Park Slope T-Shirts

You'd better watch it. Citizen jane and Kensingtonmom are about to get indignant! :twisted:

kensington mom, your analogy is flawed. The double stroller people and the suv people have a choice, and have chosen something that is not really conducive to the environment. No one has to use a double stroller, there are strollers that have as many as 3 carriers one after another.

http://www.strollerdepot.com/moreinfo.php?SKU=1006

That would be a much better choice for the congested sidewalks of nyc.

angrila, if your shirts convince one park sloper to dump their double wide, you have made a wonderful difference. kudos!

Kensingtonmom wrote:

I just think picking on people who have to use a double stroller is a waste of energy and cotton and ink. Plus the shirts are badly designed (no offense). And yes, I have said 1,000 times, there are some extremely obnoxious parents in Park Slope I AGREE!! Anyone listening, I agree already. And there are some privileged obnoxious single people in Park Slope. Why not use your acidic wit to make T-shirts that could actually make a difference? Something about class and privilege? Something about driving an SUV that is accelerating global warming? But double strollers is sooooo boring already. It is like making T-shirts about people who have to wear a caste for a broken leg "Hey Gimp, Get that Shit outta my way."

it seems to me that two or more people can easily change positions while the doublewides cannot, so that isn't really applicable.

Basically, your point is that it is better that everyone else be inconvenienced by the doublewides than you be inconvenienced by stroller design?

I think that kind of attitude is exactly what most people find so frustrating about the stroller brigade.

Kensingtomom wrote:
Sigh. I look forward to the day that this angry persnickity crowd starts having children of their own--or hopefully choose not to!

Jeez, I'm almost coming around to your point of view.

I had one of those front-and-back stollers when my kids were small, and it was a pain in the ass. Those things are really not designed for an urban environment. You have to be pretty strong to get them over the curbs.

Yes, there are obnoxious parents in the Slope, definitely. Are they the most obnoxious people in the Slope? I personally would put them behind the people who don't clean up after their dogs and the people who become completely oblivious to their surroundings as they shout into their cell phones. Oh, and the people who sit in Naidres for hours after they finish their coffee, so I can't get a table to eat my sandwich. And the people who talk on their cell phones and sip their grande lattes while double-parking their giant SUVs. Those people really annoy me.

1. Yes, people walking two or three abreast can step aside. But very often they don't. If you are considerate, there's no need to get in someone else's way, either with a double stroller or with your friend with whom you are no doubt having the most engaging conversation in the history of speech.
There are selfish people without children, and they often become selfish people with children, that's all.

2. The whole tired SUV stroller analogy is just lazy thinking, plus a way of dressing up one's lazy thinking with a vague patina of political righteousness. (That big thing is just like -- like an SUV! And the people who push them -- why they must be just like those awful suburban Republicans! Just like George Bush and Dick Cheney and their Halliburton oil-burning anti-Kyoto shock-and-awe intelligent-design what-would-Jesus-do cronies!)
The problem is, a double stroller is not actually an SUV. It's a non-fossil-fuel-burning device that the user, at least in Park Slope, employs precisely because they have decided not to haul their children off to the (fossil-fuel-guzzling) suburbs but instead are choosing a much more sustainable life in a city. And unless you're a population-control activist, people don't have two children out of ostentatious disregard for the planet's resources. (Of course, if that's your position, then make a T-shairt that says, "Why didn't you abort the second one, you selfish bitch!")

3. I do not have, nor have I ever used a double stroller. But if someone who has actually pushed around that much poundage of child says the front-and-backs are hard to maneuver over city curbs, I believe them. You discover quickly when you look at strollers that many of them are designed for people who don't really, um, walk. They're built for a nation of overweight mallrats who will probably put 5 miles on them in their lifetimes between stops at Chick-fil-A.
The fact that I live in a city and am a member of a species that reproduces means that occasionally I have to suck it up when someone's kid accidentally kicks me on the subway or throws a tantrum in a store, or whatever. Parents have an obligation to try not to inconvenience me, but it is unreasonable to expect them to make sure I never so much as notice their existence.

