To hate three wheeled /over sized buggies with a passion

[Ryoko]

I know I'm going to get flamed over this but I don't care.

I can't stand the things, I think they are stupid, day after day I see them clogging up the shops and buses, they are nothing more then the baby version of a Chelsea tractor.

I hate walking past them in the shops what with them having spikes on the wheels for off road and they take up far too much space on the bus, the things can't even be folded properly not that anyone even tries to fold em even when someone gets on the bus with a wheel chair.

Why do people buy them? they are so stupid, this is London, there is no off road to be had, why do you need a Travel system that costs more then a small second hand car with your carry cot attachment, car seat attachment etc and then spend all day clogging up small shop aisle with it and blocking the gangway on the bus with it?.

Whats wrong with a simple small, light folding buggy that can be bought for less then half the price and in most cases can carry a child up to an older age then the Travel Systems.

Up here in Scotland I have found that a lot of people are very fond of those Emmalajunga spp? monster prams complete with frilly quilt thing on top of leather cover thing.

The best one I saw was a family with a huge Silvercross blocking the entire shop, the Gran was pushing the pram whilst the Dad WALKED with the TODDLER!!!

I had a travel system for PFB in London, at 6 weeks old I bought a Maclaren that is still going strong.

YABU

I like my three wheeler (P&T), couldn't really care less what you think. If you don't like where you live, you should move. I bought mine to SAVE money actually in the long run, it comes with a double kit which will be handy for our next baby who'll only be 18months younger than DD. I think long term and really didnt want to fork out another few hundred quid just to keep people like you happy.

As for using it on the bus, I pay to get on the bus and there is a space especially for buggy's and my buggy fits in there perfectly thank you. If a wheelchair needed the space, I would be more than happy to hop off and catch the next bus.

Rockbird! kittywise Amazonian mothers rarely need to walk 8 miles a day with book bags, packed lunches, waterbottles and the toddler in tow to take the other children to the "educational establishment".....or shop for and carry in excess of 30kg of shopping on their way home either!!! No wonder they don't find the all terrain buggy necessary.

I don't live in London - but if I did I would choose a buggy that fitted my lifestyle - whether it upset other people or not - why would I and my offspring be any less important than anyone else?

Can you tell I've had a bad day?

Google maps can calculate exactly how far you walk - I would be surprised if many people really walk eight miles a day.

30kg of shopping? That would be all the cans of coke then

My DS is SN and outgrew his Maclaren way before we could get a Maclaren Major for him. A 3 wheeler was all he could fit in as the seat was wide enough. If not we would never have gone out.

My objection is not to big 3 wheelers per se but to the fetishisation of prams/buggies generally. Lots of people buy the best for them practically but some mad people go through different ones at a rate of knots and always want the latest and the best.

Parents are a marketers wet dream.

Where I live it's the Bugaboo wars at the moment. It's not that I don't like nice stuff and I could fall for the marketing as much as the next person (Try not to though) but really.........it's a pram.

BTW strangely enough, saw a big 3 wheeler today in the shopping centre and the poor mother was having to pump up the tyre as it had a flat. Buy a Maclaren I thought.

This thread is why I never use public transport.

And my P&T is a hell of a lot smaller than the equivalent Maclaren double buggy!

Huge buggies puzzle me rather than annoy me. Surely in a city being able to get on buses, get round shops easily etc. is really important. So I don't understand why there isn't lots of consumer demand for ones which don't have big wheels sticking out and therefore manufacturers making sensibly-sized ones in response.

I have a three wheeler (solid tyres though) and wouldn't get one next time as although I do go "off road" I don;t do it often enough to justify the probs I have in town. But, the 4 wheel version was just as wide (Britax), but i really wanted a lie-flat then pushchair in one that was parent facing for longer than three months that didnt cost the earth. And Maclaren don;t make those. I don;t feel bad for wanting my DS to face me when he's stuck in the pram.
And I've only been on a bus once (I walk everywhere) And who wouldn;t move / get off a bus to allow a wheelchair to get on? That is what the space is for.

