parent facing prams. do you find it an important quality when looking for a pram?

[mummytobejuly2014]

MIL has kindly offered to pay for our pram for our 1st child. i think I want the silver cross wayfayer. I like how it can be parent facing or not. I like the carrycot for just leaving it set up in pram in living room as a daytime bed for baby. ive seen a deal in BabyWorld at Toytown, chassis, seat, carrycot & your choice of colour pack for a good price. cant remember how much it was but I remember thinking it was fairly cheap then id buy the matching carseat. so my question is, do you think its important to have parent facing. to me I think it is. does anyone have any other suggestions of similar systems to look at? trying not to look at bugaboo or icandy etc due to high prices incase I fall in love with one of them

[milktraylady]

Yes! Parent facing is really important!
I think all prams are now, aren't they?

I agree, step away from the really expensive ones

[MamaDuckling]

I can't rave about my city jogger mini GT enough...

It's got the easiest fold mechanism I've seen on any pushchair, ever. And you simply buy the flat, parent facing cot which slots onto the frame until the baby is old enough to face forward. It's all SO simple and extremely good value next to bugaboo etc. Well worth a look.

But yes, parent facing is important IMO, especially for the first few months.

[MamaDuckling]

Oh, and it takes the maxi-cosi car seat too... We don't bother with that but it's nice to have the option.

[mummytobejuly2014]

i think id like to have the choice of being able to choose if or when baby isn't parent facing. I also hate the idea of the carrycot being plonked ontop of the chair underneath on the pram. majority of prams are not parent facing once they grow out of carrycot. i love the look of bugaboo bee etc but trying not to look due to high overall cost

[RandomMess]

What is your lifestyle? I think the wayfarer is quite heavy if you are going to be lifting it in and out of the car boot daily.

[mummytobejuly2014]

we live a 10 min walk from the local spar as well as parents. I will have the car if I need it, our audi a3 which has quite a roomy boot. I can't imagine we will be too far travelled during maternity leave and as this is dc1 and mat pay wont be very much and I have quite a few repayments to keep up with as well as the usual bills

[MrsCharlieD]

We've ordered a silver cross wayfarer. For the chassis; carrycot, hood and apron pack, maxi cosi pebble car seat and isofix base and adaptors it was less than £750. I had a good play with it in John Lewis and folded it up and down and lifted it up and really liked it. I like parent facing for newborns and when ds gets older he can go forward facing and take in the world x

[cogitosum]

I have uppa baby vista which can be parent facing. I love it.

[Rockchick1984]

We looked at the wayfarer but to be honest I wasn't happy with the wheels for the price of the pram!

Ended up going for the Graco Evo - had fab reviews and under £300 for everything including car seat!

[BEEwitched]

We've decided against a pram with parent facing option, simply because I couldn't get a parent facing pram that filled all my other requirements, which were more important.

The car seat and the carrycot will be parent facing, anyway, so I don't think it's a big problem that the seat part doesn't.

[mummytobejuly2014]

went to window shop at prams and thought I wanted the silver cross wayfarer. now there's 3 diff ones in the running; an oyster babystyle, icandy cherry & the silver cross wayfarer.
icandy cherry in fudge is display model & a carrycot £410
oyster babystyle model & carrycot £425
silvercross wayfarer model & carrycot £470
icandy & oyster can take maxicosi cabriolet for £105, silvercross car seat is £115

[delasi]

We were the same as BEEwitched. I wanted parent facing, but all of my other desires turned out to take priority (lightweight, sturdy, incredibly practical, easy to fold and carry... which we found in the BJCM). Originally I was going to go for the Cosatto Giggle, and as much as I liked the look of it, comparing it with the BJCM was no contest, as the BJCM was just so much more practical.

However we got a carrycot (the deluxe, which is a sold bodied pram-style one) which is parent facing and we used it until 6mo. It's very easy to take the seat unit off, so we didn't have the seat underneath, just the carrycot on top. We then put the seat on at 6mo when DS went into the seat. He faces outwards, but actually it's fine, he likes looking out, I talk to him still from above, there is a window if the hood is down, he sits facing us when we stop for food, or on the bus... I don't know why I thought he would be so cut off from us! Even on longer walks it's fine.