4. All that said, I think the T-shirt is kinda funny. But the kicker could probably be funnier. "How We Roll" T-shirt was really funny, but it worked because is was dry, whereas the back-that-shit-up is a little shrill.

Sigh...

This has never really bothered me that much but for some reason I can't help but throw my 2 cents in, I think it'a because some people get so incensed. You know who you are.

Honestly, the way I see it, space is the natural resource we're talking about, which makes the SUV argument a fairly valid one to me. People who use a sidewalk in NYC and are aloof to the other traffic around them are a problem. This includes large clumps of people and this includes doublewides.

This also includes tourists stopping in the middle of the block to gawk and the delivery guy who persists in riding his bike on the busy sidewalk near 2nd st.

In Park Slope there are obviously a lot of doublewides, and some of the people pushing them are clearly not paying any attention to the world around them. I think all anyone is asking is that these people be considerate.

My biggest pet peeve is litterbugs. I'd like to make simple acts of littering punishable by 1 day in jail. Would someone make a litterbug shirt for me?

steve wrote: Sigh...This has never really bothered me that much but for some reason I can't help but throw my 2 cents in, I think it'a because some people get so incensed. You know who you are.

Oh well, I thought we had made progress on this debate but we are right back where we were, round and round and round with the SUV analogy. To reiterate (for the 50th time), I just don't think all people who must push a double stroller should be lumped into the same category as people who drive SUVs (we aren't using the earth's resources nor are we adding to global warming). I don't think all people who must use a double stroller are selfish and taking more than their share. I think we see all kinds of selfish behavior that is either with or without a stroller and yes, the slope has a high proportion of people who think their children are entitled and we should all be enjoying how special they are. I think your attitude is really intolerant because you are lumping everyone into one group--which is the basis for prejudice.

Did you even read my post kensington mom? Please hire someone to teach your children to read what people say before they cast aspersions on them. I'm kind of intolerant of that kind of behavior. javascript:emoticon('8)')
Cool

kensingtonmom wrote: [quote=steve]Sigh...This has never really bothered me that much but for some reason I can't help but throw my 2 cents in, I think it'a because some people get so incensed. You know who you are.

Oh well, I thought we had made progress on this debate but we are right back where we were, round and round and round with the SUV analogy. To reiterate (for the 50th time), I just don't think all people who must push a double stroller should be lumped into the same category as people who drive SUVs (we aren't using the earth's resources nor are we adding to global warming). I don't think all people who must use a double stroller are selfish and taking more than their share. I think we see all kinds of selfish behavior that is either with or without a stroller and yes, the slope has a high proportion of people who think their children are entitled and we should all be enjoying how special they are. I think your attitude is really intolerant because you are lumping everyone into one group--which is the basis for prejudice. 8) 8)

steve wrote:
In Park Slope there are obviously a lot of doublewides, and some of the people pushing them are clearly not paying any attention to the world around them. I think all anyone is asking is that these people be considerate.

I want to call Steve's mom and ask her if little Steve ever made her so tired, harried, and distracted that she occasionally didn't pay attention to everything else that was going on around her.

Anyway, think of it this way -- at least the distracted people bumping into you with their double-wide strollers are not really driving SUVs.

Anonymous wrote: Did you even read my post kensington mom? Please hire someone to teach your children to read what people say before they cast aspersions on them. I'm kind of intolerant of that kind of behavior. javascript:emoticon('8)')
Cool

Yes, I did read your post and the way I interpreted it was that you were lumping SUVS and double wides together as two inconsiderate behaviors in that each takes up more than their fair share of space or resources. Isn't that what you meant? If not, my apologies. I disagree with the agrument and the analogy.

