These aren't your grandma's baby strollers. Or your mom's. Or even, if you're of the baby-boomer generation, are they anything like those you bought to push your own kids around town.
Baby carriages that looked like movable little bassinets with frilly covers on wheels were the rage back in Grandma's time, and Grandpa wouldn't have been caught dead pushing one. "Gone With the Wind's" Rhett Butler had all the neighbors talking when he pushed his darling Bonnie in a carriage, with Scarlett on his arm. But then, Rhett was a rebel.
More streamlined strollers replaced the cumbersome carriages until back in the '70s, the latest thing in strollers became the "umbrella stroller" that folded up to fit anywhere. Now not only the stroller but also the baby could go places where no baby had gone before.
The newest baby strollers have such descriptive names as Explorer and Expedition, Euro Adventure and Joyrider and they'll take your baby to rugged outdoor places he's probably never been. There is even one named Bob, which may be the most hulking stroller yet.
Jim Ruess, manager of USA Baby and Child Space, refers to the Bob model as a "sport utility stroller." It has suspension on the rear wheels — inflatable 16-inch wheels — that lets adventurous moms and dads take Junior with them to the mountains, the beach, the desert — wherever outdoor-loving parents used to spend their spare time before Baby came along.
When you consider that the standard baby stroller has wheels of four or six inches in diameter, you get an idea of the size of these monsters.
Steve Foster, stroller specialist for Babies R Us, said companies are marketing the new models mostly for men. Young dads, especially, want to get out there and go, Foster said, and these rugged macho strollers let them have the best of both worlds: They get to keep their outdoorsman image and be attentive dads at the same time. And the no-nonsense, no-frills names don't hurt, either.
There are strollers with even bigger wheels, 20-inchers that let avid joggers take the baby out for a run. Those became popular a decade or so ago and have maintained a strong following among new parents. They are lightweight, with wide axles, and those huge wheels keep Baby comfortable while mom or dad gets a workout.
Heather Simonsen, mother of Halle Rose, 2, and Christian Alexander, 10 months, runs a couple of miles each day in her neighborhood. "I love my Babyjogger because it's got plenty of storage space for water, snacks for the kids and extra blankets. Also, it has a safety strap I put around my wrist so that the stroller can't get away from me. I even jog with it in snow storms!"
The joggers were the best thing available for athletic parents until the advent of the "mountain stroller" for today's "mountain babies." Foster said the Euro Adventure and Adventure, made by Century, and the Explorer and Expedition made by Baby Trend are aimed not only at outdoorsy parents, but particularly for dads who want to be involved with their babies but on a tougher turf than where traditional parenting, mostly by moms, is done.
"A person over six feet tall has a hard time with a regular baby stroller because his feet keep kicking the wheels or the back of the stroller," Foster said. These strollers have telescoping handles that allow a longer reach and provide striding room for longer legs.
The Kelty company, known for its line of mountaineering equipment, makes a stroller called Joyrider that's not only tough but foldable and compact, despite its 16-inch wheels, Ruess said.
Foster said another new stroller is made by Peg Perego in Italy. You could call this a designer stroller, Foster said, and it is very popular in Europe. Everything on it is adjustable, and the baby can sit facing backward so parent and child can interact. It has deluxe boots to cover the front of the stroller in bad weather and can hold up to 80 pounds.
Costing up to $400, the Italian strollers have names to match their exotic prices — names like Venezia and Milano — that conjure an image of a family stroll in sunny Italy. Wouldn't Rhett and Scarlett have been jealous?
E-MAIL: karras@desnews.com