August 2021 - They've been here for half a year

[BertieBotts]

Can you believe it! Our lovely little ones are (roughly) halfway to their first birthdays.

Welcome friends old and new for discussion of sleep, teeth, weaning, milestones, navigating post-baby relationships and the whole existential dread of parenthood... I mean those amazing moments when they make your heart melt. Or produce a poo that makes the wallpaper melt. Oh, all of them. Nothing is off limits because it's just good to know that somebody else has been there.

@Inmypjsagain we haven't taken the cot abroad, but have on a UK break and it folds up and down very easily!

We have a Silver Cross Reflex (bought from marketplace), umbrella fold like the Pop, and I rate it highly, so user friendly! I've seen heaps of Yo-yos in the airport so I imagine they must be good! I felt I couldn't justify the cost as I think we might want a double at some point

@biscuitcat Good point re double! Also whilst we're on the buggies, have you had any issues with the lever holding the buggy when folded on your Uppababy? Mine doesn't stay in place after it clips in anymore, it's gone a bit loose which is annoying. xx

You could look at getting the Babyzen second hand, as they are built well so don't really suffer from being second hand like some of the other real compact models do.

Odd that she thinks the Bee isn't compact... it doesn't go down to hand luggage size, but that's a bit of a gimmick anyway IMO.

There are a few videos on the stroller workshop channel about the babyzen, bee and ultracompact pushchairs in general. They have one about the Joie pact as well which now I watch it makes me want to retract the suggestion :o

Anyway this search seems to pick up most of them:

www.youtube.com/c/BarnevognverkstedNo/search?query=compact

I do think umbrella strollers are good too, I had an OBaby one and a Mamas and Papas one, both absolutely fine. Don't really get the hate for them, they are much more sturdy and comfortable for children than a lot of more modern designs.

@PurplePansy05 I think mine is still alright - how annoying for you're! Is it still in warranty? That sounds like the sort of thing the shop should be fixing, no way a pushchair that expensive should be having niggles already.

@BertieBotts I didn't realise there was hate for umbrella fold strollers - how come? As I said, I really like mine, it's so quick and easy!

Oh, but we also have a BabyStart (Argos own brand/Cuggl) umbrella stroller and I absolutely hate it! It's the worst thing ever.

Oh they are just seen as old fashioned apparently? The stroller workshop really hate them :o

Also I hardly ever see people using them, but maybe it's a continental Europe/UK split.

@PurplePansy05 totally dont blame you for checking the smell! I’d have done the same!!! I just got this on my Instagram Home page www.instagram.com/reel/Cag3rIEoJ3K/?utm_medium=copy_link silver cross but fold down. Wonder if this one is any good!
Car seat is a good question, I was going to ask an NCT friend what she did, but was this an issue for anyone else here? @biscuitcat did you need a car seat? If we do go to Canada we’re seeing a friend who has a girl 2 months older, assuming they’re available they’d collect us from the airport and we could use their car seat, but beyond the journey home we haven’t planned, I’m not really sure what to do. I’d worry our one would get knocked in transit?

@biscuitcat good to know about the graco!

Oh and umbrella fold is something I sort of associated with the 90s, it was only since researching this stuff that I found out they still made them, but if they’re good and space saving then I don’t know why people wouldn’t use them?!

@BertieBotts thanks so much Bertie, I’ll give this all a watch today. So helpful! Part of me thinks if we get the baby zen, for the sake of £100 we may as well get new? I tried the Bee today, I can see what she means about it not being compact for her, she has a VW golf and it took up pretty much the full width and a good bit of height of the boot. We have an SUV so it was fine but what I’ve seen others fold smaller, it’s a nice pram though, went over okay on the uneven pavements- at least I can compare it to something now.

@sarah13xx how are you getting on? Hope the orders aren’t keeping you up all night?! I think you mentioned you had the summit pram- does that fold small and is it any good?!

I'm liking the look of this one @Inmypjsagain. Kiddies Kingdom sell it in aqua for £175 which is £50 less than everywhere else's RRP. SC Jet folds to cabin size too, btw xx

Part of me just wants to buy the prams and do my own YouTube reviews 😂 good spot @PurplePansy05 thank you, I’ve sent a link to my husband to try and get some input. I just get a “buy what you think is best” which is fine but it’s nice to get a different opinion. Instagram clearly knows I was Googling silver cross!

