to think that prams have got out of hand?

[Pandora2016]

I'm current up duffed with my first, so will need to buy a pram.

I naively thought it wasn't much more than a small bed/chair on wheels business.

No. They are now called 'travel systems' and can cost almost as much as our car.

What fresh hell is this and how the bloody hell do you choose one??? Babies don't vary that much surely??

Thinking that a lot of this is sales spin......

I bought one pram (bugaboo) for my two children. It was used daily for both children and is now in the attic in great condition. It was worth every penny.

Most people(not all) end up with an umbrella fold buggy by the time the child is 12-18 months, so always seems a bit mad to me that one would pay up to £1200 for a pram. As long as your not too precious about things being brand new there are bargains to be had out there, I know plenty of pramholics who bought prams new, decided they like something else and sold for a lot less than they paid, eBay and Facebook buy and sell sites are worth keeping an eye on.
Hate travel systems myself, babies should only be in car seats for up to 2hrs max, at which point you should take them out for a bit, all travel systems do is encourage parents to keep babies in car seat for car journey and not take baby out when they leave the car, which in some cases turns into hours, don't know any health professionals that like travel systems for the same reasons, personally think they should be banned so the temptation to use them like that isn't there.

We bought a travel system. Not one of those ridiculously expensive ones though. A joie chrome which cost less than £400 including car seat with isofix base and a carrycot. The carrycot got used a bit and occasionally click the car seat into the base if I want to nip in somewhere but the pushchair part only gets used by grandma, grandad and daddy. I have him in a sling 99% of the time. I don't get why anyone would spend £1500 on a buggy that is ugly anyway! I think a lot of them look horrible, especially the icandy ones.

my brain exploded when doing buggy shopping.

i bought a sling instead

Our pram for our second dc cost £80 new and does a brilliant job. Smooth to push, sturdy, and dd2 seems comfortable in it. It doesn't look as fancy as the more expensive ones, but it's nice enough and it's functional.

With our first we spent a couple of hundred pounds on a pram, it was nice to look at, but we found it was to heavy and bulky for our needs.

Sometimes you need to look at more than just the price tag. There are loads of good, reasonably priced pushchairs out there in amongst the sea of ridiculously priced ones. And even some of the expensive ones are utter rubbish.

I did think it was crazy at first. But you use the buggy every day, potentially for 3 years, and it makes a difference to the easiness of life if you have a good one. The one we had (bugaboo bee) was small, light, easy to put in car, easy to get on bus, could push with one hand, could put car seat on it. I have never seem a better one. We got it secondhand but it was so amazing I'd have paid full whack for it if necessary.

I've had my pram out today with my very nearly 3 year old in it. Between DS1 and DS2 it's done good service. I wanted a good all rounder, something that was good cross country on grassy parks, but still reasonably agile for shops. It's got a good basket. My boot is a decent size which helped. It's got one body that lies flat that had different liners for a "pram" look in the early months, but also means a toddler can nap flat. Front/ parent facing options. It's only recently that DS1, now 5 has grown out of it. Its solid body meant that I managed to put a seat on it when DS2 was born as DS1 was in that transition stage where he didn't really justify a double buggy, but wasn't yet ready for a buggy board.

I had realistic ideas about what I wanted from it, and it's met those expectations. (Silver Cross Linear Freeway)

I have a Silver Cross buggy which is useful for walking to the local shops and holidays, but wouldn't have met all my needs. It was worth paying for a good mid-range pram again.

I know it seems crazy. Our buggy/travel system (uppababy vista) cost more than our car. But it was the best money we spent on any child related stuff. In fact i think it's been the best money i've spent on anything.

I didn't drive when i had DS1, so it was going to get heavy wear and tear. We went 'off road' a lot, i needed a large shopping basket, wheels which didn't puncture. we were also planning another baby quite close so wanted one which conerted to a double.

DS1 is now 3.7 and ds2 is 19mo and i use it everyday still. We walk miles, through muddy fields, i do a full shop using the basket and rumble seat to carry the food home. DS1 often wont walk so i have to put him in the rumble seat.

The basket buckled and was fucked with too much shopping and they replaced the whole chassis for 50 quid.

We are now expecting dc3 and will use the bassinet and car seat attachment again as well as the buggy and rumble seat probably for another 3 years. iirc it was 750 pounds. It was worth double that.

ChameleonCircuit Thu 31-Mar-16 21:05:18

Not pram related, but for goodness sake, OP, don't dress baby in a red shirt for away missions! grin

Ah! But this only holds true for new, unknown crew members. Since DC will be part of the main cast (on the USS Starship Mr and Mrs Pandora) this won't actually matter....

Will be in a Science Officer blue shirt anyway - like their mother

Pandora, your comments on the names made ROFL. I particularly like the thought of Uppababy on amphetamines, she could fly to her destination surely?

Friend of mine reckons she'd like to run for MP purely to legislate for the size of buggies

She definitely has the narrowest most sensible one I've seen. It looks really funny on the bus next to an enormous one. She seems to be in the minority.

There's an Uppababy Vista!!, OMD that's superb. The flying baby and the view she gets....!

I don't drive, our double (mountain buggy duet) cost about 800 quid. By the time I stop using it I will have walked more than 2000 miles with it. Worth every penny!

