The Stroller Post
Phew. I’ve rewritten the lead paragraph to this post so many times I’m sick of it. I’m just going to delete everything and start here: Did you know that I have three strollers now? Somebody shoot me.
1. The Bugaboo
Oh how I love the Bugaboo! It was absolutely perfect as a bassinet stroller when Baby Bug was a teeny baby. I loved how I could wheel it everywhere in my house and she could snooze peacefully. I loved the canopy cover that shaded her from the bright sun. It was wonderful. I loved loved loved it. I think the peace of mind it gave me in those early months alone was enough to justify it’s super expensive cost. I should have skipped the real bassinet and just used the stroller instead.
When Baby Bug got big enough, I LOVED the toddler seat. It’s so fun and funky the way you can switch directions it faces. This way baby looks at you. That way baby can see where she’s going! How great is that? It’s also perfectly comfortable (if you don’t pinch her skin in the seat belt buckle. Ouch!!!) and so easy to push. I love how you can push the Bugaboo with one finger. The wheels just glide any old where you want to go. This has proven exceptionally useful at the laundromat when I’m carrying three over-sized bags of dirty clothes and balancing a bottle of detergent on my head. It’s also proven useful when trying to get in and out of the swinging doors at Starbucks.
Unfortunately, there are some things I don’t love about the bugaboo. First, I don’t love the polar fleece. It’s a giant magnet for cat hair and I can’t be always tape rolling or laundering it. Hello! I’m a mom now. I can’t be consumed by vanity anymore! The cats love to sleep in the stroller, when it’s not in use, and this is a great source of frustration for me. I sometimes wish I had opted for the cheaper gecko model that just has a canvass cover. However the Chameleon does have a nice protective bar that goes in front of Baby Bug that the Gecko does not and I do kinda like that. Was it worth the extra $200? Not sure.
My biggest beef with the bugaboo is how hard it is to carry. It’s pretty easy to take apart and put back together again, but it’s a bit heavy. Not terribly heavy but not light. This is a real problem for me because I live up a flight of stairs. I hate carrying it upstairs. I can either bump it up the stairs all in one piece and risk breaking my neck and the stroller OR I can take it apart in two pieces and heft it up in two trips. Where is the baby during all this hefting? She’s tied up somewhere screaming bloody murder, wondering why her mom abandoned her.
I hate this hassle so much that I often don’t even bother with it. This is such a shame because I paid so much for the thing. I’d definitely use it a lot more if I lived in a one story house with an easy access sidewalk. I think if I lived in Paris it would be perfect. Oh Pareeeeeeeeeee!
The other thing I hate about the bugaboo is that it takes up my ENTIRE trunk. Sure, I have a little car but it’s not like I’m going to go buy a suburban or a mini-van just so I can carry a stroller and my groceries at the same time. I used to just leave the stroller at home or jam all my groceries in the passenger seats. This was a crying shame since my neat nifty little car is a hatch back—perfect for carrying groceries.
All that said, I still love the bugaboo. I love it because it’s sturdy and safe but not huge and clunky like an SUV stroller. Baby Bug can sleep in it. If I’m gone for a whole day trip I can just recline her seat and she can snooze away. I’m such a snob about how a stroller handles. The Bugaboo is the luxury car of strollers. Once you drive one you’ll never want to go back.
2. The Super Jogger © “the stroller for runners”
I love the jogger stroller. You know why? Because it was free. I love it because it’s old and rusty and I can leave it outside in the weather. It’s beat up but completely functional. I love it’s big huge tires that can cruise over sand like a breeze. I love that I can leave the jogger stroller downstairs and nobody steals it because it’s so ugly. I love that it’s always there and I can take it for a quick run to the grocery store or Starbucks or the beach. I can leave it outside on the sidewalk and it’s always there when I come back. Long live the old ratty tatty jogger stroller.
