Strollers, yes you know the reasonably simple device people push their coats and back packs around in when they are at Disneyland. You can find them parked neatly by the entrance to every ride. Any place else in the world they would be a fire hazard piling up so close to a doorway. Until now I never noticed them unless someone ran over my foot with one. Now I find myself looking at these vehicles of transport in a new light.
As we start our journey into baby products we somehow decided to begin with strollers and furniture. Probably because these items are much more fun than breast pumps and butt paste. The furniture is all pretty much same, not so good quality and likely to last only a few years. Here it is more about the pieces you want in the room and how soon you will be ready to buy something new.
Strollers on the other hand run the gamut from all terrain vehicles with multi-functions to your basic 8 wheeled mall pusher. Strollers are something men can almost relate to in the baby process. It’s kind of like a car, do you want German engineering, English ingenuity, Italian styling or a good old American box of rocks. As it turns out they are all made in China, so the whole thing loses its romanticism pretty quickly. Yet, still a more fun decision than most.
Like most consumers these days we began our journey online. After a dubious amount of research we headed out to see these marvelous inventions first-hand so we could assess their pluses and minuses. Coming into the live stroller visits I felt the all-in-one system that could get you from infant to toddler was the way to go. Lisa had her eye on the Rock Star baby stroller because it encompassed two of her favorite things – Bon Jovi (Tico Torres helped design this one) and German engineering. As you can see we were thinking big.
At the first store we encountered an array of strollers, many we had never heard of and some with some interesting options. I gravitated to the big units that had everything from car seats, to bassinet like features to eventual toddler use. Lisa went right to the creative and cool. As you would expect (and we would come to learn in our many store visits) the store sales people were very well versed in the features and benefits of any model priced over $500 with amazing details on the $900 version. It’s a stroller isn’t it? Apparently not.
What does it take to buyer a stroller and the necessary accessories? About 5 days of shopping and test driving. I spent less time buying my car. As a taller individual the design of the stroller has some interesting things to consider – stride length (do you kick the thing with every step you take?) and the handle height (as junior gets bigger the way you push the weight may matter and I will be pretty old by then).. Then you have more female oriented concerns like the actual weight and amount of storage for things like your purse and shopping bags (your stroller cannot limit your ability to fully navigate a mall – that’s the baby’s job). Of course it must fold up easily, fit in your trunk and not be susceptible to flat tires.
We started out thinking different things and ultimately landed right in between both out thoughts. Functional and reasonably light-weight, less foo-foo and more practical and not an all-in-one machine. So it looks like we are going with the Uppababy. Not the Chicco (pronounced key-co) as I later learned, an Italian not Mexican brand. Not the Icoo Targo Rock Star Baby (see picture below) with its German engineering. And not the $900 Stokke which is worth Googling just to an interesting design. Watch for us rolling by in a park near you soon!
Rock Star Baby