@RandomCatGenerator I’ve just realised it’s time for your big move, are you in London now? Hope it’s all gone okay!

There is a huge audience for baby product reviews and if you get lots of views you'll start getting approached by companies and sent free things to review on your channel!

@Inmypjsagain we have an old car seat from my SIL from when her boys were little, so we've taken that with us - I also wouldn't want to risk our main one. If you're hiring a car I think you can usually also hire a car seat, though of course that means you're trusting the company to make sure it's safe so it's a judgement call - somewhere like Canada I'd be more trusting of that than places with less strong safety rules! But if you're travelling a lot do look at the price as I don't think it takes many trips for buying one to become more economical than repeatedly hiring (though it is more bulk to transport).

Argh did my message not post? This is a test to see if anything is working…

Darn. I wrote a post and it disappeared when I hit post 😡 I said something like….

I’ve definitely thought about blogging before after seeing these people’s lifestyles but I’m not good looking or interesting enough to get views. Maybe baby review would be a good niche (and thinking about it I’ve found it hard to find reviews of some of the stuff I’ve been looking for!). I follow some bloggers who were given bugaboo prams and various other products, how lovely would that be!

@biscuitcat you raise really good points, thank you, totally didn’t think about hiring. My in laws have spare car seats thinking about it, but I guess they go in the hold, I’ve been really unlucky that I’ve had several suitcases break in transit and I worry that If the seat got knocked around it would ruin the car seat, but I’m possibly overthinking things (as usual!) perhaps we should wait till he’s older and stick to UK trips for now…!

Car hire companies are notorious for giving you totally crap, old, dirty car seats.

If you're staying with friends definitely see if they have a spare one you can use or they can borrow one from a friend etc. North America and Europe have totally different car seat laws and regulations and they aren't compatible with each other.

It's a bit more of a pain if you're going on holiday and will need to drive but don't have any people on the ground there. And yes, agree if you're going back to a place repeatedly, a cheaper bought one is usually cheaper than hiring - in fact this can even be the case for a single week!

@Inmypjsagain we brought ours to Denmark with us at Christmas, a joie 360 for ds and the infant carrier for dd, touch wood they seemed to survive pretty unscathed (the joie we left at pil house for dd for future trips, they have a highback booster for ds going forward - I just wasn't totally happy with him being in it just yet, by summer when we next go he should be fine in it)

We have the silver cross zest which I like, also an umbrella fold but it is light and easy to put up and down.

Well our neighbours have really gone and done it. They put a complaint to the factors as apparently part of my raised beds are on common grounds. They wrote to us and I have to change them back.

Should I have checked the boundary.... yes. Is it clear that a strip that is in our garden is actually common ground.... no. Have I been maintaining it as if its ours.... yes.

All this to be extremely petty and find anything to piss us off. Of course the complainant was not named but really who else can it be.

Not only that but OHs first reaction was to be extremely angry with me for not doing my full homework. I just looked at the front garden and presumed that our boundary was at the edge of our garden. Silly me.

I don't think the factors would have cared if they hadst complained. Its about 1 foot over but will cost us to get it fixed.

I just want to say an extremely big feck you to the world just now and take DD and run off to my mums.

Wow, it just amazes me that people can be petty over a foot-wide parcel of land that brings nothing into their lives. Your neighbours are pathetic and clearly have way too much spare time on their hands.

Car seats - we always hire a car on holiday. Always. That's because we travel around the area and also you got to trsnsport yourselves from the airport etc, how else would you do that with the buggy, bags, all the baby stuff etc without a car? I am struggling with logistics tbh and this is one of the main reasons we are not planning any holidays abroad yet. I really don't know what to do, if you check in a car seat, how do you know it's not been thrown about and damaged? And in addition, if the regs are different in the EU and in the US then maybe there's no point in having a spare travel car seat and hire instead? Surely it's unlikely car seats from car hire companies were in an accident before because those same companies would know through having damaged cars? And even if there was a very slight collision would it cause different damage than airport services throwing the seat?

