When you have little ones in a big city, a stroller is an important part of your day. So when it came time to move from our trusty single to a double stroller, it was a big decision! I knew I’d be using it almost every day, and that I’d want it to be versatile enough to use in a variety of settings. A lot of my friends have recently, or are currently making the jump from one child to two, so I thought I’d jot down some of the questions my husband and I asked ourselves when looking for a double stroller.
Do you need a double stroller at all?
For some of my friends whose first child is 3 years old or older, a double stroller might not even be necessary most of the time. If your older child can reliably walk beside you in stores, malls, and other places of business, you might only consider a double stroller for long walks outdoors. You could save a lot of money by getting a less expensive model because you know you won’t use it as often. When my daughter was born, my son was still one day short of 16 months old and refused to hold hands in public or take direction regarding where it was safe to walk, so a double stroller was essential for us in nearly every situation.
All-terrain or pavement-only?
If you do know that you’ll only be using the stroller outside because you have an older child who walks when you’re indoors, you might want to focus on jogging-type strollers with larger wheels. Maybe you’ll be using the stroller primarily in malls or on pavements, in which case a stroller with smaller, more maneuverable wheels would be important.
How much to spend?
Just like single strollers, double strollers can be expensive. It’s a good idea to talk about your budget with your spouse before starting the search. Don’t forget that you can use gift cards toward your purchase if you get them from friends and family. We specifically asked our friends and family to contribute gift cards to a particular store where we planned to buy our stroller in lieu of baby gifts or a shower. In this way, we were able to get a more expensive, higher quality stroller than we might have if we had paid for it all ourselves.
Side-by-side or tandem?
Probably the biggest decision! Side-by-side is just like it sounds – a stroller with two seats next to each other, which makes the whole thing quite wide. However, this model typically folds up more easily because it can fold right in half, and is often lighter and less expensive than a tandem. A tandem model’s seats are one above the other, like this:
Like the one above, some tandem models are modular, which means that you can move the seats backward, forward, remove them and use infant seat adapters for one or both. Non-modular models simply have two seats that are in set position, or a “running board” seat for an older child to sit on like a stool without straps.
I’ve observed that it really depends on your needs. I have a tandem stroller and it is exactly what we need, but I have a friend who has a side-by-side and she loves it for their family.
What kind of double stroller do you have? Do you love it or would you replace it if you could? What were your considerations when making the choice?
Can you please let me know what brand and model stroller your kids are modeling in the picture? I will be having my second child early next year and my daughter stills need to be supervised while walking. Thank you!
I emailed you directly, but in case anyone else is wondering, it’s a Baby Jogger (brand) City Select (model). One very similar to it is the Britax B-Ready.