Kylie Orr
Easy answer: No. That was a simple article to write. If only it was that effortless…
With baby number four on the way, I find myself revisiting the pram market. I'd like to think I am a pram connoisseur rather than a pram whore: I have only ever owned two prams, plus a stroller. It barely makes me an expert but it has certainly honed my needs and wants enough to come up with a definitive wish list for the perfect pram.
My virgin pram was a Beema. It was not fancy, expensive or even trendy but boy I loved it. It was so easy to steer, particularly one-handed when I had a screaming baby who needed to be picked up during an errand run. Simple to fold, light to lift and it fit easily in my hatchback boot.
Downside? No toddler seat. A skateboard attachment was the only option and I just didn’t trust that would work for my toddler. So, when number two arrived, I bid a sad farewell to old Beema.
Got myself a secondhand Valco with toddler seat. The attraction? I could fold it down in one go – without taking the toddler seat off every time. Not attractive enough.
I HATED it with more passion than a Mills and Boon character. It was heavy, cumbersome and wide. I kept forgetting to go to the wide aisles of the supermarket and other retail stores, leaving myself stuck and then forced to back-up, much to the annoyance of people queuing behind me. The toddler had a terrible head-hang if he happened to doze off because there was no support for his head. As soon as baby number two could go in a stroller, I ditched the Valco and made the toddler walk.
Number three was capsule-d until he was around six months old and then I purchased some ultra comfy padded inserts and put the little monkey in the trusty stroller. My second was three and a half by then so the need for him to be pushed around had diminished. I was well and truly over prams and all their drawbacks.
With the impending arrival of baby four, I am presented with a new scenario. There will be a two-year age gap and my two-year-old LOVES to be pushed around. He will stay in a pram for hours without asking to get out. He is my first child to be happy in a seated position for a considerable length of time leaving me reluctant to extradite him from the pram and make him walk. I am equally hesitant to spend hundreds of dollars (well, over a thousand) on a pram that will be used for six months or a year and then shelved in preference for the stroller.
I didn’t think my wish list was too extravagant.
I need a pram that suits a toddler and a newborn. I don’t need fancy. I don’t want heavy (obviously it needs to be sturdy enough to support a toddler, but back-breaking is unnecessary). I don’t want wide. I don’t need bells and whistles. I want it to work, every time – no jamming brakes, no seizing folds. I want it to fit in the back of my car without dismantling it, and not need an instruction manual each time I take it out. I want to be able to wheel it one handed so I can appease a screaming baby and keep moving. A sizeable basket with easy access would be a bonus and a way to hang a nappy bag from the handles without slamming one of the children in the face wouldn’t go astray. I want to be able to go on walks in the forest on paths that are not made of asphalt without catapulting my baby out or inducing vomiting from rough suspension.I’d like it to be reasonably priced and not be named after a farm animal, insect or some kind of alien universe. Although if it was the dream pram, I probably wouldn’t care if it was named La Poo-Poo by Baby Boo-Boo.
Just like perfect parents and perfect children, the perfect pram does not exist.
I find it hard to swallow that from the overwhelming assortment of prams available on the market, no-one seems to have got it right. A few go close.
I liked the look of the Baby Jogger City Select, but with a price tag of over $1000 with a toddler seat, I am wondering whether the gold lining is essential? The Steelcraft Strider Plus looks pretty spot-on but as soon as the sales assistant mentioned “wide” I was off like a bride’s nightie. Phil and Ted’s have many of the issues sorted but there is a tipping element I am dubious about and the legroom for the toddler is almost non-existent if you have a newborn lying down in the top. Welcome your new baby to the world with a kick to the head from their friendly sibling.
Maybe it is a case of: you get what you pay for? But for the money some of these companies are asking, I want a PERFECT pram, not an almost perfect one. With a nanny thrown in.
It could just be too hard to please all the people, all the time, with the varying combinations of children’s sizes, ages, and needs, although I’d challenge that because a quick flick through the EB prams forum will show a recurring theme – prams appropriate for newborns and toddlers are a very common purchase.
So, with only a couple of months to go, it looks like the two year old will be in the stroller and the new bub will be strapped to me in a carrier until I can find a combination that works. Let’s just hope the baby is not born 12 pounds!
What elements are in your dream pram? Have you found it? Or are you frustrated by the amount of choice yet still can’t find the one you want?
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