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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To insist on a parent facing pram with carrycots.

174 replies

user1487755366 · 13/06/2020 17:29

I am prepared for you all to tell me that I'm being unreasonable. Currently pregnant with twins - a few weeks ago DP started looking at pram options and measured up the boots of our cars. I have a Nissan Micra (new style) he has a Mini Cooper (ridiculously small boot size).
He found a pram he thinks will fit. Today I said I've been thinking and like a different brand because I want them to be parent facing and also in carrycots when they're tiny. He asked 'can you have it without carry cots' and I said no because they're part of the model and I'd want the other model with optional carrycots he said it categorically won't fit in his car and we'd just have to accept that we couldn't drive the babies anywhere....

I'm really upset about this. Does anyone have either of these cars and have a double buggy with carrycots? How important is parent facing - it's something I really want when they're tiny.

OP posts:
StarScream22 · 13/06/2020 17:34

Do you know how big carry fits are? And there will be 2! I wouldn’t even be able to fit them very well in my 4x4. If you have twins you’re probably going to need bigger cars. My brother had a Mini Cooper and twins, he could fit behind the wheel with the car seats. Most prams that parent face can be flipped around too. By the time they’re big enough to sit up in a pram seat they probably won’t want to look at you anyway Grin

EssentialHummus · 13/06/2020 17:37

I based my entire pram decision-making process on parent facing above all else, because I read all the stats about chatting and eye contact. By 6 months she was world-facing. Her vocab etc is nearly off the scale. I wouldn’t say I regret it, but I’m not sure it was worth lugging an enormous Cosatto up two flights of stairs daily.

postyourlunch · 13/06/2020 17:40

I would want parent facing carry cot for a newborn too but you'll struggle to fit them in any car.

We have an estate and no twins and we were lucky to fit ours.

UserFriendly14 · 13/06/2020 17:41

We chopped our Golf in for a Passat Estate as soon as I was pregnant! Is changing either of your cars a possibility?

As PP said, by the time they can sit up, they want to be world facing anyway and it’s good for them to be able to look around in that way. It also gave me a break while walking as DS was too engrossed in all that was going on.

Oysterbabe · 13/06/2020 17:42

A mountain buggy duet will be your best bet. It's the smallest double and the carrycots are smaller than most.

EasterIssland · 13/06/2020 17:42

I had a small bugaboo for my single son and I was driving a seat Ibiza. Within a month of him being born I changed cars to a bigger one as the boot would dissappear. Can’t imagine had I had two!

Original poster
user1487755366 · 13/06/2020 17:42

I don't think we're in a position to change cars at the moment. I'm locked into a hire purchase deal and I don't think we could afford to change his car at the moment - twins news kind of caught us both by surprise.

OP posts:
BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 13/06/2020 17:43

At least one of the cars is going to have to be upgraded to a bigger model eventually as kids need all sorts of shit brought with them.

Would that be an option?

Carrycot wouldn't be a deal breaker for me but parent facing and lay flat seats would be a minimum.

ScarfLadysBag · 13/06/2020 17:45

Buy a couple of lie-flat car seats and adaptors and use those instead. We didn't use a carrycot; we used our Kiddy lie-flat car seat with adaptors on our pram for at least the first six months.

StatisticallyChallenged · 13/06/2020 17:45

Another saying I'd be changing one of the cars, at least. Even without carrycots you will be very tight with a double in either of those cars. You need space for stuff other than the buggy as you won't be able to put shopping or bags on the back seat.

Also worth checking space for car seats. I had a fiat 500 for the first year of my youngest's life and I could drive ok with a car seat behind me but DH couldnt.

JesskerM · 13/06/2020 17:45

Have you thought of something with soft carrycots, like the mountain buggy nano?

BruceAndNosh · 13/06/2020 17:46

he said it categorically won't fit in his car and we'd just have to accept that we couldn't drive the babies anywhere....
Would this pram system fit in YOUR car?

ScarfLadysBag · 13/06/2020 17:47

Also bonus with the lie-flat car seats is no hassle getting two babies in and out of car seats and into the carrycots and vice versa. You just lift the whole seat out and stick it on the adaptors.

We had a Kiddy Evoluna but there are others out there.

