I work for a national non-profit that has me plane commuting on a semi-daily basis. I have a new baby boy, not quite old enough to be away from mommy just yet, but old enough to be strolled around.
I needed something ONE PERSON could manage on her own. I needed a stroller that I could along with my other bags—laptop bag, luggage, portfolio bag, and my boy. I’m not a multitasker, I wouldn’t do that to my boy. But I do need to lug around all of this STUFF for work.
The Peg Perego Aria Stroller was a good fit for me, because of those factors in my work life during the week. I can steer baby boy with one hand, and keep another free to manage bags while darting through SFO.
The stroller has plenty of compartments for baby’s things, but also mine. There’s a nice, convenient sleeve of a pouch on the stroller that I use to stow my Kindle DX or secondary cell phone.
The hubby loves it ‘cause it fits nicely and is sleek and lightweight enough to fit into his cute little Smart Car. It’s his “transportation unit of choice,” our eldest girl likes to say. He likes it ‘cause of all the ways he can configure the stroller—sort of like a Smart Car.
The wheels and suspension are great for such a light stroller. With an old stroller that we used for our girl at this age—same weight class, same advertised functions and versatility—I’d honestly thought I might’ve given her shaken baby syndrome with a few of the rides down the sidewalk, the thing was so bumpy.
It’s one of the reasons we started looking for a new stroller.
We’ve tried ‘em all. We don’t take the stroller riding experience of our babies/kids for granted. Our eldest girl especially. She’s really mature, and she’s told me that while “growing up,” she felt “embarrassed about not being able to walk the whole way with you” all the time. Sweet baby.
These are the issues we have with light, versatile strollers that claim to be an all-in-one, promising the world but delivering not on any one of those promises:
- Strollers of this class tend to have worse rides than the larger “SUV strollers.”
- Strollers of this weight tend to be “weak in the knees” and not in an any endearing way. We’ve had joints snap apart on compacting.
- Be wary of how the stroller’s setup in terms of its pieces and upholstery.
- Where’s the stroller likely to get the dirtiest? Does that piece easily or readily come off? Does that versatility come at the expense of safety?
- Does the stroller have any impossible to reach places to clean?
- Is the stroller’s textiles and fabrics washing machine safe, REALLY? Really, as in, it doesn’t come out all shriveled to an extent that, “Yes it’s clean, but I the machine damn near junk yard-compacted the thing.”
- And for strollers of any class, you always want to check the PARENT COMPANY’s recall record and corporate and financial associations (we do anyway).
- Look for the “Nabisco relationship”—is it a subsidiary of a violent video game company, like Activision (Grand Theft Auto)—that’d make for good context huh?
- Look for its stance on green and sustainability standards.
- Look for political associations (to the KKK, to MAMBLA)—seriously, we do. I mean, it IS relevant, is it not?
Of course, this company passed all those tests, and in this Peg Perego Aria Stroller Review has hopefully illustrated this. In any case, we recommend and endorse the company and its full range of products on our community blog for urban mothers, urbanmamas.com.
The OH, one hand feature’s nice. True, we were taught in driving school to always keep both hands on the wheel at all times, but mamas such as myself have got to prioritize and be practical. Sometimes I need it, and I’m glad, relieved to find a company that’s addressed this, and built to suit this requirement.
Yeah, I’m not trying out for the stroller Olympics with my steering, but almost everybody I know needs a free hand at some point during their strolling careers; I’d say the OH system and feature should actually be mandatory on all strollers.
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