Stroller Class Warfare

I was at Michael's Arts and Crafts today doing some last-minute shopping for some art supplies for an after-school art class that I coordinate at CR's school (another story completely), and is it only me but it seems that strollers are looking really different these days.   

I have a big ol' Graco.  I have no idea what it is called but it's powerful I tell you.  I had a Metrolite before this one and on a trip, the airline snapped it in half.  They forgot to have me sign the waiver so they gave me some $ to replace it.  Unbelievable.  I decided to go for the heavy duty model that was currently out so it would never be snapped in half again.   There is simply no way this one could be snapped in half.   I can barely pick it up to throw it in the back of my Subaru.  But boy, does it serve its purpose.  I can throw all kinds of crap underneath it in a nice big bin, it has storage for my sunglasses, iPhone, keys, and even has two cupholders.  AND my current baby boy gets a nice tray all for himself for all of those crackery goodies you give to a toddler when he is screaming about being in a stroller.

So here I am at Michael's with a screaming toddler (I attribute the screaming to teething pain but who knows?) and the aisles are so friggin' narrow.   And it seems on this particular weekday, there are one million moms with strollers looking for arts and crafts to do for that day?  Could it be true?  And in every single aisle, I am bumping strollers with another mom.  My Graco's big ol' tires are getting caught in everyone else's.  "Oops, sorry," I mumble one million times as I pass the million mothers.  And this would all be cool except for the fact that not ONE of the million moms has a stroller like me.  They all have these streamlined, colorfully-colored, astronautical, cool, hip, small-wheeled strollers that put their kids in a variety of comfy positions.   I actually couldn't tell if all of these strollers were actually different or if they were all the same one simply put in different positions.  

I mean, I know this is my third kid and all and eventually you have to stop thinking about strollers, but when you're colliding with mom after mom in the aisles of Michael's and all of these moms are looking at you like you're from the prehistoric age, you just start to wonder.

So yeah, most of the moms gave me a little smile while we untangled the wheels but they also looked at me with a puzzled look like "Does she really live in LA and she's pushing a stroller like that?" or "Maybe she's from Nebraska where they have open roads and bigger aisles and they can handle strollers like that,"  or "Hasn't she heard there have been new advancements in stroller technology?"  

My stroller helps me get from Point A to Point B and sometime Point C and beyond; holds my kids in with a hefty buckle; reclines him or her when she crashes out (yippee!);  has enough space for snackies and drinks; has a super big bin for who knows what underneath; the wheels lock; the whole thing folds up on itself; it has a sunshade; and its multitude of wheels and heavy metal frame seem military-worthy.   And from what I can tell, I think my stroller is like 1/4th of the price that these others one are.  

Now I can only assume there have been advancements in stroller technology since I got this behemoth of a stroller nearly 4 years ago, but thinking about it has really made me just wonder why?