Thinking about buying a pushchair? Here’s a few suggestions that we wrote for a friend recently. We don’t sell pushchairs here at Breastmates, so we are unbiased.
In my opinion, you should spend more money on your pushchair. A bed is a bed, but a pushchair is critical.
They all seem nice and easy to push, when you are pregnant and pushing it around empty, in the shop. But imagine a fat 20 kg kid, and shopping in the basket, going uphill and they can be hard work. See if you can get a toddler to sit in it when you test drive it at the store.
Another important thing – is how big they fold up. Ask at the shop if you can take it to the carpark and see if it fits in your boot. This was always a struggle when I had a hatchback.
Personally, I learnt about Pushchairs the hard way, and ended up with three!!
The first one I got from a baby store, it was a budget brand. I thought it was grand because it had 4 wheels, and it initially could go into a bassinette shape (baby looking at mum), and then it would convert to a sitting up position (with toddler looking out). But this was very difficult to steer, the 4 wheels would just go nuts and I couldn’t turn it. I had to lift it to turn the wheels with a fat kid in it. And I didn’t really use it much. I brought a cheap umbrella stroller thing for $40 and we used that after when our son was a toddler.
With my second baby, I upgraded to a Mountain buggy. Oh my gosh, buying that was sheer joy. I could steer it using my little finger. It was sooo nice to push, and i found that I would do a lot more walking. I got my Mountain Buggy second hand on trademe. Used it for 3 years and then sold it on tradme for the same value! They are expensive new but they do have a good resale value and you might get one secondhand.
Plus some of the Mountain Buggy ones also have a toddler set, or a baby sling bunk thing, or even a skateboard attachment so that you can load up 2 kids.
Here is a picture of my mountain buggy, actually on a mountain. Baby (5 months) tucked up inside
