The WHAT? FOR A BUGGY? IT'S NOT EVEN $%^* CARBON!! thread

DonDaddyD

What's all this up to three years old business? By 3 years old they should really be walking with you!

What's an off-road buggy?

Big Mat, thanks for the car seat advice, safety - in the car seat - important to me as well!

Other who have responded I will reply in time.

NGale wrote:

Myself and Jake had the 'which school would we send our child to' conversation last night, this was quickly followed by the 'I'm NOT sending my child there!' conversation and for me the 'HOW MUCH!!' conversation when looking at what he considers as 'acceptable' school fees.

I would like to point out that I am not even pregnant yet :shock:

Sounds like he is putting the work in though!!!

EKE_38BPM

DonDaddyD wrote:

What's all this up to three years old business? By 3 years old you should be chasing after them!

FTFY

NGale

DonDaddyD wrote:

What's all this up to three years old business? By 3 years old they should really be walking with you!

What's an off-road buggy?

Big Mat, thanks for the car seat advice, safety - in the car seat - important to me as well!

Other who have responded I will reply in time.

NGale wrote:

Myself and Jake had the 'which school would we send our child to' conversation last night, this was quickly followed by the 'I'm NOT sending my child there!' conversation and for me the 'HOW MUCH!!' conversation when looking at what he considers as 'acceptable' school fees.

I would like to point out that I am not even pregnant yet :shock:

Sounds like he is putting the work in though!!!

I am saying nothing :oops:

although it is rather scary that we should be having the schooling conversation for a child that doesn't exist yet and might be a bit dim like me

cjcp

DonDaddyD wrote:

What's all this up to three years old business? By 3 years old they should really be walking with you!

No. No, no, no.

They get tired. Very quickly. If you're walking back from town, you'll want to stick them in the buggy. Mrs DDD will probably be tired too, and will want to choose the path of least resistance by sticking them in the buggy.

At that age, scooters are a good buy.

cjcp

EKE_38BPM wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

What's all this up to three years old business? By 3 years old you should be chasing after them!

FTFY

Correct. They are like Terminators. They don't stop.

spen666

DonDaddyD wrote:

What's all this up to three years old business? By 3 years old they should really be working foryou!

.....:

FTFY - properly

NGale

cjcp wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

What's all this up to three years old business? By 3 years old they should really be walking with you!

No. No, no, no.

They get tired. Very quickly. If you're walking back from town, you'll want to stick them in the buggy. Mrs DDD will probably be tired too, and will want to choose the path of least resistance by sticking them in the buggy.

At that age, scooters are a good buy.

the age of 3 the child should be out working for a living and bringing some money into the household :roll:

greg66_tri_v2.0

It is essential that you understand that a pushchair/pram/travel system/buggy is nothing more than a means for your dearly beloved wife to carry round kilos of crap that she cannot fit into her handbag.

Once you start thinking of it as a very cheap Prada backpack, things start to look up.

asprilla

cjcp wrote:

Ebay is your friend, and the NCT Nearly New sales (although the latter is a bit more of a scrum).

Also, if you haven't done so already, sign up to Freecycle and look out for baby-related stuff.

Otherwise, welcome to the world of not having a pot to p1ss in.

This & Netmums (as opposed to Mumsnet). Honestly, we get loads of stuff from Netmums and I think that the folks we buy off spend more on new batteries for the toys than we end up paying them.

On the buggy front, we've got a Bugaboo (given by friends 2nd hand) and a relatively cheap Maclaren. We never use the bugaboo, it's too heavy, too big and when it goes in the boot there isn't room for anything else.

noodles71

Get a 2nd hand pram style one for the first 7-8 months then a simple fold up one after that. I spent a fortune (new eBay from Germany) on the Quinny Buzz with car, pram and stoller bits. We used the pram part for the first 6 months, then the stroller part for about another 2 months before realizing the "travel system" type are too big and bulky and opted for a £48 on special Cosatto stroller that has been places the guys on Top Gear were scared to go.

Sign up to the Kiddicare website for their specials. You will find something within a few weeks no doubt on special.

Join Costco too as the nappies, wipes and baby formula is much cheaper that mothercare or boots.

Buy a cot that converts into a bed 2nd hand on ebay and fit it out with a new mattress. That should save you at least a £100 too.

Bush Baby do really good child carriers too and you can get them on special here; http://bush-baby.com/clearance.html
The one that arrived didn't appear to be a demo unit but brand new instead.

clarkey cat

By 3 years old they should really be walking with you!

you might want to hold judgement on what kids should and shouldn't be doing by what age for a while.

my little man should be crawling by now but he doesnt. he just sits there like some kind of gurning moron.

EKE_38BPM

From my limited experience of littl'uns, enjoy him being stationary for now, you'll be chasing after him soon enough!

