Friday, March 1, 2013

strollers, man.

whew, i finally hit sold on a new light weight stroller to join our family. what a process that was! of course i wanted to shell out four hundred dollars to buy the maclaren i was drooling over but that isn't a practical choice for us. 

when i was pregnant with robin we bought a joovy sit and stand - i was so super excited, but once he out grew his infant seat (in three months!) and stella was getting more and more independent by the day, this became obsolete for us. there goes a hundred and fifty dollars. luckily i was able to resell it for close to what i paid, i mean it still had some of the plastic wrap on it for pete's sake.

so then i exhausted myself for a couple of days trying to pick the perfect stroller, feeling a crunch with our upcoming minnesota trip this month. it had to last, be good for robin at this age till three or so, be light, and be awesome. 

my first instinct was the maclaren volo - i was being a snob and wouldn't look at any other brand and this was the only one i could comfortably purchase. i was about to do so when i hit facebook for some advice. chicco or maclaren and i don't want to spend more the a hundred and thirty? they responded.

it was pretty split down the middle with a slight favor to chicco, basically i got the feeling why pay way more when you can get the same in a different brand for less? i was still pretty hooked on the volo till i took the advice of a fellow blogger and watched a review video on a chicco. that wasn't the stroller i went with but it compelled me to check out more videos!

then i started thinking "oh duh", robin is only four months old, we need a good padded stroller that reclines, a lot if we need it too. so, i got back to the drawing board. that is when i found a video of the chicco lightway stroller suggested by emily. i was sold - boot cover? one handed flat reclining? one step closure? it was everything i was looking for at a great price. the evn better news was, with some digging i found one on amazon that if i was ok with brown then it was twenty to thirty dollars less then everything else i was finding.

so the chicco liteway stroller is on its was to us with free shipping thanks to amazon prime. i am super excited about this new stroller as it will stick with us for the next few years! so the moral of my story is, videos are an awesome tool when choosing a product. you can see first hand how something works...or doesn't work for that matter.

what factors play in when your choosing a stroller? what has been your favorite brand or model of light weight stroller over the years?


melissa rohr said...

I bought that stroller for my niece when my sister was pregnant! Nineteen months later it's still going strong!

melissa rohr said...

We have two strollers -- a BOB Jogger (don't even get me started on how this one came to fruition!) and a Bumbleride Flier. The Bumbleride was gifted to me by my aunt as a surprise, because I'd been obsessing over it while pregnant. It's a full-size stroller, but it's still lightweight and I can open and close it with one hand. This was very handy when Ethan was a newborn. The BOB is bulkier, but I need it for Stroller Strides. I was hesitant to shell out the money on it, so I didn't, and instead bought 4 different joggers on Craigslist on the cheap. One broke before I could use it, one wouldn't turn when running, one was a beast to push and the other combusted with Ethan in it while we were running and left me sobbing on the sidewalk that I needed a jogging stroller because I almost killed my child annnnnnnnd the BOB came to be. My husband prefers it as a regular stroller, but I just hate that it's so heavy. The Bumbleride spoiled me, in terms of stroller weight. I like that it's eliminated the need for a lightweight, umbrella stroller, though I did fall in love with Maclaren's at the big baby event I went to!