I have been struggling hard with the stroller issue ever since the first one. There’s just not one stroller that can do everything! And worse, living in the city means that you need something compact.
We were living in downtown Salem, Massachusetts when we chose our first stroller. It was a travel system – the Maxi-Cosi Zelia 5-in-1 Travel System. It was mostly okay for what we needed it for, but not amazing. To be fair, it is one of the cheapest well-rated systems on the market. It didn’t like off-roading or gravel. It hated going down curbs. But otherwise, it was fine.
Then we arrived in New York.
While it was still mostly fine… Goodness, those curb issues got worse! (How many times did I struggle getting out of one of my favorite coffee shops?) And then there were the laundry runs… No longer having laundry in our building, we had to load it in the stroller basket underneath the baby… Which severely limited how much laundry we could bring at once. But the first most pressing issue?
The subway.
Within a month of moving in, we had ordered a Delta Children Jeep Umbrella Stroller for taking into Manhattan, thanks in large part to the number of subway stations lacking elevators. This city is just not that accessible. Boston, with its ridiculous, flammable MBTA, has so many more elevators!
The Jeep’s manouverability felt so outstanding compared to the Maxi-Cosi that I often found myself using it more. My spouse still preferred the handling on the Maxi-Cosi, what with it having suspension that the Jeep didn’t. But the laundry issue slowly ate away at me. Finally, I could take it no more, and we replaced the Maxi-Cosi with the Radio Flyer Discovery Stroller-Wagon.
I LOVE this wagon. The little one can take long naps in it. I can carry full-size laundry loads. We can bring toys with us. And grocery trips have gotten easier. I just fold it up in the store, little one can help by pulling the grocery basket, and then we have space for both little one and groceries when we leave.
The wagon also has very easy one-handed management whether you are pushing or pulling – something I got with neither the previous two strollers that I desperately needed when we lived in Salem and I was out buying hot tea or cocoa during my maternity leave. But the wagon is not ideal for taking into midtown.
So here comes stroller number 4.
Now, we would likely have just dealt with this, despite my complaints, a bit longer, if the daily city use wasn’t beginning to show its wear and tear on the wheels of the Jeep. The break on one side is somewhere between broken and stuck, and the rubber is coming off the wheels at an alarming rate. But my biggest complaint is that, being an umbrella stroller, the Jeep has no ability to recline our little one. It was fine for the inexpensive stop gap that it was, but I finally felt ready to spend a bit more on a sturdier and more compact stroller. One that we could travel with, that wouldn’t be a pain to carry if we had to pack it away. One that could recline. And most important to my spouse – one that could handle a bit of off-roading too. And I wanted that one-handed option I had only experienced with the wagon!
Every other family in the city seems to have a Babyzen Yoyo². And after doing quite a bit of research, it seems it may just fit all of our requirements. At least, as well as any of the lightweight compact strollers seem to. The Bugaboo Butterfly was the next option we were looking at that seemed to fit the closest. All the rest had much lower maximum weight limits, and our little one is on the upper end of the scale for his age.
I’ll let you know what we think, but I will tell you this much. Had I known how much we’d need a compact stroller at the outset, we might have gotten a Yoyo² instead of the Maxi-Cosi to start with. Lessons learned.