I hate em too but I'm really short so need a simple nice lighweight buggy!
If I were a tall woman I'd go for the most expensive complicated bloody pushchair on the market.

What did people do before fold up buggies? When people didn't have cars and only had big solis Silver Cross prams? Did they walk everywhere? Must ask my mother.

I used a big bulky travel system on buses when my LO was small and was very grateful for it! people can be bloody awful at letting their bags swing and whack babies in the face, banging into the buggy, drunk types poking them etc. with the big bulky beast he was protected from bag whacks and quite cocooned. Now he's a strapping toddler so he's in a stroller but on buses I still have to put the hood up an stand right on front of the buggy with my legs either side to protect him from bag whacks! and where I live, the bus driver lets people take their dogs (mostly fighting breeds) on the buses too. The sides of the travel system were quite high and out of dogs direct eye line (unlike strollers)

I also liked it in general because it lay flat and was rear facing and had a decent basket. I didn't have a car so the travel system was how I got my shopping home.

I would always get off before being asked if I saw a wheelchair at an approaching bus stop - most would!

most strollers say 6 mths plus anyway! when LO was about 3 weeks old someone on a bus pointed at one of those cheapo £20 toddler strollers and told me I should get one of them! (for a newborn?????)

fiftot - the baker and the grocer delivered, rich women didn't work, poor women worked at home or left children with extended family for months/years.

YABU - I hope you don't live in my area of London!

I have had two lightweight umbrella buggies and they both broke, probably because they were overloaded with the buggy board, scooters, school bags that are inevitable with three children under the age of five etc. I use public transport regularly as well as walking up to six miles a day. I hate the umbrella buggies, which you can't steer with one hand and seem so uncomfy for very small children.

I also had a P&T when the children were younger and now have a (three-wheeler)BCMJ for my baby while the two older DDs scoot everywhere. Both were/are great and the BCMJ folds up really easily if necessary.

The alternative would be to drive everywhere and the congestion around here is bad enough.

I think most people had silver cross/or similar type Prams fitfot.
everything was a lot closer to home aswell, people/family lived next road down etc so you had no need to walk miles to a supermarket, or get a bus everyday, the butchers, grocers and shops were round the corner.
and keep in mind that a silver cross pram would be used by other family members aswell, passed around after the baby using it could sit up and go in a cheap stroller.
and women would be at home most days, cooking meals from scratch whilst the LOs would play in the garden with other neighbour hood children, and other mothers would go to others houses to have a cup of tea, not trapes down into town for a starbucks.

God yes remember now - even we had the shopping delivered sometimes! Ah the olden days....I must be getting old.

as far as people saying people will move/fold prams to let wheelchair users on...certainly doesn't go for 9/10 of the buses I use (if it's after 9:30am). Funny though, if I'm already on the bus, it's amazing how 9/10 buggy users suddenly can fold it...

You are forgiven darkandstormy. its an easy mistake to make even i get a bit when i see her name, i keep thinking i have forgotten on a thread, and that i am having a bout of amnesia, til the penny drops and i realise

Forgotten i posted on a thread - apologies

fifitot - in the 1950s my brother had a pushchair for going on the bus but we had bus conductors then who would help you get the baby out, grab the pushchair, fold it down and put it in the luggage hole under the stairs.

i just can't avoid posting on these buggy/bus threads, it's compulsive

another one from SW london here and generally lucky enough not to have experienced the badness others have - only 2 buggies allowed, people always get off/fold for wheelchairs, generally fairly convivial atmosphere when shimmying 2 buggies (3 wheeled or not) into bus space with accompanying shopping/extra toddlers/scooters etc, help from old ladies when baby in buggy/sling and toddler falling all over bus.

definitely agree with the 'we're all in this together' sentiment people have expressed. i'm always amusedly wondering whether there are any MN types judging me when going about my bus business!

The only baby picture I have of my mum is her tousled head poking out if a massive black carrige pram. Bloody selfish 1950's people with their huge prams taking up the street and leaving them outside shops an that, what a bunch of wankers etc.

mum is not from a priviliged background btw poor people had massive prams as well and nobody died (well not due to the massive prams anyway). So bloody there...