On Thursday I re-ran my vintage post about a car-free living with a baby. So what’s life like over two years later?

I never thought I’d be one of those parents wheeling a four-year-old around in a stroller. In fact, I scoffed at parents who didn’t make their kids walk, instead opting to push them all over town like little princes and princesses. Why, I practically joined the track team by the age of two! My nephews escorted my father for three-mile hikes when they were still in diapers!

Fast forward to 2010. My daughter is four and a half and can’t walk more than half a block at a snail’s pace before stopping dead in her tracks and begging to be carried. I’ve tried leaving the stroller behind on errands, only to resort to carrying her thirty-pound body hither and yon. She simply won’t walk—she’ll stand in place, sit on the sidewalk, and moan and groan.

For now, I am going to continue using the stroller. I really couldn’t get anything done without it. (As a side note, the fact that I’ve walked this stroller at least a mile a day for the last 4.5 years is a great endorsement for the Maclaren Triumph!) If I had a car, it might be different, but until Audrey can walk at least two miles without complaint, I guess I’ll have to resign myself to being one of “those” parents. I’m just hoping I don’t have to wheel her to into kindergarten next year. . . .

Do any of you have “advanced stroller riders”? Or do you have any tips for making a reluctant walker get moving?