Wheresmycider · 13/06/2020 17:51

We had a mini cooper with our first. We ended up with a travel system that started as a carry cot and then changed to an upright seat later and a quinny.
The quinny had the car seat adaptors as well as the seat unit and it lived in the car.
The bigger carrycot system was only used for journeys on foot.
You need to consider how often you will actually be driving somewhere where you will need a heavy duty pram at the other end.
I second a previous poster about car seats in a mini though, you may struggle being comfortable with 2 in the back.

MuddlingThrough1724 · 13/06/2020 17:52

We had a carrycot.....biggest waste of money ever, my child hated it, wouldn't nap in it at home and we only used on the pushchair once and they screamed the whole time. That's nearly £200 we'll never get back! Instead we used the cybex cloud Q car seat, which reclines in to a sort of carrycot when out of the car. Fitted on our iCandy Peach pushchair with adaptors. I know the cloud Q couldn't be used on the lower adaptors when in two child mode, but that may have changed as it was about 3 years ago and models will have changed and been updated etc. Anyway, maybe look a little outside the box in terms of car seats and ram compatability as you will need car seats anyway, and would save on the cost and bulk of carrycots. Another point is that carrycots really don't last long at all and in most cases babies outgrow them way before 6 months. Some pushchair seats will lie virtually flat anyway, making a carrycot slightly redundant, or you could get one carry cot and put the othe baby in a sling (massively recommend a Connecta/Integra as they are comfy, super lightweight and compact and when the babies are older you can use to have one on your back. You can also sling twins if you have two 👍🏻

StatisticallyChallenged · 13/06/2020 17:52

We had a lie flat (ish) car seat too - we did have a proper pram with carry cot which got lots of use walking but it was fairly rare that we were driving anywhere which required the carrycot.

StatisticallyChallenged · 13/06/2020 17:53

Ha ha muddling, exactly same pram and car seat combo. One of the few which gets in a fiat 500 boot

Waveysnail · 13/06/2020 17:53

I'd scrap the carrycot idea unless your buying something with a huge boot. Go for something you can clip carseat onto

PowerslidePanda · 13/06/2020 17:53

I have 7 month old twins - we also used Kiddy Evo-luna car seats rather than carry cots when they were too little to sit up.

Are you going for a side-by-side pushchair or a tandem? If it's a tandem, bear in mind that if you have both seats parent facing, you'll only be able to see one of them anyway. As it happens, one of my twins prefers to be world-facing and the other is happier parent facing.

megletthesecond · 13/06/2020 17:55

Parent facing is nice. But to be honest if you don't do it then it's only a couple of hours a day they're looking at the world and other people instead of you.
Personally I think babies need to watch the world go by and take it all in. Mine never parent faced and benefited from being able to chat to other people when we were in parks and shops. Far better than looking at my tired face all day.

MidsomerMum · 13/06/2020 17:57

We had a silver cross pram with carrycot that also had a pushchair. It’s not even that big but It was a squeeze getting it in carry cot form into an Ibiza - the carry cot had to be wedged in the back footwell and the frame didn’t fit with the boot lid(? Can’t think of the word!) in. We changed car within a month of DD being born - to a big estate. We’ve still got the pram in case DC 2 ever comes along as I like it for walks etc BUT we’d definitely have to get something different for when we were out and about in the cars we have now, which are back down to hatchbacks.

Duckfinger · 13/06/2020 17:57

A pram that looked like a pram was a non-negotiable when I had my DS. (Kept it for DD). It was huge, I had to replace my Clio with an estate to fit it in. That's without even thinking about car seats.

Essentially a family need a family sized car.

Sharkyfan · 13/06/2020 18:00

Ability to parent face - yes deal breaker
Separate flat carry cot - not such a deal breaker for me as they’re in there a short time
If you can find one that can parent face and they can be in from birth that would be ok for me. Especially if you can slot in car seats

Or if you do a lot of walking from home, one that had carry cots but also option for car seats so when you’re driving somewhere you use car seat option

RainRainGoAway2020 · 13/06/2020 18:02

They are in carry cots for such a short period of time. At that stage I just put the car seat onto the pram base if we went anywhere by car.

MamaSmith18 · 13/06/2020 18:02

What about something like a babyjogger city mini which has compact carrycot addition? And the pram part folds almost flat.

The seats lie back flat as well once they grow out of carry cot

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