What I don’t love about the jogger stroller is that it’s ratty and… well, big. It doesn’t fold up and it won’t fit in my trunk. I can’t take it on trips. It steers great when you’re going fast but horribly when you’re going slow. You pretty much just have to pick it up and manually make it go at a different angle. It’s super light (great for running) but if you hang anything on the handle bar, it will capsize and dump the baby out the back. This is all fine because it’s a jogger stroller. You’d never want to take it shopping.
If you aren’t lucky enough to be given one, like me, I would recommend the BOB for a jogger stroller. It’s pricey but it’s light and it has all the bells and whistles that I wish mine had. Plus it does fold down small enough to fit in your trunk. I know all this because I’ve coveted whoorl’s.
3. The Maclaren
This is the new stroller. It’s so nifty! I was going to go out and buy a cheap $20 target umbrella stroller but the family I used to babysit said I could have their old Maclaren instead. I’m so glad I waited for the hand-me-down. It’s the nicest lightweight stroller there is! I’ve used my sister-in-law’s old jeep stroller and though it was nice, it had some things I didn’t like. My biggest problem with the Jeep stroller was that it didn’t have any shoulder straps and I NEED shoulder straps. I don’t know about the rest of the babies in the world but my baby likes to lean forward as far as she can and stick her tongue in the wheel spokes. She’s a squirrely little one. She must be strapped in.
I think that sums it up for me and my post about strollers.
22 Comments
josephine
Phew! Sorry to you early readers. I had a ton of typos. I think they are all fixed now.
DeeJay
Wow, you put a lot of thought into the whole stoller thing. The good thing is that you have places to push a stroller. Around here we don’t have connecting sidewalks all over town so that people can get out of their cars. This town is made for cars.
I have a friend in San Diego that I would love to come visit and a big part of that is because there is so much outdoor kind of life there. Places you can actually walk to and beaches not too far away. I have a new camera and SD would be awesome to shoot with it.
Aaaahhh dreams. :)
jeanetta
free is always good. ;)
Nicole
I have the exact same MacLaren- pattern and all- and love it. With baby #2, I’m just doing a sling for the early months and this.
That infant carseat contraption was created only to increase my needs for anti-anxiety meds. HATED IT.
lainey
Thanks for the info! I’m soon going to be in the market for a new stroller. We’ve been using hand me down a “Snap in Go” (which is super convienient to leave in the car and use when shopping) but once my baby gets a little better head control I want a real stroller.
Meredith
Our MacLaren is a super all-purpose stroller–more capable than a simple umbrella, more maneuverable than a huge Graco, and folds and stores easier than even the Combi we had earlier.
I am a stroller junkie. I even did the (pre-Bugaboo) Emmajunga carriage, but the MacLaren remains my favorite.
The Chatty Housewife
I’ve drooled over the MacLaren at Costco. :) They carry it in black and grey.
Diana
I’m sorta speechless. I think you need to roll that stroller to Starbuck’s and have a decaf and something sweet to eat ;-)
laughing mommy
I have the Maclaren Volo and the Maclaren Triumph. Both are terrific, especially if you are tall… your feet won’t bump into the stroller when you walk. (I got a stroller for my baby shower that was made for children I think… I couldn’t walk without kicking the wheels.)
andrea
Glad to know that I am not the only one with three strollers. I will admit to having a pretty severe case of Bugaboo envy for a while–I am over it now.
I have a BOB and would also highly recommend it. They are great for long walks and have we’ve taken it on some more rugged trails and it has done great. It is a a bit bulky but does fit in the back of the car with room to spare and is fairly easy to fold down. An added feature on this years models is that the seat reclines completely, we almost thought about upgrading, almost…
For our shopping or short walks stroller we have the Maclaren Quest and I love it. It is so light weight and easy to carry, but feels like a fairly heavy duty when you are pushing it. Great for trips in crowded places and traveling.
