To wish I’d bought an expensive pram?

[pramenvy20]

Before I had my baby I looked at the price of prams and thought how silly it was to spend that amount, and I bought a second hand one.

I regret it now so much. I saw a woman yesterday just park, get the frame from the boot and attach her car seat to it without disturbing her baby. No fuss or faff!

Mine is fine so I’ll probably vote that I am BU because I am ... but I wish I’d bought a really lovely pram!

I know what you mean but just think next time you want to buy something lovely like a nice outfit that you can afford it as you cut back on the pram cost.

Can't you sell the one you have now and put it towards a new one? I thought the car seat on the frame was a basic standard these days, couldn't have don't without that when mine were babies.

Oh it wouldn’t even come close - the one I have cost around £200: the ones I like are around £1200!

Couldn't you sell yours and buy another second hand one, but a different model that suited you better? Once they aren't new the secondhand price doesn't drop that much so second or third hand there isn't much difference in cost. You could probably almost get your money back when you sell.

I don't understand. I paid £180 for my travel system from Smyths. It has a carrycot and car seat which all attach onto a pram base. Is that what you mean?

Nooo there would be a huge price disparity. Plus I don’t think you’re supposed to have second hand car seats which is what it would mean. And part of my regret is not just allowing myself to splash out, I think. Although I think a lot of expensive prams are gifted by grandparents.

Mines fine to be fair. It’s just very stiff so I struggle with it a little bit. And if baby falls asleep in the car I have to wake her up to put her in the pram which makes me feel bad.

I suppose so Ajahd? Not sure if they are universal or not though.

@pramenvy20

Oh it wouldn’t even come close - the one I have cost around £200: the ones I like are around £1200!

£200 new or did you pay £200 for it second hand? Tbh if you paid £200 for it second hand then that is quite a lot for a second hand pram and I would expect that to pay for a decent travel system that you could buy a car seat to go in.

The £1200 prams aren't much better than the mid range ones btw. We paid about £400 iirc for a joie travel system. That was frame, seat, carry cot and car seat. It was brilliant.

I thought it was much better for your baby to sleep in a pram than stay in a car seat though.

YABU sorry. Travel systems do not need to cost anywhere near £1200! Did you look at them when considering what pram to buy? They don't suit everyone but they are very useful!

What pram do you have now? You can buy car seat adapters.

OP what pram have you got? Perhaps there is a car seat that you could buy that can be used with the frame you have? Sometimes you need to get connectors.

Popping the car seat on the frame is very handy when you are just nipping somewhere for 15 minutes but much longer than that and they really need to be out of the car seat in a lie flat pushchair or carry cot really. So it's not all that useful tbh.

Sort of both sheloves - it was new but an ex display, so cheap.

It’s not just the car seat thing - a whole variety of things that would probably have made life a bit easier! And I could have afforded it at the time so I was a bit daft but it really doesn’t matter. It’s a nice enough pram and a lovely baby!

@Blackdog19

I thought it was much better for your baby to sleep in a pram than stay in a car seat though.

Yes it is - keep having to remind OH of this!

YABU, we paid £70 for a second hand pram, came with all the bits and its excellent. Look into what pp have suggested with carseat adapters to clip the carseat into the frame. It is healthier to use the lay flat bassinet for long periods of time though

Yeah it isn’t JUST the car seat - but thanks.

They are only tiny for a short time, unless you are going to reuse the pram for multiple children £1200 seems excessive. By the time they are 6 months strollers become more convenient.

Well if it makes you feel any better I don’t think babies should be kept in car seats anyway! I personally think it’s best to remove them from the car seat when out of the car and put them in a pram/push chair! It’s better for them.

Just seen your recent update 🤣 I always wanted a bugaboo, now nearly a decade on, I couldn’t give a crap. Soon you won’t either probably haha!

Ah, cross post there! We bought a smaller more flexible buggy when DS was bigger fir taking on holiday. Depending on how old your DC is that might satisfy your wish for something fancier.

Like you, We could afford to buy fancy brand new, but I refused to buy a pram more expensive than my first car!!

I bought an expensive uppababy pram. I loved it. I'd all but stopped using it but when DD was 3 1/2 we had a festival, and decided to take it for the hanging around and bigger tyres for field. Anyway DD used it as a climbing frame and a mechanism broke. I could still use carrycot and car seat attachment when DS came along, but not seat. I bought a second hand baby jogger on ebay for £100 that I used from 6 months old, and it was great. You only need the all singing and dancing travel system for a short time. I regret spending £550 on this uppababy, and wish I'd bought a travel system second hand for £200, seeing as it broke anyway.

Hi OP... My pram cost us £1k in summer last year, bought new. It doesn’t have the car seat included. Just a bassinet and then it will turn into a stroller when my baby is 6m. It is lovely I don’t regret it, I must say.

However .... your reasoning behind wanting to spend more doesn’t make sense to me. Like others have said, you could get a travel system at a very reasonable price.
A lot of the cost is down to branding.

We opted for a swivel car seat, most of which on the market do not come apart from the isofox base, so I cannot take it out and put it on my pram. Every time I have stopped the car, baby has woken up, so I see no benefit to having a car seat that would come out and pop on the pram.

Check out the guidelines too, because babies shouldn’t be in car seats for a longer than a certain amount of time. It’s better to get them out as soon as possible, rather than keeping them in it after a drive and then pushing them round in it after the drive unnecessarily on the pushchair.

OP don't waste time lamenting over the fact that you didn't get an expensive pram. Plenty of parents will tell you that it's silly money to pay for a pram and not worth the extra anyway. You are mostly paying for the brand name.

I can remember being a little bit jealous when I saw other parents with their beautiful, stylish prams that cost upwards of a grand. But the pram I had was perfectly fine and had all the features I needed really, plus I could never have afforded to spend so much anyway.

I paid £1200 for mines and I loved it I really did. However I now have a carrycot part that was used about 3 times because dd was long and didn't fit in it much,a pram I can't bear to part with but probably won't have any more babies and if I sell it I'll be lucky to get £200 back.

I don't regret it I did love it, but if you like your pram & it does the job then that's all that matters I really wouldn't dwell on wishing you had bought a more expensive one sometimes you really don't get your money's worth out of It.

We bought the super expensive pram for DD1. DD2 (due shortly) will be getting a cheap one because we realised the first time round what an incredible waste of money the expensive pram was (we gave it away, so can't even get another use out of it!).