Dads: What's Up with the One-Handed Stroller Push?

Whenever I see a guy out pushing a stroller I feel conflicted.

It doesn’t happen every single time, just on those occasions when the intriguing one-handed stroller push is on exhibit, which is often.

You’ve seen them, those cool dads with one hand on the stroller handle and one hand dangling redundantly by their side. So what’s that about?

To be fair, many mothers have mastered the tricky business of the one-handed push too, but it’s usually because the other hand is attached to a reluctant toddler, holding a batch of shopping bags, or wrapped around stroller baby itself, who is refusing to play by the rule that if mom pushes stroller, baby sits in it. Then there are those enviable jogger-moms who run and steer their hi-tech three-wheelers with the elegance of a mother duck herding her brood.

Usually though, women have two hands on the stroller, carefully and purposefully negotiating the pedestrian jungle, evoking memories of driving lesson etiquette when both hands had to be on the wheel in the ten-to-two position for full control of the vehicle.

The one-handed Dad stroller pushers are different though, it feels like they’re trying to make a point:

• Is it that stroller pushing is so easy for men with their superior co-ordination and strength that they don’t need both hands to steer? Perhaps it’s as simple as that.

• Is it that they need that hand for other things? I don’t know… scratching, jangling the change in their pocket, waving at the yummy mommy’s in the park?

• Is it a primitive defense maneuver? One hand pushing offspring, one hand at the ready to protect said offspring from oncoming threats?

• Is it a show of reluctance – “I’ll take the baby out, but don’t expect me to like it” – kind of gesture? Or alternately a laid back, zoned-out, “Yeah, down time with my kid, we’re hanging loose” expression of relaxation?

• Is it the “elbow out the window” equivalent of driving a car?

• Or is it a show of male superiority – that this stuff is bullshit easy and I can do it with one hand (blind-folded and hopping on one foot backwards too)?

Moms love that modern fathers are an integral part of their kid’s lives, doing everything that we do and often with a whole lot more energy. Kids are crazy about their dads too, and rightfully. A stroll or trip out alone with Dad is usually a recipe for mega amounts of fun and bonding. Coupled with that admiration for hands-on dads though, is a burning curiosity to get to the root of the one-hand-off stroller push? So c’mon Dads, tell us what that’s all about. We’d like to know because it’s really kind of interesting and just a bit annoying too.

I’m a mom to three, wife, writer and sugar addict who spends too much time in conversation with my laptop and not enough with my husband. You can catch me ruminating over at Momificent and on Facebook.