Tandem or twin double?? We need your hard-earned wisdom!

[Shouldhavereadtheinstructions]

Help! Another baby incoming!

We're tying ourselves in knots trying to decide whether to get a tandem or a twin buggy. DS will be 19mo when our 2nd arrives. One massive requirement for us is that the buggy we get folds as easily and compactly as possible, as we have very little space at home. It seems like the twins generally tend to perform better in this respect e.g. the Mountain Buggy Nano or Duet and the OutnAbout Nipper. However a lot of the time I'll actually only have one LO on board (e.g. taking DS1 to nursery or park walks with DS2 during mat leave). I feel like it'd be annoying to push a twin with only one baby. Can anyone verify or refute this with real life experience?

Other questions we'd love input on:

• examples of tandems that fold without removing the toddler seat
• examples of tandems where bassinet is not too close to the ground (I love the look of the Cosatto Wow XL for this but I think you can't fold it without removing the seat)

I was just coming on here to post some musings having had some great advice previously about doubles!
So long story short my eldest was 2 years 3 months when her sister arrived so a bit older than your LO will be but probably close enough for my experience to be vaguely useful.

I loved my single travel system and still do (maxicosi Andorra, love it to bits). In the end I picked up a secondhand Phil and Ted's Vibe which is the usual tandem for them. I wanted one I could put a car seat on and also use with newborn. Well in the end I never once put the car seat on it, nor did I use the baby and toddler setting as just didn't understand how it could work for everyone.

What happened was either the baby went in the sling and the toddler in (and out) of the single pushchair for example on a day out. OR the baby went in the single pushchair pram and the toddler walked, for example in the shops etc.

Now baby is 5 months and a bit heavy for the carrier for any length of time BUT the toddler walks even more than she did before. So my plan is that the single will still be the go to as can adjust for toddler and put baby in sling if it becomes necessary at the end of the day out.

So what did the double get used for? Only for walking in our village where the pavements are non existent in places and I wanted toddler and baby both securely fastened in. That's it. Plus it allowed me to leave the single in the car.

I managed to tip the double with just the baby in it the other day but I should ahe realised she was heavy enough for that to happen now. The basket is almost unusable in double mode. It weighs A TON, even with only 20kg of child in it (toddler very slender, baby less so) and I'm by no means fragile or unfit in any way. If you had any joint or fitness problems it would be horrendous.

So I'm about to donate my double to charity. I'm torn between getting a buggy board or maybe a cheap and light side by side but on reflection the double tandem wasn't the right choice for us at all. Luckily I paid £50 for it and I feel I've had enough use out of it to not be sorry to be giving it away.

Ironically it's actually pretty nice as a single so it might be that with your older child being a bit younger you might find you get plenty of use from the tandem as it is really simple to take the seat on and off, genuinely not a barrier at all. It's less way to slot the baby into it though... It also helps if you don't have a single that is almost perfect for what you want too, if only it had two seats 😂

Hi.

My daughter was 19 months too when our next daughter came, I couldn't have survived without the double pram, I use it every single day now even though my daughter has just turned 3 and the younger one is coming up to 1.5.

I had the mountain buggy duet and it's great but I would say I find it extremely heavy to lift even just into the car, if you have to lift it up and down stairs I wouldn't recommend it! It does fold up relatively well though, if you're in a house or ground floor property.

It's perfect when you want to go out with both of them, but sometimes a faff if you only have one of them with you like you mention. I found it was sometimes bulky in shops and cafes. But great for storage underneath for shopping!!

I did also buy a buggy board for my single pram (Bugaboo) but when my daughter was 19 months I just couldn't rely on her to stay on it/not get bored. So double was essential for us.

I'm having a baby later this year so my oldest daughter will probably move to the buggy board, and the two little ones will share the mountain buggy!

Hope this is useful!

Hi @cheeseandwine2019 that's super helpful thank you - we literally just ordered the Mountain Buggy Duet a couple of days ago!! We have a house that goes straight onto the street and I'm hoping I can fold it up and leave it in the hallway.... I think I would have maybe preferred the Baby Jogger City Mini GT2 but it's slightly too wide for our front door sadly. We could in theory still us our single buggy for solo trips with DC1 but I think the seat is getting uncomfortable for him - it's not very ergonomic as it was a cheap stop-gap. Good to know your experience with the buggy board as I suspect this is what would happen with my son at this stage too.