Do modern prams isolate young mums?

Hedgehog99

It's the grandparents I see using the light "deckchair" pushchairs. The have obviously decided the modern enormous cocoons are too much hassle.

With all the buggies v wheelchair priority problems on buses recently, the deckchair style is much better and can be folded.

balletshoes

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

As soon as mine were physically ready, they were put into the most manoeuvrable, narrowest, single handed collapsing buggy I could find (for the least amount of money). Better for them, me and everybody around us.

My mum borrowed a Silver Cross "proper" pram from a friend of hers when my DD was a newborn. She loved wheeling that thing around town, I only ever used it when I was taking baby out for fresh air and a walk (as it was heavy and cumbersome so it was like weight-training as well as walking at the same time ). I wouldn't have got that pram through the door of many shops, and it wouldn't have fitted around the rails in clothes shops etc.

I always preferred my pushchair which fully reclined and folded flat, and when she was older, I bought a padded umbrella-fold stroller which still had a recline, and that was the most versatile and most convenient thing for me. My 2 pushchairs, which were bought new, cost less than £100 total, and they were both passed on when my daughter no longer needed them.

Kynthia

The deckchair style ones aren't suitable before 6 months and I don't think a baby would be comfortable in one until they were well over a year old due to the way they sit and hold themselves up. There are umbrella folding ones that could work from 6 months but they would need a bit more support than the deckchair ones.

onlyroz

As soon as they could support the weight of their own head mine went into the Quinny Zapp. Could be folded into a teeny weeny space, could be manoeuvred through the narrowest of gaps, and gave the child a great viewing angle.

kettlefish

I had a modern Silver Cross but it was an old fashioned shape and had proper sprung wheels etc. For my winter baby it was lovely as she was cosy and I walked miles each day with that pram. She would sleep for hours in it too! If anything it did the opposite pf isolate me - was so proud to be out pushing my gorgeous baby in a lovely pram. Personally I preferred that to a lot of the modern prams which, to be fair, have a similar size footprint but baby seems to be in a tiny little pod on top of huge wheels! I never used the car seat option (although mine had one) as I think it looks so uncomfy for longer periods (not to mention not an ideal position for baby to breathe very well, in a car needs must but I wouldn't have it that way from choice)

I agree about certain brands being a status symbol, I'm on some Facebook selling sites and there are women who spend £1000+ on some pushchairs only to sell it for half that weeks later because they "fancy a change". That said there is a certain buzz about buying baby items when you're pregnant so perhaps they just buy onto the hype in a hormonal state!

I was always a fan of slings too so felt I had a good balance. I have a great sling for dd2 who is 1 now and popping her up on my back is so simple. I couldn't have a big heavy pram with her as my eldest is now 3 and I couldn't push my old one very easily while corralling a toddler!

thorsoak

I'm one of the coach-built pram brigade - I could carry a week's shopping on the tray underneath the pram and a toddler could sit on a seat fitted at the handle end. The one thing that struck me about the smaller buggies that followed on from these big monsters is that babies and children faced forward and were at exhaust fume levels for mums walking along busy streets.

sulphate

I'm 38 weeks pg and we bought a travel system although it's not huge by any means. We didn't buy it as a mark of our "status" (what an odd thing to say), we bought it because it fits our needs (well, we think so anyway) - carrycot for when it's a newborn, forward and rear facing and the car seat will fit on the pram. Strollers aren't suitable for newborns, and a tiny baby isn't going to get much out of facing the street, for a 2.5 year old that's a little different. We haven't bought a baby carrier/sling, babies can be very heavy and both my DH and I have suffered with back and shoulder problems in the past, so probably not a good idea.

I fail to see what age of the mother has to do with it. I would expect most parents buy the baby items they feel will suit their lifestyle. I can't stand the "oh you only bought that as a status symbol" brigade anymore than the "my pram is better than yours" brigade. If parents wish to buy cumbersome items that limit where they can travel, etc, that's their choice.

emg

Here's the information on research for face-to-face prams..

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0000/0805/Buggy_Q_A.pdf

Ma77hew

I think a few of you just have an issue with prams in general lol.

I'm a new dad, my daughter will be 1 in a few weeks, so I suppose I will be classed as inexperienced, but I'm probably more experienced than some of you having actually used one.

Our travel system type pushchair has been great, came with a car seat, which we would have had to purchase separately, but this one attaches so for short trips no risk of waking baby, and meant the wife could go out alone easier as she didn't have to carry it.

Comes with the flat bed attachment, so for longer trips she was in the correct position which she wouldn't have been in a stroller, so means we didnt need 2 buggies and again this allowed my wife to go out for longer when she was on maternity leave giving her more freedom not less.

Now she is sitting up all the time she is in the stroller type attachment, which faces both ways, so its individual preference as to have it facing outwards or inwards, that's the parents choice, and for us has more to do with the location/weather than anything else.

So we effectively have 3 in 1, that cover's all stages.

There are no issues with maneuverability or weight, its very light, and no wider than a wheelchair, so never had any issues taking it anywhere. I would go as far as to say anyone who has told you they are cumbersome is using it as an excuse not to go somewhere lol.

The only down side to them is you have to take whatever attachment you have on them off before folding them, which when alone can be difficult as you have to be holding baby at the same time, that's probably the reason most don't fold them when they are on public transport, which to be real, is what % of there life.

The bigger issue is society. I mean fancy being annoyed because you don't want to move out of the way of someone with a pushchair, its common courtesy. When my mum had us she had a silvercross thing, and said that couldn't get round shops, but she could leave it outside without any worries, you couldn't do that now, you'd end up with a missing baby or it being reported to social services.

I can understand public transport benefits of having a stroller, and would considered getting a cheap one for holidays, but some people you come across may rarely use public transport. I could swap my girl into a stroller now, but what would I do with the travel system, sell it for a lot less than I paid for it and then have to buy another one when/if we have another child? There's no point, when we haven't had any problems with it and it does everything we need it to.

Lunar_Eclipse

Mrs_Imp wrote: »

I don't think that isolation has anything to do with what pram you drive.

I agree with this.

We had a couple of prams and to this day I maintain that a perfect pram (aka child carrier) doesn't exist. Which might be why we stopped using them asap. DD1 wasn't much older than 1 when she happily walked with us instead and we moved house when DD2 turned 2, and the prams didn't come with us.