DonDaddyD

Nah I hope for a child that will "run up and down" and generally be active. It's part of the reason I'm getting rid of my X-box to avoid the temptation of sitting, hunched in front of the TV and my child picking up that practice from me.

As for weekends I want nothing more than to spend it with my kid all the time (I think Mrs DDD underestimates this desire in me), especially as I'll be working in the week. I know I say this now and will be immensely tired but it's a hope. We've got a lot of family around us, so I'm sure (we'll Ms DDD and me) will be able to spend time together.

I agree though that at 1-3 Mrs DDD will need to put the kid in a buggy when taking him/her to the shops as it's just easier.

But yeah, this buggy/travel system/car seat business is a head f*ck let alone baby monitors, sterilizers, mattresses and eventually cots.

rick_chasey

DonDaddyD wrote:

Nah I hope for a child that will "run up and down" and generally be active. It's part of the reason I'm getting rid of my X-box to avoid the temptation of sitting, hunched in front of the TV and my child picking up that practice from me.

As for weekends I want nothing more than to spend it with my kid all the time (I think Mrs DDD underestimates this desire in me), especially as I'll be working in the week. I know I say this now and will be immensely tired but it's a hope. We've got a lot of family around us, so I'm sure (we'll Ms DDD and me) will be able to spend time together.

I agree though that at 1-3 Mrs DDD will need to put the kid in a buggy when taking him/her to the shops as it's just easier.

But yeah, this buggy/travel system/car seat business is a head f*ck let alone baby monitors, sterilizers, mattresses and eventually cots.

With all that sh!t you wonder how people made it to adults before.

CyclingBantam

Can't you just put a moses basket on a skateboard? Would save you a packet.

bigmat

CyclingBantam wrote:

Can't you just put a moses basket on a skateboard? Would save you a packet.

Good call - throw in a tow rope to put behind the car and its a "travel system".

rjsterry

We've found that the height of the handles on the buggy/pushchair/pram is actually more critical than you might think. The pram/pushchair (Silver Cross Linear Freeway) is just right for Mrs RJS, but gives me back ache unless I have the handle fully up, which then makes it difficult to lift the front wheels over kerbs. On the other hand, the pushchair (I can never get the hang of 'buggy') is just right for me, but too high for Mrs RJS. This is just as well, as Mrs RJS (like Mrs G66 by the sounds of things) likes to load the thing up with as much as possible, and the pram is sturdy enough to take this, whereas I prefer the lighter pushchair.

Silver Cross have been really good with after sales care - replacement shopping basket and buckle sent out without issue. Monitors - you don't need a video one - it's just one more thing to worry about. Sterilizers - largely a waste of space if you have a dishwasher or a microwave.

Stoo48

Microwave sterilizing system, much cheaper than all the mains powered versions......

Pram I bought from someone at work, used it for both of my 2. We then used the cheap mothercare buggies when they got bigger as they are cheap and light weight.

I do remember that even 2nd hand I paid more for the pram than I paid for my first car.....

davmaggs

BigMat wrote:

We got a Bugaboo Bee. I would recommend. Not cheap, but it has been great from birth to now (the boy is 2 and a half). Its light enough, extremely manoeverable, folds neatly and doesn't take up the entire car boot. Lots of people seem to buy something with tractor wheels or with a built in cot, but you don't really need that stuff - compact and versatile is the way to go.

+1 (I hate to say it after initially poo pooing them as a rip off)

Have a real think about where you will be taking the thing. If you use public transport or live in a small place then skip the 3 wheel faux off-road job. They are too bulky. Also the big machines fill an entire car boot, whereas the Bee folds down.

The bee also lets you clip a car seat onto it

rjsterry

Stoo48 wrote:

Microwave sterilizing system, much cheaper than all the mains powered versions......

Pram I bought from someone at work, used it for both of my 2. We then used the cheap mothercare buggies when they got bigger as they are cheap and light weight.

I do remember that even 2nd hand I paid more for the pram than I paid for my first car.....

Ours is no more than a tub with a lid that you put the bottles in with a bit of water (for steam), then 3 minutes at full power and then a game to see how you can pick up a scalding hot plastic bottle and pour milk into it. Cheaper still is the little basket with a lid that goes in the dishwasher (so all the little widgets don't end up stuck in the filter).

tailwindhome

Any of you ladies like a cup of tea?

rjsterry

TailWindHome wrote:

Any of you ladies like a cup of tea?

Says the man whose avatar was Makka Pakka until fairly recently.

Actually, put the kettle on, there's a love.

NGale

Old git alert!!!

in my day babies were fed using boiled water from the tap which traveled through old lead piping. I was bathed in the kitchen sink as there was no bath in the house. nappies were recyclable and had to be boiled in a pan on the stove to clean them. As I got older if I was to have a bath it was in an old tin tub in front of the gas fire.

