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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

how important is a buggy thing that faces you?

32 replies

surfmama · 17/03/2012 10:30

to be honest, the whole buggy thing is doing my head in. I have decided pretty much to get a mountain buggy with carrycot, second hand on ebay (if the price is right).
it ticks my boxes i think, beach, uneven ground, good sturdy make....erm not sure what else, anyway just wondering if I have overlooked the baby facing you thing, and if I have is there a buggy that is similar to mb that faces you also? for some reason it bores both me and my dp to death looking, and we are really only getting it for the grandparents so thay can push wee one around, we will probably use sling for early days.
i just want a baby, not all the stuff!

OP posts:

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lalabaloo · 17/03/2012 10:35

It's only as important as you think it is, presumably the carrycot will be parent facing anyway for the early days and after that if you are happy to not have baby facing you that is fine, different people prefer different things

HappyAsASandboy · 17/03/2012 11:12

As lalababy said, it is completely up to you. We all have different priorities and all raise our kids differently because of them.

Personally I try to keep my DTs parent facing. Part of the reason is that twins often have language delay (because they get less one-on-one talking with an adult), and parent facing buggies. Help encourage you to chatter to your babies as you walk along (yes, I do get strange looks, but never mind). Partly it's because I like looking at my babies :)

The mountain buggy (at least the double one that I've seen!) is very solidly built and so ideal for the beach. I don't know what the pyre options are though!

frasersmummy · 17/03/2012 11:18

i think parent facing is more for the parents/grandparents enjoyment that the childs

I loved having him facing me .. I could stare at him for hours.. and I would chatter and sing daft songs to him

But I could see him straining to the side to see past me to see dogs/other people/ flowers etc. So I turned him round to let him enjoy the world.

I used a large 3 in 1 m&p's system till he was about 2 so eh was quite high off the ground and he would grin at passers by and say hi!!

OTTMummA · 17/03/2012 11:20

Well, i didn't realise how important it was to me until i took ds1 on his first trip out in his buggy.
Every 5 mins i was stopping and peering round to the front just to check him
I ebayed that one and then got a quinny and it made days/trips out much more relaxing for me.
But obvioulsy everyone is different, there are some systems which can do both, and also transform from a carrycot type to a pushchair seat.
My friend has the mothercare spin which seems to tick a lot of boxes, and it's 3 wheels aswell.

Purplecatti · 17/03/2012 11:27

I would love one of those big beautiful old fashioned bouncy perambulator things with the lovely big wheels. That is, until I saw the prices
In reality I will get whatever is donated to me as I don't believe in spending a fortune on a baby, plenty of time for that in the future with music lessons, ballet lessons, birthdays, horse riding and suchlike.
I'd rather save my money.

AntsMarching · 17/03/2012 11:43

Be aware that not every baby will like a sling. I'd planned on using a sling but my dd hated it. She loved her buggy though, so we used it all the time.

Original poster

surfmama · 17/03/2012 12:05

hi helpfull mums, thanks for all your advice. I have had another browse around and dont think i'll find a parent facing that is that suitable for the beach (which is where we walk the most) so may go for the second hand mountain buggy. dont think the quinny wheels will work, the jane reverse may do but there don't seem to be any second hand around as I guess they are new out. ho hum... probably doesn't really matter that much am just obsessing as mil want's to buy me one from mothercare and i don't want to be squeezed into something that doesn't work!

OP posts:

Freezingmyarseoff · 17/03/2012 12:16

We have a second MB from eBay and it's brilliant. When the time came to stop using the carry cot I did feel a bit sad about DD no longer being parent facing but overall I've decided that the MB makes up for it in many other ways - rugged, goes anywhere (inc deep mud & snow) v easy to push, turns on a sixpence.
Do be aware that the carrycot is quite narrow so you may stop using it earlier than another make of pram. And it is quite bulky when folded, might not get in the boot of a small car but I would still highly recommend it. Good decision I say

Original poster

surfmama · 17/03/2012 12:18

hi freezing thanks for that. yes i think that's the one.... just out of curiosity, did you get a new mattress for the cot?

OP posts:

joosiewoosie · 17/03/2012 13:28

For my twopenneth, we are going to get M&P's Glide package. It us quite robust, folds in one (no having to remove seat), and when you want to put on the carrycot, car seat or change seat direction, its dead simple and light to do.
We were thinking about bugaboo bee until we saw this. Wheels are substantial enough too.
Not as pricey as bugaboo, and comes with car seat (and other nice things like footmuff, parasol, raincover etc)...a saving already.
Can't wait to buy mine :-)

ShitThatsALotOfMoney · 17/03/2012 13:52

Its really not at all important, its just whether you want it or not. In the early days mine were in their car seat clipped onto a travel system and that meant they were facing me. If we were out for longer than I wanted them in the car seat for they went in a forward facing lie-flat buggy. It didn't make any difference to either of them.

justlemonade · 17/03/2012 16:48

I don't think it's that important really. My DD lived sitting up and taking in the world very early on.

insancerre · 17/03/2012 16:54

I actually think it's a big issue. There has a been a big decline in the speech and language abilities of children. I am not saying that forward facing prams are to blame but they can't have helped. They don't allow mother and baby to look at each other and talk to each other.