If my kids could read, I hope to god I wouldn't be pushing them around in a stroller anymore!

steve wrote: my point was not that all doublewides are inconsiderate which would make me "intolerant" but that some (many?) of the people who command them are inconsiderate and oblivious and think that it grants them some sort of free reign over the sidewalk, which I think we can agree it does not.

That's perfectly reasonable. I think we'd all agree that anyone who pushes a doublewide (or a single stroller, or who walks two abreast with friends, or who walks a dog with one of those telescoping leash things that I'm pretty sure are illegal in NYC) should be considerate of others and not get in other people's way.

Your first post, though, made it sound like you thought using a doublewide was inherently selfish -- i.e., saying that "no one has to use a doublewide" and that you hoped the T-shirts would convince people to "dump" them.

If you just meant to say that people who push doublewides have the same obligation to be considerate as anyone else, I'm with you on that.

Subject: Re: speaking of pet peeves

6th Streeter wrote: Can someone make a flyer to be slipped under the windshield wipers of those people who take up TWO parking spots by parking themselves exactly in the middle of what are clearly two legitimate spaces? Drives me crazy every time. Talk about precious natural resources -- parking spots should top the list in this neighborhood.

OH, yes please. I hate those people.

steve wrote: I wouldn't call it inherently selfish to use a doublewide, but I also remain unconvinced that it is any easier to use than the back to backs. . . . That said, less doublewides would seem to be a very minor improvement to Park Slope, and if tshirts cause people to use something less obtrusive, great.

As to the first point: try them out. Having one child five feet ahead of you in a front-to-back stroller is highly disconcerting, to say the least (especially when crossing the street), and the design offers zero control over the front of the thing. When I used one I felt that I was constantly in danger of running over people's toes. It was like walking around the neighborhood with the bum wagon from Key Food that you can't control.

I spent an exhorbitant amount of money on my side-by-side stroller, mainly because it is only 28" wide and I can maneuver it with one hand, making it a lot easier for me to be considerate of those around me. Really, do three people (me and two babies) not have the right to take up less than two and a half feet of sidewalk space? What's next? Laws against walking and talking with a friend side by side? No shopping carts allowed on 7th Avenue? Where's the indignation over frequent bicyclists on the sidewalk? Today I counted five dogs on 7th Avenue between Carroll and President. Were their leashes more than 28 inches across when stretched (as some were)? Yes. Did I wish them ill? No. Did I start a campaign to eliminate dogs that take up too much space in the neighborhood? No. I moved on with my life, as I suggest you all do.

As to the second point, I cannot imagine a case in which someone's t-shirt would convince me or anyone I know to forsake a necessity in our lives to appease the sanctimonious, anonymous, self-righteous and ignorant wearer of the t-shirt. Someone who likely has never had two babies at once, has never test-driven various strollers, assumes that we are all selfish assholes? Doesn't make me want to throw out my stroller, without which it is nearly impossible for me to leave the house. Instead it makes me defensive (hey, if you offend, I have to defend) and frustrated, because it seems a complaint based on ignorance.

Carnivore wrote: FYI: anxiety, irritability, mood changes, and psychosis are among the adverse effects reported in post-marketing surveillance of clomiphene.


http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/clomiph_ad.htm

Are you implying the twins mother used fertility drugs? You are really infantile and rude if that is the case. I really hope I am misinterpreting your post because that is probably the most obnoxious one I have read. There is just no finding a common ground with some people.

Kensingtonmom wrote: [quote=Carnivore]FYI: anxiety, irritability, mood changes, and psychosis are among the adverse effects reported in post-marketing surveillance of clomiphene.


http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/clomiph_ad.htm

Are you implying the twins mother used fertility drugs? You are really infantile and rude if that is the case. I really hope I am misinterpreting your post because that is probably the most obnoxious one I have read. There is just no finding a common ground with some people.

Is another documented side-effect obsession with Park Slope by people who live in Kensington?
:twisted:

Interesting, Carnivore, interesting . . .

I'll say it again, it's the rotten attitude of the parents, not the strollers or the kiddles, that makes people hate the stroller army.