ookie magazine's first issue isn't all about losing the baby weight. It's also has articles about which most expensive stroller to buy [See? I love it already.] The preview shows three top picks in Cookie's own categories, with a couple of obligatory surprises:
Cookie magazine preview [fairchildpub.com]
[disclosure: When I mention Cookie, does it matter that my writing for Fairchild's Vitals magazine probably accelerated its recent demise? Just checking.]
Maclaren Techno's seem like nice strollers but they're practically water-soluble. We destroyed three of them in little over a year (thankfully only paid for one). The wheels pop off if you stop to quickly, the brakes rarely work and the handles torque until they snap internally.
Since the last Maclaren gave out we've survived just fine with a $40 Chico (indestructible, but disposable anyway), and a hand-me-down Graco tank. The Graco's on it's last legs, but my two are probably the 7th and 8th kids to use it.
I would have loved a Bugaboo but they weren't out yet when my first was born, and we decided to send them to college instead.
You sent your kid to college for $700?
[Go State! -ed.]
Forget about the price of Bugabooís for a moment. The rig weighs like 800 pounds. It is a none starter is you live on the forth floor of a walk up. The Mac Quest is serving us well. Although, I think I saw a twang of jealousy in the babyís eyes the other day when we visited his grandmother on the Upper East Side and he realized was the only baby in the entire universe not to have a Bugaboo.
Yeah - Bugaboos are fine (good looking and attention getting)for the upper east side or the burbs where no one goes anywhere. But if you take the subway to get around to museums, zoos, exhibits, etc. with your kid- good luck carrying it and your kid up and down the stairs. And if you travel alot, you can count the Bugaboo as an extra piece of luggage.
[?? we use it all the time, on the subway and the stairs. and at the zoos. and to museums. and as for travel, I have two words for you: gatecheck. Ok, that was one word. Let me try again: car seat adapters. d'oh! -ed.]
Joe. What the heck do you *do* to your strollers. Torquing handles off? Stopping so fast wheels come apart?
Do you have issues with Stroller Rage? There are support groups for that. Or are you taking your kid Adventure Racing? If you are I want in ;-D
I don't get it.
Why spend $700 - $900 on a freaking stroller? Is the $900 stroller really 7x better than the $125 Graco LiteRider travel system we got? That served us just fine & dandy.
We probably would have skipped the whole travel system thing, if we knew then what we know now. Alex screamed the entire time, start to finish whenever we put him in the carrier. We tried other carriers too, he hated them all. As soon as he was able to hold his head up we put the carrier and the car seat bases in the attic and got regular convertible car seats. He's LOADS happier in that. The stroller still works great. We also picked up a $20 umbrella stroller for airport adventures. Works like a champ.
The best part? Think of all that $$ we put into his 529 plan instead of his stroller. The $900 stroller just sounds like the good old NY-style keep up with the Joneses mentality. I'm glad I only work there. :)