Pram costs- what’s reasonable

[Alittlewordinyourear]

I have offered to buy my daughter and son in law a pram for their baby. I bought pram for my older daughter and cot and furniture to a similar value for my son and his wife. My budget is £1000, which I thought was generous. She’s come back saying she wants a particular one at £1800, which quite frankly I think is ridiculous ! I’d appreciate thoughts/ maybe I’m out of touch !

Wow, we paid £400 for a travel system, I've no idea what could be so special to justify more than 4x that Your offer is very generous, nothing to stop her topping it up if she wants a more expensive one. She's an ungrateful cow

The Mamas and Papas bundle included a Cybex car seat which was fine for my tiny baby (5lbs).

Travel systems and prams are crazy money in my (tight arse) opinion. I find as soon as baby sits up alone then people tend to want a smaller stroller as they're just more practical which is why so many travel systems are practically new when bought second hand.
I'm sure that many people do get years of use out of travel systems but in all honesty even ones that are designed to be easy to put up/down aren't as straightforward as a buggy.
Ask her to look for a second hand one or as others have said just give her the 1000.
Besides mattresses and bottles I've never bought new for my babies because I've been super lucky to have colleagues or pals and even neighbours have things to pass down. I seem to have got pregnant each time at the right time 😂
I always find someone else to hand down again to and I love the cycle. I think it feels like a wee village helping each other out.

I agree with @ChefBingo - far better to buy the car seat separately as lots of the bundle ones put the baby in an unsafe position (especially if they are very little). There's a good FB car seat group called Car Seat Safety UK that your DD could look at for recommended seats. We had a maxi cosi pebble 360 and it was rubbish for my very little DD1. I wish I'd got the avianaut pixel / cosmo or the britax babysafe instead. Luckily we don't use it much as we live in London.

I can see where she's got the £1800 figure from - there are Bugaboo, Cybex and ICandy bundles on John Lewis for that price and more. We spent £1200 on our Uppababy Vista v3 3yrs ago and it's still going strong on our second child. I think the v3 is a similar price. So it has been worth the money. But I think it's absolutely fair for you to say you can only contribute £1000 and they can make up the difference.

Has she been and actually pushed some prams around in the shop? I thought I wanted a Bugaboo until I actually pushed it and found i didn't like how low the bassinet was for me and my tall DH. She might find she prefers a different one once she tries some out.

They could also look at not buying it from John Lewis. There are some independent baby shops which often do much better deals. I recently bought a new cot for my youngest, which was nearly half price from a baby shop that was having a sale.

I think it's worth spending big on a decent travel system myself. It makes life so much easier if you have something that is sturdy, lasts a long time and works well. We got one that could be added to become a double and it was very spendy but also 100% worth it. We ran it into the ground.

But it's fine to give her the 1000 and tell her she can add to it.

No she’s not. She just has a particular product she wants. I don’t understand competitive low-spending and what seems like reverse snobbery over some women wanting a more expensive pram?!

It doesn’t sound like she was told in advance of the offer that it was capped at £1000. OP hasn’t said her daughter has in any way been rude or ungrateful. Just that the pram her daughter would like is a bit more than what OP wants to spend and it’s taken OP by surprise. Her question is around whether prices for prams have gone up in the years since she last bought one or whether this is indeed a very expensive pram.

It is on the pricier end but is probably a full travel system with a Cybex car seat. My bundle was bought from an independent retailer for £1250 but was closer to £1800 for the same bundle in John Lewis. We upgraded the included car seat to have a Cybex one as I wanted the very best car seat I could afford. For safety, not for appearances, before anyone jumps in!

It would be absolutely fine for OP to mention to her daughter that she can’t afford £1800, so would like to offer a contribution to the pram instead. If you can afford a bit more than £1000 it might be worth taking into consideration inflation if it’s been a few years since you bought your other daughter’s pram. £1000 won’t get you what it did 3 or 4 years ago when buying a travel system.

Mine was £1200 for whole travel system and has been a godsend - yes the pram is heavy but it is brilliant on rough paths as well as pavement and DS is so comfy in it. He wouldn’t sleep anywhere else except the pram bassinet when he was tiny & still has at least one nap a day in pram downstairs.

There are usually offers on and shop around, it’s a lot of money but realistically the system will last me until DS is 3ish and again if I have another baby so cost per use is pretty good!

Give her the £1000 towards a pram if that’s what you have chosen to give her. If she wants the £1800 that’s her choice, she can pay the remaining £800.

Thankyou all for your input. I now realise that prams are much more expensive than I thought. It’s her first baby after a bit of difficulty conceiving and I think she has a “nothing but the best” mentality which is fair enough. I will give her £1000 and recommend she shops around for best price

OP, it might be worth considering the impact of inflation on your gifts? Obviously you're being very generous as is, and if you can't spare any more then it would be churlish of your DD to complain. But if your other daughter's pram was bought, say, five years ago it would probably cost a lot more than £1000 now. You may want to consider looking up what it would cost now, and also whether you want to be equal in terms of giving them equal £££ or buying them an equal pram iykwim. Sometimes the youngest/last can really lose out (and I say that as the eldest and first so no grudge here).

1,000 sounds reasonable, it gets you the bugaboo fox which is great. Don’t see the need for anything better unless expecting twins.

maybe a bit extra for some accessories - car seat attachment / foot muff etc may be nice.

We got a travel system for £350 so I'm quite shocked at these prices! This was 2 years ago though, and I found it with a discount online. It's a Joie versatrax and we don't drive so this pram has done many, many miles almost daily as I love long walks! No issues and still use it and she's almost 2 as I like the basket space and she still naps in it. So over £1,000 I'm not sure can be justified? I'd have liked a different colour but not worth the extra £100 for it for example! We also went to try various brands and models out and the Joie came up on top

£1000 is a very generous contribution towards a pram. I just had a quick Google and you can get the Bugaboo Fox 5 (which is one of the more expensive prams) for around £750 on certain sites and even a bundle that includes the Fox and a car seat and base for under £1000. Look at other sites other than John Lewis as they tend to work out more expensive.
I can’t see many prams that cost anywhere near £1800 so assume this must be a bundle that includes footmuffs, nappy bag, car seat etc. These are things they can pick up separately.