Stroller Madness

With this post, I’m hoping to spare some city parents out there from the same stroller purchase mistakes that I made. Maybe not so applicable to suburbanites…

We started out so promisingly. When C was an infant, we used the Graco SnugRide 32 Infant Car Seat, which doubles as a stroller if you buy the corresponding stroller frame. Efficient! Besides, I never understood the idea of buying another fancy stroller to push around your infant since I spent most of my time walking around with C strapped on to me Ergo-style. We loved our Graco SnugRide.

When C was around 4 months old, we graduated to the Rolls Royce of strollers, the EasyWalker. What I failed to realize, since I made the mistake of buying it sight unseen, was that it pretty much took up the entire square footage of our NY apartment (or at least the hallway: see pic above), and it was around as heavy as an actual Rolls Royce. So while C may have loved it, the hubby and I, not so much. (I’m also looking at you, Bugaboo and UPPAbaby Vista.)

So then we moved on to an umbrella stroller, the Maclaren Volo. 8.5 pounds!!! A dream! What I failed to realize was that it would have been nice to have gotten a stroller with a reclining seat, as C oftentimes fell asleep in her stroller, and nothing’s more heartbreaking than seeing a kid’s head lolligagging to one side as s/he sleeps.

By now, the hubby was somewhat frustrated with all of my stroller acquisitions, and so he limited me to a budget of around $150 for the next stroller. So between the Maclaren Triumph and the UPPAbaby G-luxe, I opted for the latter. The seat reclined back farther, the sun canopy was more expansive, and an attached cup holder for my morning joe sealed the deal. The only problem now is that the straps seem somewhat short with all of C’s winter gear, which doesn’t bode well for next winter. Sigh.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have just opted for the City Mini (not the Elite version!) and have called it a day. It seems like the perfect hybrid of luxury stroller and umbrella stroller. But it’s heavy (26 pounds???), and if weight is an issue, perhaps the Maclaren Quest, which comes in at 12.2 pounds.

Man, I cannot wait until it doesn’t take C half an hour to walk half a block…