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Pushchairs

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Bugaboo donkey for baby 1 - silly? Pram ideas for walking families in small cities?

5 replies

Cellomusic · 26/08/2026 11:39

We are expecting baby 1 and live in a small city (not a London/Manchester but more of a 70000-100000 population size). We may have 2 under 2.5 in future... but we don't know of course!

We currently walk or cycle most places including cafes, shopping, doctors, seeing friends, cinema etc. Often we go out and pop to a few different places e.g. go to meet a friend for a coffee, call at shops for a few bits on the way back. I often use my bike panniers to do a food shop for example. But we know that won't be practical for a little while! We also have a peugeot 108 which we use for trips out of town around 1x a week on the weekend, or for occasional holidays.

After visiting Sweden and seeing that pretty much everyone has a pram with side basket it got me thinking that this might suit us and it be the sort of 'bike replacement' option to our current lifestyle. It seems like a Bugaboo Donkey is the major player for this in the UK. Would this be silly to get for baby 1?

What prams have other people who live in a similar set up found work best? How uncomfortable is it to push a pram and wear a backpack with your stuff in?

At home we wouldn't need to fold down the pram.

Do we just get a smaller option that goes in the peugeot for when we want to go out in the car? Or pop a back seat down? I expect I will end up using the car more than we do now but as it's not my current setup I'm finding it difficult to imagine how/when. We might well drive to see grandparents 10 mins away but will probably get a simple pram to keep there anyway.

We will probably get whatever we get 2nd hand but still want to try and get the right thing as it's still a hassle to find and get etc!

OP posts:
Babyputyourpantson · 26/08/2026 11:47

I have seen these and I think they are nice upgrade however I know I would just put loads of crap in the basket haha!

We have ended up with a 4 year age gap so had a Bugaboo Butterfly which I love and would 100% recommend and we got a buggy board for when needed.

A friend of mine had 2 under 3 I think and she got a cheap double buggy off Facebook to use when she needed it but also said it was a bit of a pain in the arse!

Ramblingaway · 26/08/2026 11:50

I spent a lot of money on a pram, only to find after twelve weeks I spent most of my time carrying baby on my front, backpack on my back (first 12 weeks was mostly car seat clipped to pram frame for short trips out) . She hated being in the pram and I hated not having my hands free to do stuff. When she got older we bought a lightweight pushchair. So you are right, it is really hard to predict and for me it turned out very different to what I had imagined

Icantreadthesmallprint · 26/08/2026 11:52

I've seen people with one of these with just one baby in. My main issue with it in a city would just be how wide and impractical they are - really hard to get through the door of the bus, don't fit in cafes when you're meeting people on maternity leave. But you might not want to do either of these things! Some of the smaller buggies now do have a really big basket to shove your shopping in! My friend had a dragonfly which fit a lot in it. Personally friends I know who ended up with two under two just bought a cheaper second hand double buggy for the smaller period they needed it - there are lots of people who have twins etc selling them on.

Cellomusic · 27/08/2026 11:45

Thanks for the inputs! It's reassuring to know that the unpredictability is not uncommon 🙂

OP posts:
twilightsad · 27/08/2026 12:13

It’s not a silly idea but I would worry about the width of the pram. Have you looked into how much you can fit into pushchairs - it’s a fair bit. There are designs where the nappy bag hangs off the front of the pushchair so you have all of the space under the pushchair for shopping.

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