PD, it's really hard to figure it out as someone who just adores prams and pushchairs (don't like the word buggy, for some reason, but it doesn't matter)
The thing is, well, it's just such a beautiful object - there's two sorts that make me happy, firstly the second hand ones which are just brilliant in terms of engineering...you buy them to see how they are made, how cleverly the backrest sits up and how well the raincover fits on.
Then you get to muck about with the attachments, the car seat, the seat which goes either way round...it reminds me of being a little girl and trying a hundred perfect ways to transport my dolls on the back of my bicycle. It's the feeling of creating, or witnessing someone else's having created something which just works really well.
Then there's the shiny new pushchairs in their well packed boxes, and polythene, and the prettiness of the fabrics and the idea of someone small being really cosy and warm under the hood, and just fitting perfectly.
I am certain this is again a throwback to being very little, climbing into boxes, sleeping on the back seat of the car as my parents drove us home in the dark. Being safe and covered and with someone else in control.
partly I think it's also a desire to 'contain' a baby, somehow, when babies can seem rather huge and threatening (when they're new, especially) and though I was never someone to leave a child crying at all, the concept of being able to put it in a pram makes it seem much more small and manageable. Like, well, I might be a bit of a failing parent to this little screaming bundle, but at least it's safe in here and that's how it's supposed to be.
Mainly though I think it's just that prams are like posh new shoes, but, well, bigger and more useful 