Friday, December 24, 2010

Stroller Addict: Tales of Stroller Hell

Let's put it this way:  Matt and I bought a 2009 Jetta Sportwagen TDI (a diesel) last fall.  I have put more time, energy, research, agony and arguing into our strollers than I did over the brand new car.

As you all know, I have one son.  He is 17 months old.

Today I bought our 5th stroller.  Yes, our 5th.

Here's how it happened (I'm writing this to come to terms with myself but to justify my reasoning as much as possible to my husband):

Stroller #1:  2009 Uppa Baby Vista.  I love this stroller.  Daniel was comfy.  I had numerous random issues (turns out Matt was closing it incorrectly causing it jam) and the amazing customer service took care of us each time.  2 problems:  it's heavy and the seat didn't go completely upright so Daniel would kind of be leaning back which became an issue when he was about a year old.

Stroller #2:  Because our Uppa is heavy, we decided to buy a lightweight stroller to take in the car, on the subway, etc.  It was between a Maclaren Triumph or the City Mini.  We went with the City Mini and basically stopped using the Uppa simply because the City Mini was pretty much perfect and lightweight.  When we were in Atlanta in September Hertz decided to "upgrade" my rental car and gave me a huge SUV.  It was so big I could barely get into my parent's garage.  I hated it.  I ran over our City Mini accidentally (I literally bumped it while reversing but the SUV was so big that it literally popped the stroller in half).  I hate that damned rental.

Stroller #3:  In Atlanta with a snapped-in-two City Mini, I ran out and, being such an Uppa Baby fan, bought their lightweight umbrella stroller, the G-Lite.  I loved it.  So light, so easy to carry, folds up into nothing.  I thought I was golden.

Stroller #4:  I knew I would end up doing this, but I recently started running (my friend Lauren Stout signed me up for a 10K) and I wanted to run with Daniel.  I bought a BOB Revolution and it honestly inspired me to run and I've loved it.  Decided it's the best stroller ever made.  Handles like a dream.  Daniel is so happy in it.  Makes me run.  ALMOST perfect.  Bad part:  so heavy and very hard to get in and out of our brownstone as the doors are narrow (will be great when our renovation is done in a few months and I have a garage).  I decide that I should have just bought the BOB to begin with.  We use this every day.

Stroller #5:  Over the last 2 months, we've realized that Daniel HATES the G-Lite.  It's actually quite small and we can't adjust the straps so Daniel doesn't fit very well.  Now that it's winter and he's in his coat, we can't even get the straps around him.  UGGGGHHH!!!  So what do I do?  Refer to Stroller #2.  I buy the Maclaren Triumph and it's perfect.

And that's where we are today.  Matt totally annoyed with me.  I'm totally annoyed with strollers.  If I get pregnant again soon and need a double stroller I'm going to take a shotgun and shoot every (empty) stroller that I see. 

2 comments:

  1. Matt Schapiro12/25/2010

    Today is a big day. And it's big not just because it's December 25th and we took Daniel to see his very first movie on the big screen: Tangled starring Mandy Moore (and I loved every Disney-fied second of it that we saw.)

    It's a big day because today Marni yelled at me louder than she's ever yelled at me before. And it was about Stroller #5. Marni was struggling to get Daniel strapped in properly and I started saying something stupid and Marni pointed her finger and said, "DON'T DO THIS!!!"

    And then I barely said another word until we got to the movies because she was right and I should've shut up before I started talking. I do "THIS" a lot, unfortunately.

    We're going to Manhattan for Chinese later.

    Like I said, big day.

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  2. Thanks Marni Schapiro for this great articel.

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