Would you like a commercial driver's license with that?

So for a while now, strollers have been getting ridiculously huge. It's a big pet peeve of mine and of Thak's, so we've made a conscious effort to avoid the enormous strollers that infest the shelves of every major retailer in the US. We did decide to buy a travel system for Orren (although it is duly noted that it did not come as a travel system. We just bought a stroller and carseat that matched.) We got a Peg Perego set, though. It's small enough to not be very intrusive (as far as strollers go), and to fit in a compact car. It's lightweight and very maneuverable. We love our Peg Perego stroller, and also its accompanying carseat when Orren was small enough to use it. I'd say that our travel system, fully assembled, is roughly 1/2 to 3/4 the size of the other monstrosities on the sidewalks and playgrounds.

We saw something at the library yesterday that had both of our jaws on the floor. It was hands down the BIGGEST travel system either one of us had ever seen. Here's the link to it. You can't tell here how enormous this thing is. The back basket is literally about 3' across. If you have ever seen a Peg Perego Aria (like my green stroller), this stroller was easily 3x its size. Thak and I just looked at each other as this mom passed by with this UPS truck of a stroller, and said, "Holy shit! Did you SEE that??" We didn't know whether to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, or cringe at the assholish nature of it.

Yes, I said assholish. I seriously think that the anti-stroller sentiment that's becoming so prevalent these days is due entirely to the size of the things as of late. I cannot even tell you how many times I've wanted to get down some grocery store aisle, or pass through somewhere in the mall, or just walk down the sidewalk, and have been blocked, bumped, or run off the road, by one of these monstrosities. Seriously, the average hispanic woman (and our city is over 90% hispanic) is not but 5'2". They can barely SEE over the tops of these things they're so huge! (Think I'm kidding? I wish.) I'm 5'6" barefoot and frequently wear heels, and even I wouldn't want to try to navigate something that size around a store. It's a ridiculous proposition. I mean, a stroller that could comfortably accommodate someone my size as a passenger is entirely unnecessary. I can tell you for a certain fact that our little Britax Blink, which is what we use when out most of the time (I reserve the Aria for walks around the neighborhood these days), is half the width of the average monstrosity travel system, far less than half the length, more agile, easier to transport, and more courteous to our fellow inhabitants of any given place. I think it's ridiculous to have a stroller so big that it interferes with other people's ability to get around someplace. I mean, how big is your baby? Mine is huge for his age, and he rides very comfortably in his Blink. Size is no excuse.

I have even heard some people say that they want a big stroller because they can afford one, so basically, it's a status symbol. I think these people have it ass backward. All the cheap "Made in China by children in a sweatshop" crap strollers, are enormous. All the good quality ones are much smaller. You want a status symbol? Buy a Bugaboo, a Mutsy, a Baby Jogger, a Bumbleride, a Maclaren, a Quinny, a Peg Perego, an Orbit, an iCandy, a Stokke.... the list goes on. These strollers are lovely, and if you notice, not a single one rivals the size of the delivery truck that brought it.

I wonder how big strollers will be in 5 years. This trend is so out of hand. I seriously don't think they would even fit in a normal sized car anymore. My bet? It's an inside deal between the mass marketed baby gear companies, the auto industry, and big oil. Sarah Palin is probably in on it, too, just because she's evil and likes money a lot. They want everyone to have to buy a gas-guzzling SUV the minute they have one kid.