Sunday, May 6, 2012

Stroller on Steps?

Back wheels hitting step, need a lift.
I was recently speaking with an expecting Dad who was concerned about the upcoming changes to life. I pointed out that while there was much to change, they still had a lot of leeway with just one child for many months. In the first year we took our first born to New York, Chicago, Los Angles, and Europe. It all went rather well.

One of my larger concerns was traveling older cities with a stroller. Cobblestone streets and lots of stairs had me concerned. As it turns out, strollers can do stairs better than you may have guessed. Many stairs fit into a sweet spot where you can rock the stroller between front and back wheels.
Back wheels over the lip, rolled forward till front wheels hit.
Push handles down to rock a bye baby and lift the front. 

When the back wheels hit a step, you lift up till they roll over the lip. Then the front wheels will hit a step, but the back will now be on top of a step. You can then press down on the handles and cause the front wheels to roll up their step, till they crest the lip and roll forward.

The tick-tock rocking motion becomes easy and natural, and you can bounce your baby right up to the top of that medieval castle.

On the way down, you do it in reverse, with you below the stroller of course. If you get into a bind, with spiral steps or an unfortunate step ratio where both wheels hit steps at the same time, it's not so bad to have your significant other grab the front foot strap.

So, enjoy wider travels. At least for ours, until they're walking on their own children seem quite happy to stroll around all sorts of new places.

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