people have been trained to be helper parents while the parents do the things they need to do to keep their children safe and healthy. etc.) I'd also told the principal before I told the girls, and she was the one who unloaded them from our car in the dropoff line this morning and jumped up and down with excitement with them, which was cute.
132: Oh, I could also have reported the part where she got really sad because she misses our three-person family and is scared that there won't be enough love to go around, but it is positive and I think will be positive on the whole for all of us.
Truly, we live in an age of marvels!