12.29.2008

Stroller testing...

While there are many things a 6'5" husband is good for (changing light bulbs, retrieving seasonal items from the tops of kitchen shelves, painting those hard to reach upper wall areas, etc.) there is one small area that produces myriad challenges for his sizable frame: strollers. Most strollers seem to cater to men of average height, which is fine, if one finds himself (or one's husband) of average stature. John and I quickly realized however, that a man of his above average height catapulted us firmly into the above average stroller price point. There's no way around it. We must purchase a stroller with adjustable handles, without that feature we'd be a one-parent pushing family, and neither of us wants that. Luckily for us, we walk around town daily, which means that our stroller will be one of the most heavily utilized baby items that we will acquire in these next few months. Our bounds of frugality have officially been stretched...

Watching John push strollers around the store was comical...he'd never pushed a stroller before, he'd said. Either way, he did not employ the Dwight Schrute stroller testing method, and for this, I am thankful. If you find yourself unfamiliar with this approach. Watch the video below, you'll see what I mean.

4 comments:

Olive Oyl said...

That was the most hilarious episode I've seen in a long time. Strollers aren't cheap... but that one that she had was like $1,000! Randomly right after this episode aired, we saw someone famous at Disneyland pushing one, and Mark totally pointed it out and recognized it... only a father would know the sight of an overly-priced baby stroller!

Good luck with stroller hunting! We ended up with four different ones (and yes, we use all of them all the time for different purposes... not all were expensive, but somehow they have all found their purposes in our lives!). :) Can't wait to see what you pick out!

Jenny said...

Check albeebaby.com for some better prices on these things. I find that they have great deals. I would also check JM's closeout center accross the street from their store and some of those items may be in their store. We bought our Peg Perego for a little over $100 at a JM's closeout sale.

Scott and Malisa Johnson said...

We have already started looking for double strollers with no luck.

I have to say that we didn't spend enough time really testing out strollers before Emily came. But what Scott found important was the model that told the outside temperature and the time. Totally unnecessary.

Anonymous said...

As a similarly sized man with strollers, I have learned two things. First, the "adjustable" handles that pivot are not of much value because as you move the handle up, your steps get closer to kicking the back of the stroller. Kicking the back, more than bending down is always the problem for me. Be sure that John walks the stroller at a decent pace to get a sense of the leg room.

The other thing is that strollers with a single handlebar are much easier to steer with one hand than the two handle strollers. This is nice for all kinds of reasons, but one is that if you're kicking the back of the stroller, it allows you to one hand it while you walk alongside. I pushed Charlotte all around Charlottesville this way.