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Saturday, January 07, 2006

Ugly Kid Stuff

Everyone talks about it, so it must be true.

Baby things are getting cooler, prettier, hipper, neater. They multitask and feature elegant Scandinavian design.

Some say this is a result of men becoming more involved in kid minutiae (people like to point to them as the motivating force behind the revolution in stroller design, but maybe people were just getting sick of feeling so clumsy and getting stuck under tall curbs).

Others suggest that as young designers come of age and start to have children, they look to surround themselves with objects of beauty. Daddytypes recently mentioned the new Babygadget blog that indeed has tons of beautiful baby design, and I have long been infatuated with the things Sparkablity has on display.

So why is there no progress at all in the world of car seats?

I don't have a car, so this would seem to be a strange complaint from me, but I do take taxis with the kid, and have hopes of traveling with him outside this fair city. Until last week, I had been using a handed-over infant car seat that could be plopped onto a set of wheels. It was kind of clumsy and not so fetching, but it was free and the hospital sprung us with this set-up, so who was I to complain. (Here I should say that if you're in Europe, the Maxi-cosi infant car seat is pretty attractive.)

But Felix has grown and his legs are slopping out of the thing. He needs something bigger, and here is where everything falls apart. Most people at this point stick a carseat in the car and are done with it, but since I don't have one, the problem is tricky. I could resign myself to white-knuckle taxi rides (though for some reason this really terrifies me- I'm relaxed about so many things, but this one gets me all bent out of shape), and then there's the problem of what to do on the rare occasions when we all do hit the road.

There is but one item on the market for people who need carseats with wheels and it is beyond hideous. I now have it. I know it works for me. It is the Sit n' Stroll, and comes in two colors: "Midnight," which is navy blue with a kind of textured wallpaper look to it and "Shoreline" which is much worse- inexplicably beige and navy patchwork. The idea here is that it is a carseat (with the LATCH system and everything) but you can pull up a handle and pop wheels out of the bottom of the thing and you have a somewhat low-sitting stroller that can get you around. It's perfectly functional, works in rear and forward facing scenarios and can handle a kid up to 40 pounds.

But why does it have to be so ugly and why do I care? I should be happy that something exists at all. And yet here I am wishing those Scandinavian designers would get cracking on something gorgeous and lightweight and functional. They're doing it with everything else.

posted by Elise at 10:11 AM

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7 Comments:

Katrina said...

Baby stuff is getting cooler. Among the hordes of usual gifts received over the holidays, the tots were given some clothing from the in-laws{!} that was a bit different. It was like college jerseys with made-up names of colleges more like baby colleges with cool artwork. THe company was Lavasurfer and I went to the site and it has a bunch of baby clothing and yoga clothes, other stuff. It was Lavasurferclothing.com .

But car seats - how many broken nails fiddling with car seats latches and straps? I gotta give you credit using car seats in a taxi. Are the drivers sympathetic? Or do they hurry you up.

1/09/2006 8:26 AM

meidsness said...

There are some really great car seats in the world, but they never reach the US market in large part due to the great expense of liability insurance here. Car seats are one of the products that expose you to a great deal of liability, and many foreign companies aren't willing to the great cost of insurance here in the US. My guess is that there aren't many seats made here in the US - everybody is afraid of getting cleaned out by lawsuits.

1/09/2006 8:50 AM

Elise said...

Actually, I haven't had a driver get at all impatient as I loaded the car seat in. I even have told them to start the meter running but they don't seem to care that much. It really doesn't take me that long, all told, to get him in, because I don't do the kind of set up that one would do if one had a car seat in one's own car... but I figure anything is better than nothing. I was also extremely put out by the Infant CPR class I took - where in spite of the fact that the teacher was clearly close to certifiable, she was able to get me nervous about 3 things: CPR, Balloons and Car Seats. So here I am with the strange Sit n' Stroll, feeling less than elegant, but somewhat more temperate.

1/09/2006 10:23 AM

Katrina said...

Balloons? In what way? Eardrum harm when popping?

1/10/2006 10:48 AM

chloe said...

I believe the balloon concern is about chewing & choking on them in the deflated state. I use balloons for paper mache in classes I teach & other teachers constantly warn me about letting the kids get deflated balloons in their hands like it's the ultimate act of reckless endangerment.

1/11/2006 11:26 AM

chloe said...

1/11/2006 11:26 AM

Elise said...

Oh yes - Chloe is describing the information that came my way Our CPR teacher, who, again, was a complete hysteric, did convince me of Balloon Danger. Apparently they are savage choking hazards because they (popped and uninflated) are thin and infinitely stretchy and can be incredibly difficult to dislodge.

1/11/2006 11:42 AM

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