Having had a really decent beautiful to push buggy/pram I would never buy something crappy again!

I gave away our cheap, lives in the car stroller and bought a mountain buggy single because I hated the stroller and it's two handle bars so much. I actually strained my wrist trying to push the stroller around while holding my preschoolers hand.

The folding buggy does indeed exist!

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ERQHRo0fHGE

Buy one second hand. You can get a good make in great condition for £100. Spending £1000 or more is totally insane imo!

I agree OP. I know people who have spent £1000 or more on a pram. And I know loads of people who buy expensive prams with all the trimmings but begrudge spending a few quid on a car seat, so go for a cheap one.

We just went on eBay and got a mamas and papas one for £100, came with a carrycot too which was useful with a newborn, it's not big so I can use it on public transport. It's still in really good condition, and easy to take apart and wash. I don't intend on buying another even if we have another Dc.

Sincere apologies for not having RTFT, but from experience, whatever you initially buy, you'll end up with a Baby Jogger bought second hand from eBay and washed at 90 degrees to get the yoghurt stains off, and a Maclaren to keep in the car.

I wish I'd saved time, energy and money and gone straight for those options instead of fannying around with all-singing, all-dancing monstrosities that are now clogging up the hall.

I hated the whole travel system idea where you keep a baby in a car seat style thing. I always thought leaving them in a car seat for a long time was bad for them.

I liked my Pliko Pramette because it could lay flat or recline, and be front or rear facing. Worked for my kids from baby through to when my daughter was almost five.

Bugaboo bee looks good, is light and nippy, doesn't take up the whole pavement and folds up small. You will have to be assertive to avoid being cut up by massive truck -like buggies but I would definately recommend. Also you can have your baby facing you for longer because it does three different settings.

whatever you initially buy, you'll end up with a Baby Jogger bought second hand from eBay and washed at 90 degrees to get the yoghurt stains off, and a Maclaren to keep in the car.

Totally not true.

I've known lots of people to have various pushchairs for various occasions, or because one broke, or one got outgrown. But our Bugaboo has been the only pram & pushchair we ever used* for two children for 4 1/2 years. Even when the youngest was 2.5 yrs in the chair for long day-trips and the eldest was on the buggy board, it was still a dream to push around.

• except the shit cheap buggy bought for a holiday and abandoned after 3 weeks

Decide what you want (if you can get to kiddicare to trt them all out in one go it helps) then keep an eye on your local fb baby stuff selling group. Some people are pram addicts and change every few months looking for their 'holy grail'. We managed to get the £300 pram that we wanted (in the exact colour) for just £80. It was only a few monthsold and pristine. They are easily washable for peace of mind and the baby won't mind it being second hand.

WhatTheActual - obviously, my post is slightly tongue in cheek, as not every second-hand Baby Jogger is covered in yoghurt.

Sometimes it's banana.

Whirlwind I loved my duet . In my twins' first year I averaged about 3 miles a day with that thing, and it was a joy to push, even loaded down with shopping.

Then when they went to nursery I had to get a foldable one so I got a cheapy - an Obaby double - and it felt like pushing a bloody wardrobe down the road.

Nowadays, the kids are nearly 4, and we live in Germany where any kid not riding/scooting themselves to kindergarten is judged severely. So we take the car. Not that that's better, but if I turn up the volume on the in-car DVD player, the sound of the Peppa Pig theme tune drowns out all the tutting.

I live in a small town with a beach and plenty of country walks, so in 2011 for DD I got an out N about nipper 360. It's not a travel system, although the later ones were, but it's fabulous to push, will cope with any terrain and it's so robust. It's just come out again for newborn DS too.

I refused to buy into the pram hype and bought in unseen over the Internet. It was around £400 then, with extras. I'm very pleased I did - basically I had my own requirements and was bloody minded about finding a pushchair that fit them.

I did buy a Maclaren at about six months for quick trips out too.

We had a second hand silver cross pram/pushchair first, and then got a Maclaren umbrella fold as the pram was really quite awkward. It only cost about thirty pounds though, so not really an issue. The Maclaren was pretty heavily used, worked fine on the bus, with shopping etc. Then we borrowed a double pushchair for a bit when dd was born (16mth gap) and it was really awkward so I mostly used a sling and the Maclaren, and then moved ds onto a buggy board.

On the other hand my niece who didn't walk until she was about seven had this great three wheeled off road style buggy (from New Zealand I think) that was fantastically designed. So some of the expensive buggies are really worth it. Needed a big car though.

there does seem to be a view that everyone ends up with a Mclaren on MN, but round here, that only seems to be the case for people who bought really impractical prams in the first place. realistically, once you put the seat unit in, you have a buggy, if the frame is a good one (can be steered uphill with 1 hand, if you need to use buses isn't too big and folds quickly/easily - I've never actually needed to fold the buggy on a train, if you drive a lot, can be popped in the boot easily etc), then there's no reason to buy a 2nd buggy.

(Another tip I got on here from a Nanny who'd ended up using a lot of different buggies with different families, while you can't get a buggy board on an "Out and About" style buggy as you couldn't then use the break, lots of 3 wheelers have very long footplates, a toddler can be sat on there if they are getting tired on a walk, no need to get a double if it's just for now and then)