There's a big part of me that wants to avoid international travel till he's much older, even thinking about it gives me headache 😫 xx

I don't think hire car seats would have been in an accident but they often keep the same ones for years of heavy use, store them in a pile in the corner with no regard for whether it's been dropped or bashed around, you will probably be given it with missing parts if anything is separate (inserts, strap covers) and it's very rare to get instructions meaning you might not know if you're installing it right and if somebody else has tried to change the straps height etc (in cheaper/older seats you often have to physically thread them through holes in the seat to move them) they might have done this wrong and you wouldn't necessarily know. I've heard people find that pieces of the seat are broken. They are never washed unless the person hiring them washes the cover. Car hire places don't have washing machines. It's really common to be given one that you would never choose yourself such as a forward facing seat for a baby of this age, or just the really cheap ones you can buy in supermarkets.

Which? Did a report on this but you'll s also find stories of you ask people who have done it.

If you're going to the US and are likely to go again, I'd get a car seat delivered to an Amazon locker at the airport and bring it home with you afterwards as American ones can often be used on planes and they last much longer than ours. Book a plane seat for baby on the way back and use the seat to save checking it in the hold.

A lot of people on the car seat pages say that if travelling internationally you can just bring your own seat as the chances of you being fined for having a foreign seat are so vanishingly small and it's not like they magically become less safe just being used in another country. You'll know how to use it as well which reduces chance of error. There are a few differences between American and European cars but they're normally a problem the other way around (if you do get a car seat in the US and plan to use it outside the US, buy a locking clip too)

Right.. that's put me off international travel even more 😅 I just wouldn't buy an extra seat just so DS can sit in a car seat that I'd probably never use again on the plane...neither would I store it at home after, no space for another car seat 😂 and buying and leaving it abroad is a waste of money and massively environmentally unfriendly...I can't see a good option 🤷🏼‍♀️ xx

I meant to say also we went on holiday to Portugal when ds was a year old .. 1 year 4months and requested a car seat for the drive to the villa - pre paid driver and car and paid for car seat - they seat they provided was a backless booster 🤨 we had literally no choice but to deal with it, most nerve wrecking journey ever! Needless to say the rest of the trip ended up being to only places I could walk with ds in the buggy. Thankfully we hadn't planned on driving or travelling much anyway

It is really tricky - some people just avoid cars. Or legally you can go without in a taxi, I've done it but I didn't like it! Coaches I'm fine with no car seats, as it's similar to a bus. Visiting friends abroad is useful because they can normally borrow something. We did this when our friends came with their 1yo. Or a holiday you can drive to - Netherlands, France, Ireland, UK?

A backless booster for a 1yo!! WTF

Here is the Which report:
www.which.co.uk/news/2020/08/85-of-parents-had-problems-when-hiring-a-car-seat-for-their-rental-car/

Some MN experiences
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3354940-To-not-want-to-hire-a-car-seat-abroad

Another option is to look for a baby equipment hire company, these exist and because they tend to be a bit more clued up about baby stuff I'm guessing that the car seats would be OK? I've never seen anyone post any horror stories about these anyway, you'd still have the risk of previous misuse but hopefully they would be a bit more attentive than the car hire staff who seem to not care!

OTOH I have heard Australia are good with rental car seats because they take car seat safety very seriously there and they know foreigners won't have an Aus regulation seat because they are different.

@Ready2020 that sounds really ridiculous and stressful. Neighbours like that can really put you off a property so I hope they’ve got their obnoxousness out of their system now! Hope it’s not too much of a faff to sort but tbh I’d put off doing it for a while….

And yes I’m really questioning the whole idea of the holiday now!!! We never usually hire cars, I dislike driving in England let alone abroad. We normally take public transport or taxis, if we’ve ever bought a lot we’ve always used their boots with no issues, so baby gear could go there (unless you also use the car as storage for spares in which case that won’t work). Having said that we’d be staying in air bnb near my friend, but I don’t want to inconvenience them but they have 3 car seats apparently (each set of grandparents) so we could hire a car and use theirs but if you’re not going to see friends it seems like it’s really not great.

A backless booster?!? That’s bananas. I said to my husband why don’t we just drive to France is we want to go away! I wonder if this was why I didn’t go on a plane til I was 5!

I haven’t read the MN thread but I will do, I really have to ask my friend what she did because they’ve done 4 long hauls and 2 trips to Spain in the last
8 months since they’ve had baby.

On a different note, it’s miserable weather here today and the raincover that comes with the pram is a bit of a pain and quite bulky. Is everyone using the covers that came with their pram or has anyone bought a separate cover? I’ve looked in amazon and there are hundreds to choose from the reviews all seem to range from this rain cover is great to its not waterproof 🤨