3 Ways How You Can Pick a Stroller You DON’T Need!

Becoming a first-time parent has a somewhat weird feeling associated to it. On one hand, it’s really exciting, and on the other, it can be quite nerve wrecking! For me, I was particularly overwhelmed with the sheer amount of baby products out there and the different variations of a particular baby product. At that time, like Shazwani did in her post here, I had also created a list of baby products I should be getting for the new addition to the family. However, when I started going through my list, I faced a major hurdle when it came to the strollers. There were just way too many strollers to choose from, so my husband and I ended up spending a good amount of time researching to make sure we picked out the best stroller for our first child. It was during then when we figured that we should create a resource to help parents pick out the right stroller for their family’s needs; and that’s how Mommy Stroller came about.

Instead of providing tips on how one can pick out the right stroller for their needs, I thought it’d be fun to contribute a guest post on how NOT to pick the right stroller. These are common mistakes made by many parents, so be sure to not practice them. Let’s dive in!

#1 Purchasing the Cheapest or the Most Expensive Stroller 
 Depending on individual circumstances, different parents have different shopping preferences. Most however opt to go for the cheapest (to save money) stroller, while others go for the most expensive (supposedly “best”) stroller. Unfortunately, neither one of these reasons for buying a stroller work well. The right way to shop for a stroller is by figuring what your needs are and how you really plan to use the stroller. After all, you don’t want to end up spending $500 on a double jogging stroller when you won’t be using it to jog or explore the outdoors with your little ones. In such a case, a double umbrella stroller would likely work best.

#2 Picking Something that Meet Your Immediate Needs 
Another great way to pick a stroller you don’t need is by picking a stroller only to meet your immediate needs. This will meet your needs in the short term, but may or may not in the long term. The most common mistake I’ve seen involves parents who do child planning and know that they will be having more kids in the near future, but still end up purchasing a single, non-expandable stroller for their first child. Such a purchase usually only lasts less than a year, up to the point when the second child arrives. If you know beforehand that you will be having more kids in the near futures, it’s best to get an expandable stroller like the Baby Jogger City Select. You can read my review of this stroller here.

#3 Buying a Stroller That Comes with All the Fancy Features
The innovation and new designs in the stroller industry are pretty amazing, especially if you compare strollers a few years back and those that are in the market today. There are even self-folding strollers out in the market today! Amazing right? While all these fancy features are “nice to have”, they are rarely essentials. In fact, if you’re like me, you’ll rarely make use of these features even if you had a fancy stroller. I would recommend going over what is important to you and from there, pick out a stroller that matches your needs (rather than wants) as closely as possible. For example, if all you are looking for is an umbrella stroller that you can use to run errands, you can get a pretty high quality stroller for less than $150 versus a fancy stroller that can almost double the cost.


Yes, stroller selection is extremely confusing given the number of options out there. However, that shouldn’t be an excuse or reason that parents use when they end up picking a stroller they don’t need. The truth is, even with all the many different stroller choices out there, with some planning and rational thinking, every parent should be able to pick out the right stroller that meets the needs of their family pretty easily. So, the next time you want to purchase a stroller (or any baby product for that matter), be sure to go over the 3 points discussed in this post to help steer you towards the right product. What about you – have you bought a baby product that you were excited at the time of buying but just don’t find a use for it after a while?

 Who’s the Writer?

Evelyn is the main person behind Mommy Stroller, which focuses on helping parents figure out which stroller they should get. Evelyn and her husband, Paul, decided to blog about strollers after the overwhelming feeling they experienced when trying to pick out their first stroller. Both of them enjoy spending time with family and friend, live music, and going on jogs with their kids (in a stroller). You can also connect with the Mommy Stroller crew on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.