Friday, August 13, 2010

Go Go Gadget Stroller!

I have to tread lightly here. The last thing I want is to offend my fellow stay at home parents, whom I respect, admire, and pity all at the same time, but I can’t let this go. I am talking about the stroller industry. I know we live in a consumer driven economy that needs us to buy stuff, but the stroller stuff is getting a little ridiculous.

I take my girls to the local arboretum on occasion and since it is usually a weekday, we are there with either mothers and their kids or older people. This problem isn’t confined to mothers though. I will call the condition Swiss Army Stroller Mania or SASM. Picture this: I step out of our van, put on my backpack (my version of a manly diaper bag—possible later entry), pick up my two-year-old, grab my four-year-old’s hand and start walking. We walk past a woman who heaves a large contraption out of her trunk and proceeds to flip it open to reveal a three-wheeled stroller that looks like a Mars exploration vehicle with a mobile of farm animals hanging over the five-point seat belt system that was designed with infant race car drivers in mind. It doesn’t end there. She proceeds to lug two bags out of the trunk and shove them in the cargo compartment under the stroller, and finally pulls one child out of her car. One three-year-old boy. I must have missed the warning signs on the way into the arboretum that stated:

Warning, people have been known to get lost in the arboretum for days.
Please pack enough food and supplies for at least three days.
If you do get lost, and your stroller is newer than three years old, Don’t Panic—the manufacturers of your stroller have installed emergency locator beacons.

The stroller issue occupies a large part of being a parent, so I will address it in sections. In other words, to be continued…

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