If I had not had a kid, I never would have realized how many issues go into buying the right strollers and car seats. It really is amazing. To start out with, there are safety ratings. It is not surprising that baby car seats are rated for crash protection, but it is surprising that strollers are as well. Nonetheless, in addition to government ratings, car seats and strollers have half a dozen other organizations that can either endorse or fail to endorse them. There are local boards, there is consumer reports, there are citizens watch groups. No matter which you look, everyone has something to say about stroller and car seat safety.
All that happens before you even start thinking about what features of strollers and car seats you want. I thought that it would be the one part of raising a baby that would be easy, but that was not so. When I went in, I was bombarded by strollers and car seats of every possible description. There were double baby strollers, there were forward facing and rear facing car seats. There were compact folding strollers and deluxe models that guaranteed your baby the perfect ride. It really was amazing. It was like buying a new car!
I don’t think this has anything to do with the strollers and car seats themselves. There really only needs to be one or two designs. There should be one place where you can get strollers and car seats, and all of them should be more or less the same. After all, they’re for the babies, aren’t they?
In fact they aren’t. Buying strollers and car seats is actually a matter of status for the parents. Parents actually pay twice as much as they have to just so they can get Eddie Bauer strollers. It really is disgusting. What a way to raise a child! From the very earliest moments of their lives, they are socialized to try to compete for the most expensive products with their neighbors. In my opinion, as long as strollers and car seats are comfortable, they are good enough. Comfort and safety should be the only things that matter!
I have decided to use simple strollers and car seat. They are made by a no name brand, but they have the highest quality ratings of any I could find. None of the other parents stop and gawk, but nonetheless the baby seems to like them ? at least as far as I can tell. She always giggles happily when I take her for a walk or a car ride.
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