Our third was a hand me down Peg Perego Venezia which was great when the baby was small since it had a bassinet. It also has the reversible handle which was great with a baby who hated the stroller–that way he could always be facing his mom.
Sorry to ramble. Just wanted to share in the stroller love.
Emily
I also love the Maclaren, I wanted the Red and by the time I got the $ the red was sold out, boo hoo. I don’t think you will need it, but I have to say that the rain cover on the Maclaren is far and away the best one out there. So easy to put on, and your kid can not steam it up.
Jennifer
I love all this info. I’m a bit of a stroller collector. I ended up getting a Combi recently but wish I had gotten the Maclaren. I now need a double stroller and have no idea which to get. I just sold a Combi twin side by side because I didn’t like how it handled at all. I’m really thinking that I should look into a double jogging stroller because I want to lose the baby fat as soon as possible after #3 is born. So many choices, not sure what I want.
Sleepynita
I have a Phil and ted’s Most Excellent Buggy, It is a huge 3 wheeler, and it fits into the hatchback of my VW Beetle.
Your connundrum with strollers echos my issues with diaper bags, I have yet to find the perfect one….
Gramma
When we arrived in Hawaii we had two infants, a three year old and a sic year old. Either we used the stationwagon to drive to our destination, or the wagon, which two babies fit nicely whille their siblings walked to the beach only two long blocks away.
aimee/greeblemonkey
That’s like a stroller manifesto.
BeachMama
Don’t feel bad about having three strollers, it will shock you how many strollers everyone has. We have(had) three.
Our Evenflow travel system, Iso don’t like it anymore, it folded and fit into our trunk, but after three and a half years I am hoping/planning for a Peg-perago for August.
I have a Safety First Jogger, I love it! My only complaint is that it is a little on the heavy side, but I only complain because now that J is almost 50lbs it is a workout and more to push him anywhere. I plan to keep using this for the next one.
I also had a double stroller I bought when J was a baby so my Sister could take the two babies out for a walk when she babysat (which was a couple times a week). I eventually gave it to her when she had a daycare and her second. And now I don’t really need a double stroller.
It all works out in the end, perhaps for your second you will be in a house and can enjoy all the benefits of the Bugaboo!
Stacey
Two stroller family here: a Bugaboo Gecko and a Maclaren Volo (for travelling). (We’re not runners, so no jogging stroller necessary.) We live in a house, in a very walkable city (though one with VERY uneven sidewalks which make the Volo rattle like crazy) and don’t have a car, so the Bugaboo has been absolutely perfect for us. And we are serious advocates for the Gecko over the Chameleon: ours is lighter, smaller (important for narrow store aisles and buses here in the UK), easier to clean, and since we never had the bar, we never missed it! (In fact, to me, it looks like it would just get in the way.)
I just checked out the Bugaboo website, by the way, and there’s a new foldable stroller, the Bee, coming out in the US soon…can’t wait to get a peek at that, even though there’s almost no chance we’d go for it.
familymclean
Ok, I feel a little sheepish, we have five strollers, no elaborating….well we did return one so 4 at the moment but I plan to get another to replace it so it will be five again. Though in the back of my mind I feel there may be another stashed somewhere, I am not going to think about it! I never before considered myself a stroller junky but now, oh boy!
And yes diaper bags have been a whole issue of their own and I moved on to a backpack….the hiker kind from Mountain Equipmet Co-op!
familymclean
Oh, and the ‘little car’ click just took me to flikr home page.
kate b.
I recently wrote a stroller post too – how funny!
Sara
I love the Maclaren. That’s all we’ve used and we are still using it, although not so much anymore. It’s nice, as we go along, to shed the baby stuff.
At least you know (especially if you have more kids) that you’ll get more use out of the extra strollers, or you could sell them and recover some of your hard earned cash. :-)
Pam
can you believe i’m 24, not married, i have no kids, i don’t even babysit and i just read this whole post, only bc you and baby bug are the coolest duo in the history of the world, you should feel very important :)