Folding prams

Jenjax, I had exactly the same experience with daughter's Buggaboo - IMPOSSIBLE to adjust in any way without the manual.
Design now is all about appearance and practicality is ignored. Same with children' clothes.

Most embarrasing moment when out for a walk with GS, he went to sleep sitting bolt upright looking most uncomfortable with head lolling about and after about 5 minutes of struggling, we had to ask passing strangers with same model of push chair to show us how to lay him back.

Silver Cross are still producing their famous coach-built models but their newer models are excellent. Super suspension, folding chassis, detachable but very sustantial carry cot which allows a young baby to lie flat and an older one to sit up as the front drops down to make a footrest. Baby faces mum/gran so interesting conversations can go on - not possible with the usual buggy style. A lovely part of the package was the wooden rocking base and the pretty ivory drapes which converted it to a crib. Has cradled two babies and will shortly be stored for future use (quite some time in the future, I hope).

My two have had at least three, each one needed for different types of terrain or portablity.

Thankyou supernana, you cant keep these modern prams as they hardly seem to last one baby.I know of people who have had half a dozen per child!.

Back to prams - I always used a sling and then a back-pack for my kids - better than prams, easier to manage & leave your hands free. Great for promoting kids' social development as well.
I've asked to do the same as a nan (my cousin also does this)

pinkprincess As you say, such prams deserve to be used and cherished.

Thankyou supernana I ended up having to give away my lovely Marmet to someone who had very little money.I often wonder if it was well looked after.
My Wilson has a footwell and lovely upholstered lining.I managed to get a cream canopy from e-bay, and cant wait to see her being used again.

pinkprincess I think that the Marmet pram was one of the top contenders for first prize in grand design. It was a magnificent pram to push [well sprung] and, yes, there was a well in the centre into which an older child would place his feet. I had a white broderie anglaise canopy lined in green. Wilson also made superb prams. I walked for miles with my children in the pram. It was a daily treat!

I had a Marmet for my two sons, lovely floral canopy as well, and a pram seat for the older one.
My grandchildren had those horrible stiff travel systems.I could never fold them either.I got, and still have, a refurbished 1960s Wilson coach built pram for youngest GC eight years ago.It has never used by her parents as was impossible to go in the car.But DGD and I loved it and got loads of use. Now it awaits my future great grand children hoping I am still around to see them.
I dont like these modern things that pass for prams.Ugly and uncomfortable looking all of them.

harrigran I loved the smell of Johnsons Baby Powder, but my daughters never use it. They do use the other products from Johnson though. And I put on the baby oil after I step out of the shower! Keeps my skin 'baby soft'

I really must get yet another lesson on the mysterious art of buggy mechanics!

janthea - I too had a seat on the Silver Cross pram for daughter number one to sit on while newborn daughter number two was tucked in under the covers. One day I was standing gazing dreamily into a shop window with one hand lightly on the handle when Dno1 decided to lean forward and get off. She put all her weight on the pram handle, the pram tipped down, and Dno2 shot even further under the covers and rain apron to vanish completely from sight. She was fished out quite unharmed, but my nerves took a while to recover.

Another time, I had bought a lot of shopping and stored it behind Dno2 and the fold-up seat back, in the body of the pram. On the way home, I noticed her waving a very wet (I thought) foot in the air. Got home to unpack and discovered that a bottle of vegetable oil had leaked over everything, baby, covers, shopping, the lot.

When my children where born I had no choice at to what colours where
knitted for them,and my grandmother and mother where of the age that
it was pink for girl or blue for boy,but obviously then you did not know
the sex then as you can now,so they used to play safe and knit white or lemon or cream.I'm very sorry to have upset anybody as to what colours
boys and girls should be wearing,but I do not think that my 2DSs would be
happy wearing pink in with their Armed Forces uniforms don't you.

what do you mean ok for a boy or girl? Do you really believe that boys and girls should wear different colours?

All the baby clothes that you see now are such awful colours,I remember
my mum and my nana knitting none stop for my DD when I was expecting
her and everything was done in white and maybe lemon so it was ok
for boy or girl and the pram sets all matched the covers of the big pram,
now all the colours are dark and dismal or lime green or orange,in our
shopping centre Jan Walton mum of the six girls does a fabulous selection
of hand knitted pram sets etc for new borns for the neo-natal
unit in Liverpool,she has a lot of regular customers because now a lot of the
hand knitting skills have been lost.

I bet, like me, the towels you used for baby were lovely fluffy white ones. Now I see beige, green, yellow hooded towel things which are hardly big enough to snuggle a baby in.

Oh harrigran,I can just close my eyes and smell my DCs all wrapped
up in towels and smelling of Johnsons baby powder and their terry
nappies smelling of the fresh air after blowing on the line all day.
I still use JBP and Imperial Leather on my DGD and she thinks I'm
daft when I go all soft and cuddle her to me for a smelly hug!

Not useless janthea, I have not heard one Gran say that buggies are a doddle. Those lovely Silver Cross prams seemed to retain the gorgeous baby smell too. A buggy does not have a smell or is that because nobody uses Johnson's baby powder these days ?

I, too, had a Silver Cross navy pram for my two daughters. I also had a seat that sat across the pram for First Daughter to sit when the baby was asleep. There was a large shopping basket underneath that took all my shopping.

I can't manage these McLarens and Bugaboos. Can't work out how to fold or unfold them. I'm obviously useless.

I had a "lightweight" silver cross- navy with a go faster red stripe and was built like a tank. Like libradi says looked lovely with a broderie anglaise sun canopy.
I cant maoeuvre the three wheeled cross country effort that my grandsons have -we use a cheapo thing from a charity shop. With the first grandchild in Geneva I thought we could walk along the lake and get the boat back but they require pushchairs to be collapsed and small child(14months no English speech) looked kindly at me and pointed to all the things I had to press in the right order-out of the mouths (silent) of babes and sucklings...

Oh, all this talk of Silver Cross prams makes me so nostalgic! I had a dark green 'Victoria' version bought by my parents as they wanted their grandchildren to be 'comfortable' on the unmade road where we then lived. It did my 3 girls and a friend's surprise baby some years later. It then resided in the garden shed (with the Grandads?) for the best part of 20 years waiting for our grandchildren but when they arrived, of course it wasn't needed. Far too big and clumsy and how would I get it to Australia anyway! After 20 years the chrome had gone and mildew had set in so it was sold on ebay for renovation. I just hope someone is loving it as much as I did......

As for the new buggies you need to be a contortionist to either erect them or fold them up. As for getting them in the car - no hope for me in that department I'm too short and would have to lift it up above waist level to get it in.

Ah my big pram Silver Cross Burgundy colour it was with lovely crome work it used to shine. I used it for my two daughters. Then someone I knew was having a baby, as she was short of money I gave it to her.
I saw it a couple of months later - it was a total wreck. I went home and cried. So much for trying to help someone out.

I loved my Silver Cross Pram too, it was Navy blue and looked lovely with a white Sun canopy. My mum had a big navy and white coach built Silver Cross for me and I've still got my Silver Cross coach frame dolls pram in the attic, we did bring it down for a while when my DD was small but it took up so much space! It's big enough to actually put a baby in it. The hood and cover is a bit faded but I think I may pass it on to my GD this year as they are moving house and should have room for it.

We should all have a Grans-net walk from John-O-Groats to Landsend
pushing our proper prams,if nothing else we would be able to post in
on Mondays and tell everyone how much weight we had lost.