Beaten by the buggy? Post a product review!

2 of my daughters have Bugga Boos, which I see as a triumph of Style over Practicality. Heavy, hard to fold up and impossible to use without the handbook. Whilst out with baby grandchildren I've been incapable of putting on/off the brake, lying baby back, putting on rain cover. Thank God I never had a flat tyre, which, believe it or not, is possible.
1 daughter now has a Fred and Ted (or whatever it's called) for 2 children: chassis the size of a small car, baby down at ground level who can't see out or be reached, weighs a ton but was the only model which would go through their front door.

2 of my grandchildren had graco travel systems. The buggy is easy to fold but a bit heavy to put in boot of car. The car seat has a base so easy to move a sleeping baby from car to buggy without waking.

If it has to be a double buggy then we have found the Out n About 360 is very easy to use. Lighter than most doubles, not bad to fold up. Seats go from upright to flat, so ok for toddler and new baby too. Good raincover and manoeuvrable too. 2 back and a single front wheel. Hate the doubles where the younger baby is on a 'parcel shelf' with an unstimulating view of big brother's bottom! Always prefer a 'proper' pram but when both need to be out together in the pram, then I think the 360 is the least of the evils. My niece bought a back and front double and found it impossible to use. Fortunately it very quickly developed a faulty wheel so she exchanged it for the one I've described.

My DD has a Phil & Ted, I hate it. Difficult to steer if the handle isn't at exactly the right height for the pusher, pneumatic tyres frequently going soft or flat making steering hard again. I actually get pins & needles in my hands from using it. Baby is too low in that awful back seat/ sling affair & buggy is unstable if toddler gets out of front seat.

Oh how I long for my old £10 McLaren buggy that I could undo with one hand, getting on a London bus with wriggly 2- year old safely clamped in the other.
Absolutely can't cope with pram/buggy thing DD used to have - Quinny? First time I used the McLaren she subsequently bought was when littlest came for the weekend and I had to find a young mum 3 houses away to "release" him or he'd have spent the weekend in his buggy. I know thy arre meant to be sturdy, but I have no fingernails left.
Car seat is OK-ish but no match for a fighting 18-month old grandson. Am I just getting weaker?

As I have my grandson to stay so often we have duplicated all of the 'big stuff'; consequently I have a car seat, a cot, a travel cot, a high chair - and the pushchair from hell! My daughter has a 'Quinny' Buzz and I have the lighter version, which I think is called the Quinny Zapp. (Who thinks up these names?) I hate it. It's difficult to put up and so difficult to fold down that I've taken to putting into the car unfolded. It always feels as if it's going to fall to pieces and is ridiculously difficult to manoeuvre.

So, yes, I admit it; I AM beaten by the buggy.

Need an engineering degree to figure out some of this stuff. i have been known to accost passing dads of small children to ask for help with car seat.
Reviews from granparent perspective are a good idea for those about to buy equipment!

Like em my DD has a Nipper out n about 360 for her twins, and it's terrific. She has a bit of a struggle to get it into the boot of their Golf, but for pushing along the street and the riverside it could not be bettered. Light and rugged, so easy to manoeuvre, the babies are side by side, and it still goes through the doors.

My daughters now both have twins, and we have purchased Jane and iCandy twin travel systems, carry cots, car seats, umbrella type folding double pushchairs ad infinitum. All defeat me and I leave it to them to open and fold the blasted things, or click them in and out of cars. I have twin car seats in the back of my car and if they have to be taken out, I drive round to one of their houses and act like an imbecile so they will strap the things back in. I will NEVER understand these things. The pushchairs are a dream to push around and I am very happy to take the credit for the happy scene of grandparent and children sailing through the shopping mall, but they don't see me standing there helplessly when we get back to the car!

My daughter has the City Jogger Mini. It is AMAZING. So easy to fold (I can do it one handed in one movement) and put it in the boot one handed too. She also has the small carry cot that fits very easily in it, as the baby is only 8 weeks, and has to go on the school run so needs to be cosy on cold mornings. I can highly recommend it.

I know that to-days lifestyle mean's that the up to date travel system's are necessary,but I have never got past the sit up and beg Silver Cross pushchair I had which folded in one go complete with hood attached and I would get out the old coach built when my DGs where small and walk rather than fight with their buggie's,life seemed to be simple then now you need a degree to put a pram in the "go position"

DD1's buggy defeated me good and proper the other day. GS wanted to come along on my walk to school with DD3. I put him in the buggy thinking 'this'll be fun'. It was hell. First off, I told DD3 to go just ahead of the buggy down our steep hill in case I slipped and the buggy went careering. Well, OK, I expected that. (Yes, it really is that steep — steeper than the Hill Town in Dundee, steeper than Drumbrae in Edinburgh, steeper than the hill I lived on in Sheffield once that I could never cycle up — and it's covered in moss and leaves so can be skiddy). Then along The Road which follows the lochside I realised that it wasn't going to be fun at all. Within a few metres along the flat the weight of it not running smooth on its wibble-wobble front wheels, my costal cartridge was giving me hell. DD helped but with a vehicle that doesn't run straight is sometimes even more difficult for two than for one. Anyway, we got to the bottom of the hill that leads to her school (about a mile on) and I let her go on alone while I rang for DD1 to come and rescue me (walking, as she doesn't drive; fortunately she had finished her peaceful shower and was dressed). Given that I used to be able to pick up my Original Maclaren lightweight buggy with a toddler in it and hoick it over Preston Station steps while also carrying a heavy rucksack on my back, I felt like a Right Charlie!! It comes very difficult to have to ask for help when you've always been as independent as they come. Oh well, I'd better get used to it!

How I longed for the lovely Mamas&Papas pram I had for DD3 that was easy to push even loaded underneath with shopping. That would have been great along The Road if, still, defeated by The Hill. Easy living, eh? Aye, right!

Oh that sounds familiar Bags. I was fighting with a maxi cosi loola yesterday, the wheels have a mind of their own. It's almost bearable with the toddler in it but when the baby is lying flat, he shoots out one end or the other depending if it's going up or down hill - b....y dangerous if you ask me. We have an almost perpendicular hill up from the harbour with graded steps and I have to push the bloomin' thing at the side through mud and leaves to avoid them - upside is I am developing muscles where I didn't know they grew! What is wrong with an umbrella-style McLaren - my green stripey one did all three of mine - until it lost a wheel half way round Loch Garten!

Haha! Costal cartilege, not cartridge! Oh boy, is it going to be that kind of day? Still, I've made a batch of oaty biscuits already .

And I can't spell cartilage any more either.

There are three buggies for GD and not one fit for purpose ..argh ! I had a lovely Silver Cross pushchair that did both of my children and was still going strong, ideal for all the walking I did .. no car in those days.