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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Since when did a pushchair become 'a travel system'?

80 replies

AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons · 18/11/2014 19:29

This morning I heard someone talk about the travel system she wants to buy. She already has a travel system but not the travel system she should have got. The new travel system is amazing. Apparently.

In my day we just had pushchairs, mostly Maclaren. Since when did pushing a baby around on wheels become so complicated and expensive? Am I mission something? Do travel systems land on comets or something?

OP posts:

TheAlias · 19/11/2014 08:25

I had a secondhand travel system, inherited from SIL whose youngest is now 17, so it's really nothing new and the bit that meant you could attach the car seat was invaluable because we couldn't park close to the house we lived in then.

However I have never heard anyone (except the marketing companies) refer to their pram or pushchair as a travel system. That is odd.

Op has on her list, something completely unnecessary IMO - the Moses basket, never saw the point of those, at all

LineRunner · 19/11/2014 08:30

Travel systems and changing stations. The integrated transport network for the modern baby's organised journey through modern infancy, or so the marketing people would have us believe (and desire).

Always wondered who the language was meant to appeal to?

ShelaghTurner · 19/11/2014 08:34

I don't think the op needs the definition. I suspect she knows exactly what a travel system is but is playing the old 'in my day we carried the baby in a cardboard box' game.

LadyintheRadiator · 19/11/2014 08:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Neverbuyheliumbalonz · 19/11/2014 08:42

No one actually calls it a 'travel system' though, do they?

As in 'oh I'm driving into town, I had better just go and check that the travel system is in the boot?'

It's just buggy/pushchair/pram isn't it?

LineRunner · 19/11/2014 08:44

Yes, I wonder if the fancy names are to justify the prices to parents.

JassyRadlett · 19/11/2014 08:49

My youngest child is 7 and I only ever had a sling and then a pushchair. And I called it a pushchair.

Are you looking for a superior parenting medal, OP? Wait a minute, I've got the back of a cereal packet and some tinfoil somewhere, I'll make you one, old school. Will that help?

80sMum · 19/11/2014 08:51

"Travel systems were just coming out when my eldest was born 20 years ago. I didn't get one I had a big pram then a small buggy. Never even heard of slings then."

^^Slings have been around in some form since God was a boy! And in their current, modern form they have been available for decades.
I had a Mothercare sling for DS - and he's 35.

SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker · 19/11/2014 08:54

I had a silver cross "travel system" at first with my (now 18) first DS and then switched to a Maclaren when he was a bit bigger. It was called that then.

Siarie · 19/11/2014 09:02

Well all I'm reading from the OP is "I want to have a little joke at another mum spending money on something I didn't spend as much money on. Everyone join in ok?".

Yes you are being unreasonable and you sound jealous. Sorry these magical contraptions weren't on your priority list back when you were a wee nipper. But some mums find them very useful and are happy to spend the money on them, I'm not going to justify you mocking a random stranger.

AMumInScotland · 19/11/2014 09:04

DS has just turned 21. We bought a travel system when I was expecting him - it was from Silver Cross, and was as others have described - a chassis, with interchangeable carry cot, car seat, and pushchair seat which could be fitted forwards or backwards facing.

It seemed an obvious choice for us as we knew we'd be getting him in and out of the car and having a set of wheels for the carseat seemed like a no-brainer.

My younger brother had what I think was a pretty early kind of pushchair, back in 1970, which was an improvement on the old Silver Cross pram which you pretty much stayed in till you were walking.

OwlCapone · 19/11/2014 09:07

OP, clearly you have no idea what you are talking about. As others have pointed out, a travel system is not the same as a pushchair. I find it hard to believe that has passed you by in all your years of superior parenting.

RedToothBrush · 19/11/2014 09:10

Artandco - Well yes, it's changed beyond belief in the sense that so much stuff is available. But the fundamental requirements remain the same: a moses basket, cot, pushchair and carseat. Nothing has really changed beyond that. The washing basket lined with an old duvet and blankets to house a sitting child with toys, is the same as an inflatable ring or a Bumbo.

Well that's bollocks... you don't need a moses basket. Babies have boxes in Finland. I believe that's about the same parallel you just drew with the inflatable ring.