It costs us about £350 in total (BJCM + deluxe carrycot). The carrycot comes with adaptors for the Maxi Cosi and one other (can't remember which).

Basically, go for whatever best suits your requirements, even if you really love the look or idea of something else. And really test out the wheels, how to fold, how to remove/attach seat units etc in store, it makes a big difference. I have so very many friends who chose with their hearts (if you can put it that way!) and have gone on two buy 1, 2, 3 etc more pushchairs because they're not quite right. I still pass buggies that make me go 'oooh' but I really can't imagine using anything other than what I have. Now that DS is 1yo we have a secondary, super light (4kg) stroller for short trips, again purely for practical purposes, had to breeze past the super pretty ones!

[BicycleGasoline]

I absolutely loved my Bee plus for my dd1, thought parent facing was essential and she did continue to face me about 50% of the time up until she was 21 months. At that stage I had twins and had a triple buggy. No choice in that, all 3 had to face away. Still not sure I like it even now the dts are 7 months and dd is nearly 2.5. Not sure what I'm saying really, except that I found parent facing invaluable with my 1st and missed it when I could no longer have it, BUT that other considerations have to take precedence sometimes.

[mummytobejuly2014]

found the wayfarer chassis, carrycot, seat & colour pack for £420, £30 for maxicosi pebble adapters. seen the pebble on boots website for £110 and they have 10% off so its £100 and theres 10 points earned to every £1 spent

[MamaPingu]

The silver cross wayfarer is the perfect pram in my opinion, if you have a car.
It is flawless in every way, moves so easily, I often push with one arm and can turn corners doing so which others have said they can't do!
It is extremely classy but modern.

Can't recommend it enough, get it!!!

[MrsSpencerReid]

Our first pram wasn't parent facing once ds was too big for carrycot, within a few months I had bought a new pram that I could swap between parent and world facing, mainly cos I wanted to see ds not cos he was bothered about me!!

[Wingdingdong]

DC2 is 23m and still parent-facing. His choice... We got the BabyJogger City Select (single/double tandem) when DC2 was born for this very reason - DC1 did not want to face out so we needed a double in which both DC could parent-face. We had a parent-facing M&P single with DC1 until that point. Both DC got/get really upset about facing out, they're both chatterboxes and are frustrated if I can't hear and reply to what they're talking about.

We do have a Maclaren as well, but DC2 has made it very clear his preference is for the BJCS when possible. I notice that I talk to the DC much more when I can see their faces.

[elQuintoConyo]

We got a bog standard travel system. DS was parent-facing until about 5 months, he was very happy facing out, like pp ^^ he'd be facing me when at the bus stop etc.
He's now a very cuddly 2.2, it hasn't had any adverse effects

[yummystepford]

Parent facing is the biggest thing for me, I will not buy a pushchair without it, however they all have handle bars instead of separate handles which I find frustrating. I share a car with my oh, he has a 3 door Alfa Romeo but we are going to buy a car for me before the baby is born, I will be buying my pushchair first and choosing a car that fits the pushchair in! I bought a mama and papas urbo, which on sale had a free carrycot. It turned up minus the carrycot, I rung them up to find out why, and turns out they only have a purple carrycot left and that's why they never sent me my turquoise one. Returning it and am gutted. Have to find another one I like now!

[DisneyAddict88]

for dd1 I didnt think parent facing was v important - but I bought a second hand travel system of a work colleague which I hated so used a sling till 1 year - by then I figured she was old enough to face outwards so got baby jogger city mini .

then dd2 I wanted parent facing as I couldnt use a sling due to hip problems. we went with bugaboo bee which I love although does have some things I would change but overall fitted my requirements of parent facing, light to push and lift (live in a flat), good for public transport and looks pretty!!

[elQuintoConyo]

Well, cost was the biggest thing for us buying a pram/pushchair. We couldn't buy another car based on the buggy.

[yummystepford]

Tbf, we were buying a car anyway I just figured I'd wait until I had my pushchair, car probably won't cost much more than the pushchair lol!