Frontpaw · 17/03/2012 16:57

We had the Bugagoo which can face either way. It was always facing and I just blabbed on at DS, pointed things out, chatted, sang stupid songs, etc. I think this is why he never shuts up!

Original poster

surfmama · 17/03/2012 19:56

oh pants i am back to the drawing board anyway, the mb on ebay is over £200 at mo an not met reserve! maybe i could adapt my boat trolley...

OP posts:

Meglet · 17/03/2012 20:02

I don't think it's very important. Neither of my dc's faced me (we have a big 3 wheeler). They were always being chatted to by little old ladies when we were out and about and have grown up to be very talkative. Nursery and school have said how good their speech is.

IMHO I think that looking at the big wide world (and being able to see other people) is far more interesting than looking at tired mummys face who is trying to remember all the errands she has to do.

Meglet · 17/03/2012 20:03

oh, I did always point things out to the dc's if we were at the park or somewhere interesting. I didn't ignore them all of the time just some of the time when I was worn out.

disillusionedprofessional · 17/03/2012 20:09

There is a university doing some research on this. They have found that babies who are not facing their parents have higher stress levels. High levels of stress in infancy and childhood can affect the psychological health of your child in the future.

TheHouseofMirth · 17/03/2012 20:13

Personally, I much prefer my parent facing buggy to my forward facing one. When my children were babies I would have hated to not be able to see them and as they get older, it's actually very hard to hear them when they're talking to you in a forward facing buggy.

There has also been quite a bit of research on the benefits of being parent-facing: here

crochetcircle · 17/03/2012 20:31

A couple of thoughts to throw into the mix:

We bought a second hand m+p pramette for £50 which faced us. Used it for first 3 months. I didn't feel like walking up any hills and whilst it's lack of manoeuvrability did start to get to me, if was really lovely to watch dd in the early months.

You could consider a nipper 360 after that, forward facing, incredibly manoeuvrable, and the v1s retail new for less than £200. We have the v2 and love it. Would not be without it. It goes anywhere.

We sold the pramette on after 3 months, when the nipper arrived. By then I was fine with not seeing her as we walked around, although I do miss it still!

GirlWithTheMouseyHair · 17/03/2012 20:32

we had a parent facing bugaboo bee with DS, it broke before DD came along, got a city mini jogger and I'm really wishing we had parent facing option - she's a baby that needs and loves to be interacted with, she hates not being able to see someone and consequently is quite unhappy in the buggy (smiles as soon as someone comes into view and makes eye contact with or smiles at her)

HenriettaFarthingay · 17/03/2012 20:44

Parent facing every time! Why should others get the joy of seeing your lovely child's face when you're out and about? Also, those that mentioned that the children can't see much facing the parent - the child isn't exactly in your face - they're usually sitting probably around two feet or a little more from you and can see plenty round about.

puzzletree · 17/03/2012 20:51

It's important if it is for you. I guess some babies must prefer parent facing too, but I haven't found it an issue with mine.

DS1 spent his first few months in parent-facing 'pramette' mode, but used to scream to be picked up to look out, not at me! As soon as he could sit up enough he was forward-facing. DS2 was hidden away in the back of a Phil and Teds and was such a contented baby. Both spoke well before average and I don't drive so we walked everywhere and had lots of lovely long conversations with both of them without being face-to-face, especially DS1 always wanted to see as much as he could of the world and chat about it.

I do like parent-facing with a little baby though, just because I want to look at them :)

TruthSweet · 17/03/2012 22:53

I had DD1 parent facing until she was out of a pushchair at nearly 3y, she absolutely hated facing away from me in her first year - she would cry for me if I took her out in the Maclaren. She would even ride backwards on the buggy board if she could!

I just about tolerate taking DD2 & DD3 out in a forward facing pushchair and they are 4y & 2y but if I could get a parent facer to fit them both I would in a shot (before you think DD2 is lazy she had arthritis last year and it left her with hypermobility syndrome so she gets tired easily plus she is the size of a 6y so almost impossible to get a pushchair to fit her let alone pfing!).

I found it was very important to my DDs to parent face (DD1 has glue ear/hearing loss and had speech therapy but no really delays and DD3 has glue ear/hearing loss and has speech delays - she has spent more time forward facing than the others due to DD2's needs).

I also liked seeing DD2 parent facing in her SN buggy as it was helpful to see if she needed painkillers/gastritis meds/a cuddle immediately rather than her having to cry for help (luckily she doesn't need it now!). DD3 was slung then or toddled beside me.

Not the normal situations I know but I have found it my most important criteria when choosing a pram/pushchair is can they face me (and then will they fit!).

Freezingmyarseoff · 18/03/2012 00:00

Surf, sounds like it's less relevant now but no we didn't get a new mattress, didn't know that you could. It seems fine, now being used by DS.
Just keep looking on eBay, I think you just have to be patient.
I'm not sure you can get a rugged 3 wheeler that is parent facing, well I couldn't find one when we were looking 4 years ago.

Good luck

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