As for the cost of things, I bought a travel system as it was cheaper than buying a pushchair and a carseat in many cases. No second hand small car price tag.

Only1scoop · 19/11/2014 09:10

Actual travel systems can be much cheaper as come with all bits ready to go.

If you buy a high end push chair you tend to have to buy every little bit.

Artandco · 19/11/2014 09:18

Slings not around?? You know a basic sling is a piece of cloth. What mos of the world still use today. How could they not have been around 20/30 years ago?

Actually we have a picture of my great great grandparents getting on a boat to America over 100 years ago, with my then baby great grandparents twins in a sling each ( and was modern ish looking)

SquattingNeville · 19/11/2014 09:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AMumInScotland · 19/11/2014 09:20

Reminds me of...

FoxSticks · 19/11/2014 09:55

love that!

DazzleU · 19/11/2014 09:56

We got a travel system over 10 years ago - we didn't drive but GP did and it was first GC so we needed a car seat that could clip in with belts on off chance and rare occasions a car journey couldn't be avoided.

I see parents on school run using them - they get round back get frame out unclip car seat click them in - then get on with other DC and their bags and stuff- looks very useful for them too - as the DC gab hold of travel system frames sides as the cross the busy roads.

I loved our travels system - huge basket underneath. For short trips with young baby they were facing and high up with car seat clipped in - and later nice big seat and it was relatively easy to collapse if needed. In fact didn't get a buggy till eldest was 15 months - I think it was a Maclaren - then as I was pg and weight and hills was an issue.

Used it with all 3 of our DC most days - best one to clip buggy boards and side car to later on -which for us were at times invaluable gadgets.

We did have second double hand side to side - awful front and back double that was a gift and a few cheap buggies - some second hand which were more useful with one DC needing them and with toddlers. Also had 2 slings - recommended wrap around was awful - shoulder put straight on one which was good for popping on round house or out at groups but useless when there were lots of bags and shopping - especially as live in area of steep hills and had other toddlers.

The car seat was occasionally useful for us - the pushchair bit really well designed and best buy ever.

There was stuff other parents swore but that we found useless.

I seem to remember it was the cheaper than getting a normal pushchair and separate car seat and it wouldn't have been more than 200 at most.

KenAdams · 19/11/2014 09:59

Moses basket? We co slept. Who needs a Moses basket? Fucking Moses basket. Moses basket wankers.

See, you can scoff at anything.

LineRunner · 19/11/2014 10:02

I think slings are postulated to been invented during the same era as hominids were developing human traits such as bigger brains and bipedalism, and losing much of the body hair.

DazzleU · 19/11/2014 10:07

I had a mosses basket - my DC wouldn't be put down - or they would only tolerate a bouncy baby seat. Most use the mosses basket got was when they were older and they used it to play with - it was boat, a baby bed a car.

Mind you there were months and months with pfb when I wondered why we'd bothered with a cot she refused to sleep in one - had to be a bed with me or a moving pushchair - thankfully the travel system pushchair went completely flat and was very roomy for extra covers in winter with very big hood so very protected from elements - as it needed to get over the car seat part.

CurlyBlueberry · 19/11/2014 10:07

We didn't use moses basket or cot with my son as he slept in our bed. I did have a pram but used a sling just as often, so I'd not call the pram "essential", and rarely used a carseat as we don't have a car so it was just trips with grandparents.

Some people prefer pushchairs, others like travel systems. Really can't understand why anyone else would care.

GotToBeInItToWinIt · 19/11/2014 10:09

Neverbuy no, I doubt people would use the words 'travel system' in the scenario you described. I would either say 'is the pram in the car?' when we were using the pram attachment, 'is the pushchair in the car?' now we use the seat and if I knew we were using the car seat would have said 'are the wheels in the car?' . However in the scenario OP describes then yes, I probably would have said 'travel system'. She may have been looking for advice for her friend, in which case it would be necessary for her friend to understand exactly what sort of thing she was looking for.

SaucyJack · 19/11/2014 10:09

Pushchairs became travel systems around the same time that people realised those crappy little Maclarens really aren't that good for small babies.

All hail the return of the bassinet.

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