Parent-facing umbrella stroller recs?

amother

Vermilion

Sat, May 21 2016, 10:17 pm

Hi! I am in search of a parent-facing umbrella stroller. We do a lot of traveling, and my baby is too big to wear in a carrier for extended periods of time anymore. I want something light, but I am picky that it should have a parent-facing option.

So far, I have found:

Stroll-Air ReVu: looks like a higher seat/larger basket than others, but I am unfamiliar with the brand and it is more expensive than others

Baby Jogger Vue Lite: looks the nicest, but I cannot get it in the country where I live, so I'd have to have it shipped to our hotel on the first leg of our next upcoming trip, which makes me nervous

Summer Infant 3D Flip: Cheapest, and I've seen it in person and it looks pretty nice, BUT it can only be parent-facing until 25lbs, which I think we'll outgrow soon. So this is pretty much out but I'm looking to hear from anyone who has used it with children over 25lbs parent-facing.

Any advice from people who have these strollers? Do you like them? Thank you!

amother

Sienna

Sun, May 22 2016, 2:31 am

I don't have any of those but I did a lot of research and the baby jogger Vue is by far the best quality. Stroll-Air in particular are not known for their quality. If you have the money, the Vue is really cool. I'm so sad they cancelled the double version of it as I would have got it in a heartbeat.

amother

Vermilion

Sun, May 22 2016, 7:58 am

I have been looking at the Bee3 -- it is beautiful and I think if I was to pick one stroller that will fill all of my needs (daily stroller and umbrella stroller), that would be it! I like the everyday stroller I have now (I'coo photon), but maybe someday I will change to the Bee.

BUT... I would worry about using it for travel because I don't want to gate check something so expensive. This umbrella stroller I'm looking for will probably take a lot of abuse on and off planes, trains, etc.

Do you have the Bee? Do you the seat is low? I like having my baby nice and high next to me.

Smile1234

Sun, May 22 2016, 8:42 am

amother wrote:

I don't have it, but I also looked into it. Decided against it because of the price. And yes it does seem very low. I know people who are very happy with theirs.
I have a uppababy cruz now which I am very happy with. Definitely not umbrella style though...and I'd be nervous to travel a lot with it.

What about the yoyo?

littleprincess

Sun, May 22 2016, 10:19 am

I have the bee and we travel a lot. It went through airplane rides and in and out of the car almost daily. Ds is almost 2 and its still in perfect condition. I found it a bit low but we got used to it. Dh is tall and he has no problem with it. You can adjust the handle size.

I was looking around at so many strollers and always went back to the bee till we purchased it and I have no regrets.

I was basically looking for something lightweight. Easy to fold. Perfect for travelling. For newborn and toddler.
I also used it with adapters and attached my maxi cosy to it.

And I love the look, the option to change color of hood and all the accessories.

AlwaysThinking

Sun, May 22 2016, 12:58 pm

pesek zman wrote:

Curious: why do you like for your (older) baby to face you? My baby loved seeing the world starting at 5 months so we flipped her out then.

I'm not the OP but I always have my son parent-facing. I love being able to see my son at all times, not have to check on the back of his head or stop and peer round the front of the stroller to look or talk to him. He can see around very well too when the sunshade is pulled back. I also feel that when we go to new places or busy places, it must be overwhelming for a small child of any age to be pushed forward into somewhere unknown without being able to see their parent.

When your child is parent facing, you can actually talk to them all the time and explain what you can see. Great for bonding, language development etc. I think they even get to see more of the world that way Wink

amother

Vermilion

Sun, May 22 2016, 8:13 pm

OP here. I agree with all of the reasons Riff gave for preferring parent-facing strollers. I am an SLP and my area of practice and research is early childhood language development, particularly the effects of parent-child conversation and attachment on language growth. I like to be able to have conversations with my baby. It helps young children learn language if you have joint attention -- both looking at and talking about the same thing. This is hard to do if you can't see where the child is looking. I also like parent-facing because you can head off any people who try to touch the baby. That drives me crazy -- if it's not appropriate to go up to a strange person and touch them without consent, it's not appropriate to do to a baby, either. It's a small way that I try to teach my children that their bodies belong to them from a very early age. So, for those reasons, I am parent-facing only in strollers.
These are my reasons, but I don't think I'm better than anyone who chooses differently.