The baby monitoring systeming was me screaming for long enough to wake my parents up. I was carried in a papose as mu parents couldn't afford a pushchair. booster seats for cars didn't exist, nor did rear seat belts. I was allowed to play outside in the local field for hours until I was hungry or it was bead time.

Parent and baby spaces didn't exist at supermarkets and I had to help my mum carry the shoppuing home on the bus when I was old enough.

Getting a Black and White TV in 1982 was seen as a technological leap forward in my house and until I was 21 I thought bagpuss was grey and white and was rather destraught when I found out he was pink and cream

Tele used to finish for the night at midnight and the interweb didn;t exist, if I wanted to learn something I had to go to a big place which stored books in it which they called a library.

We got our first telephone in 1984, two days after the brighton bombing (by 1987 the secruity services were tapping the phone line at the time of the election!)

I remember Channel Four starting and thinking 'wow so much choice on TV'

I had to walk 3 miles to school

yet somehow I survived! Kids really do have it easy now, no wonder half of them can;t cope with real life when they leave school!

Yes I think you've guessed the kind of parent I'll be

EKE_38BPM

I'm beginning to feel a little sorry for your (as yet?) unconceived child. Will you be feeding it on leaded water and only letting them watch 3 channels?

Many kids today are too molly coddled, but with things like t'internet, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. I think child seats are a good idea too.

CiB

NGale wrote:

Old git alert!!!

<stuff>

I had to walk 3 miles to school

yet somehow I survived! Kids really do have it easy now, no wonder half of them can;t cope with real life when they leave school!

Yes I think you've guessed the kind of parent I'll be

Eeeh luxury. When arr wurr a lad we had no bathroom, no running water, a 'chemical toilet', a 4 mile walk over the fields to school, and by the time all of us had come along there were 6 of us lumped into the back of the Land Rover to go anywhere. It wuzz good though. Land Rovers are.

DDD - ignore all the advice. Learn your way of doing what suits by making your own mistakes along the way, cos we're all different; whichever way you go you'll never get it right. All you can hope for is that your kids eventually turn into normal human beings - having one teenager at present I'm not convinced of that outcome, but will give it time.

craker

We gave up with the steriliser after realising that they crawl along and put everything they find in their mouths. Everything,

Our littlest one was in our bedroom a couple of weeks ago and went off crawling under the bed. When he came back out Mrs S noticed him eating something she couldn't make out. On retrieving it forcefully it turned out to be a long desicated mouse head the cat had left behind.

Modern parenting huh?

rjsterry

@CiB: my youngest brother, who was every bit the awkward teenager, now has a doctorate, so as you say, give it time. Mind you, had my first 'there's no way I'd let my daughter out dressed like that at that age' moment the other day when visiting relatives.

@NGale: I can remember my parents being thought of as slightly peculiar as we were the only ones with seatbelts in the back of our car (late '70s/early'80s). Raised on lead pipes too, and have them in my current house - no sign of any problems with me or the littl'un

kieranb

mr_si wrote:

We gave up with the steriliser after realising that they crawl along and put everything they find in their mouths. Everything,

Our littlest one was in our bedroom a couple of weeks ago and went off crawling under the bed. When he came back out Mrs S noticed him eating something she couldn't make out. On retrieving it forcefully it turned out to be a long desicated mouse head the cat had left behind.

Modern parenting huh?

too true, the things we have had to quickly pull out of the hands/mouth half chewed! Oh, as they get older we went straight from a cot to a proper full sized bed rather than getting a child sized bed, they grow up very quickly so save the cash for the clothes (and food).

SimonAH

Truthfully I only used the travel system pram thingy when my daughter was very small - primarially as a bed on wheels. Pretty much carried her all the time as I hated the clumsiness of lugging the pram around. I developed a bit of a Popeye left forearm during this period!

Unless you're ordered to purchase new by the good lady resist man, resist and buy from eBay.

I remember fondly a discussion about how we needed a Quinny Zapp in our life (did we fook).

wgwarburton

Hi,
We almost never used the buggy. The Macpacs (yes, two of them, my kids are only 15 months apart) got a lot of use. Pre-backpacks we were on the same page as SimonAH.

A buggy is presumably useful if you take your littlies along pavements to shopping centres or some such. We found that most of the routes we wanted to use were too rough for a buggy but then, we don't live in a city.

Disposable nappies are nasty things- get terry ones and a bucket to stew them in and wash them or send them to a washing service. Biodegradable liners will collect bthe worst and are flushable.

Remember that whatever you're having to cope with at any given moment (colic, sleep deprivation, crying etc) won't last long. Whatever replaces it won't necessarily be better, of course, but it will at least be different!

Many dads don't seem to get very involved in the post-baby stage- by which I mean toddler groups, nursery etc... the stuff mums do with very small children. If you can make the time, then do so: it's good to get to know the parents and the kids that your family will be spending time with.

Cheers,
W.