Strollers: Lightweight/Compact

For those of you who live an urban area or who will be doing a lot of errands and walking throughout the day, here are a few options that will serve this kind of parent well:

HIGHLY RECCOMEND
Maclaren Techno XT. This is a very popular urban stroller. It is lightweight (i.e. easy to hoist with a 15 lb kid in it by yourself down or up subway steps, unassisted), steers with one had and I have yet to meet a kid who will not fall asleep along the ride. It is an outward facing stroller that is easy to collapse and falls into the "umbrella" stroller category for this reason. There are many makes and models - I had a 2005 Quest Sport, which I traveled with for two years - it was my go-to stroller for air plane journeys as well as being my all-purpose stroller when Benji was a baby in NYC. We destroyed it. It had so many of those pink gate-check tags on it - we left the stubs on the handles like badges of honor. Finally, it met it's match on a flight to Orlando and was never the same again. (Yet, even in the condition it was in, I was able to sell it on Craig's List for $50. That should tell you right there what kind of quality we are talking about.) We replaced it with a 2006 Techno Classic, a model, which sadly, is no longer being manufactured. If you can find one though - get it. It's really the best stroller for comfort and ease, hands-down, if you are not needing to attach a baby "bucket" style car seat to it (more on that topic later). It also comes in a million different colors and patterns, for those who are hung-up on everything matching something else.

Quinny Zapp. This is one of the most popular strollers in Europe. I've tested it out a couple of times in a high-end baby store near my hometown. It's amazing. It folds down to be like 12 inches by four inches or something crazy like that. It actually fits into the overhead bin of an airplane without anyone noticing a stroller is in the overhead bin (apparently, that is a no-go, but if they don't know then whatever). It also attaches to the Maxi-Cosi Mico Infant Car Seat, making it the best bet for parents who want to travel a lot - whether it's by car or by foot, it fits all the "umbrella" stroller qualifications, but also serves as a neat little "travel system." Plus, it looks really cool and comes in a lot of bright colors.

RECCOMMEND
Graco SnugRider Infant Car Seat Frame. If you are opting out of a travel system, but want to be able to hook your Graco "bucket" seat up - this is a great contraption. It's better than the Snap-n-Go (see below) and it is lightweight and surprisingly easy to steer. It also has a cup holder and a huge basket for the diaper bag and things that you soon find out you don't need to bring along but do anyway.

Combi Cosmo EX stroller. My sister-in-law loves hers. It also fits with the Combi Shuttle car seat and fully reclines. It's lightweight and steers pretty well. It's not as good as a Maclaren, but it is a lot less expensive and is an overall good value stroller/system.

Kolcraft Contours Lite. This is an inexpensive stroller that is really easy to steer, really easy to collapse and also is pretty lightweight. It looks expensive. It actually kind of resembles a Bugaboo (more on that later). It is inexpensively made, be warned, and things break off it easily and it's not nearly as good quality as some of the others mentioned here. But, it's inexpensive and I wanted to put an inexpensive stroller on this list that is pretty good.

NOT RECCOMENDED
Peg Perego Aria. This is unacceptable in every way. We hate it. My mother bought it for us thinking it was more of a "traditional" stroller, like the prams she remembered from 30 years ago. It steers like it was made 30 years ago. There is no such thing as one-handed turning. It is heavy and really lumbering. The hard plastic wheels are also really badly made. It skids when it rains and it is just really hard to maneuver - no matter how hard you try to adjust the settings. We took it on a plane ride once, hoping it would be lost. I've tried four times to sell it on Craig's List and no one wants it - even for the bargain price of $35.

Baby Trend Snap-N-Go. I once read somewhere that this was the most popular item on baby registries in America. Probably because first-time parents don't understand that it is unnecessary to get this if you are going to opt for a travel system anyway (as most first-timers do). I tried it out - it's clever, it serves the purpose of travelling with the baby in the bucket seat for awhile, but it also has similar steering problems to the Peg Perego Aria and is quite heavy for being just a frame. It is on the NOT RECCOMENDED list because of the inability to steer.

OTHER
The "free" umbrella stroller from BRU or Buy Buy Baby. This is the stroller you get when you purchase X amount of dollars worth of merchandise. Never refuse these strollers - they are throw-aways and are great for taking to the beach or other messy places where you don't want to be tracking all kinds of crap back into your house from the wheels. They are barely comfortable and are often broken when you get them. However, they are free so take them if you can get them.

Strollers

No matter who you are, where you live or what you do, if you have a baby you will eventually need to purchase a stroller. It's a daunting task. There are so many options. Often they are separated into categories that rarely describe their function accurately. For instance, I overheard a pregnant soon-to-be first-time mom at Babies-R-Us asking her husband what he thought of this travel system. Now, before you jump the gun and automatically assume I have something against Graco - think again. Anyway, she was utterly clueless when it came to choosing the right stroller. There is way more to it than just picking out a pattern that you like and going with it. To begin, every new mom should know that strollers, like cars, have makes, models and years. All a mom has to do is ask herself what she is going to be using this stroller for. Is it to run errands by foot, or will it have to be lugged in and out of a car multiple times a day?

Here We Go

I wonder what my husband will think of this. I can't imagine he will like it - it's just not up his alley. He's just not into this kind of thing and he thinks I'm on the computer way too much as it is. Without making him seem like some kind of overbearing ogre, which he isn't by a mile, he really just doesn't have time for such things like a blog. Especially one that is being written five years after it was cool to write one. I guess you can say that I'm behind the times with this - mostly out of laziness. I hope to be able to actually do this though. Not to brag or anything, but I know that my advice is good. I know that what I am writing makes sense and is useful information. I hope that I can write this the way that I think about things - and that it's not too many run-on sentences in a row. I also hope that one day I will actually have commenters, proving that this was a good idea and that I'm not really five years behind the times.