I have a son who will be 3 in May and a 7 month old daughter. Instead of a double stroller, we bought a sit n stand (joovy, which I love!) because my son hadn't cooperated with riding in a stroller for some time. I still like this stroller for certain outings, but I have also come to find that now that baby sister rides in the stroller seat, now he wants to also!! I am now considering adding a side by side stroller to our "collection" as my hubby calls it :p
( I LOVE the citi mini double stroller for this!)
My question is, is this a silly purchase given the age of my kids? The one I want isn't exactly cheap so I'm worried that it will soon be useless. How long did your toddler or young one utilize a stroller? Even if he wasn't in it all the time, I like to think we could still take it on outings and just carry our things if he doesn't want to ride the whole time.
Then again, I might be trying to convince myself! Lol!
Thoughts??
Waste of money. He wants to sit because his sister is sitting. You will buy it and it will be a novelty for a few days. Never had a kid use a stroller at 3 yo.
If the only reason you want to buy a double stroller is because your son is jealous of his baby sister sitting in the stroller seat, I probably wouldn't bother. He'll just complain about wanting to sit in her seat in the double stroller. What I often did when my baby was your daughter's age was to bring a carrier so I could wear her and let my older child sit in the stroller if he got tired.
For me, I wanted to buy less cumbersome things as the kids got older. A side by side stroller would be more trouble than it's worth for me.
When we first bought our double stroller, my daughter wanted to ride in it because our twins were riding in it. That very quickly faded. I think you are trying to convince yourself to get the stroller. For me, it's too much of a investment for the short time he will need it. And do you really go that many places that you will need the extra storage? The novelty will wear off quickly and then you are stuck. If he really wants to ride, how about carry your daughter for awhile and have him ride. When he sees it's not as much fun as he thinks, he'll stop, and if he does really like it and rides for a long time go ahead and spend the money.
I love the city mini double. That's the one I ended up with after going through many many doubles. While I don't take it to the mall or anything, it's awesome for amusements parks, zoos, walks, trips up to the pool, etc. If you have the money go for it. Although i don't encourage it and it only happens if one of the younger children have vacated a seat, my 7 year old still likes to sit down and rest in it on occasion.
We bought a City Micro stroller, which is very similar to a city mini. When we got it, my son had recently turned 4 and my daughter was about 9 months. I got it primarily to use on bigger outings, like Disneyland or the zoo, or anywhere where there would be A LOT of walking. I used it a couple of times just for walks around the neighborhood, but not too much.
I think having a stroller until age 4 or 4.5 is pretty common for bigger outings, especially if you anticipate your son wanting to use it because your daughter does. However, if he doesn't love the stroller, he might just be going through a phase and you may be better sticking with the joovy.
As for the City Mini itself (the micro is very similar except the seats don't recline), I loved it. Very easy to maneuver, super easy to fold up and it fit really well in my trunk. The basket had a lot of storage, but was somewhat hard to access, so I used to have to take stuff out of the diaper bag and just put it in their loose. But it held everything I needed. My kids were comfortable and my son could easily get in and out of it himself. My only complaint was the lack of a cupholder for me. I bought one to attach, but it wasn't a great fit.
My son is 5.5 now and we haven't used it since last spring when our Disneyland passes expired. We did not take it to the San Diego Zoo a month before his fifth birthday, even though that was a lot of walking. I am thinking very hard about selling it now, but can't quite bring myself to do it. I'm always one to worry about "what if."
We bought a double stroller when the kids were about this same age and we used it for years. When the oldest one was too big I used the back seat for my purse, groceries, oh my goodness I could even take it to the mall and then put our lunch purchases on the top cover over the baby seat. It was the handiest purchase I EVER made.
If you put them in the stroller and make them stay they get used to it and then they stay where you put them. When they get too big you still have a stroller that you can hand down or resell too.
I think it would be a waste of money. Neither one of my kids would sit in a stroller past the age of three, although they may have hitched a ride on the sit-n-stand if they were tired enough. They both had started nursery school by the time they were three and would have been embarrassed to be seen in a stroller. I could get them to sit in the bike trailer, which could be used like a jogging stroller when I wasn't pulling it behind the bike. That was a good investment because I can still use it to carry chairs and gear on long bike outings with the kids.
I think it's a perfect time for a side by side -- that's what I had and I used it until the first was in first grade (we walked a half mile to school every day).
