Mini-debates for mini-wheels

Whenever we've discussed getting a car, matters like clogged roads, safety and pollution always come up.

These issues must have seared themselves into our subconscious: When we went out and bought a stroller recently, they surfaced again - albeit in baby-realm guise.

We'd been prowling the stroller scene for a while now, wavering between three- or four-wheel models, one- or two-step folding mechanisms and so on. Finally, we chose a Maclaren and trundled home with Sonny bouncing along, looking rather miffed (he prefers Mum's sarong). Then we began noticing the parallels:

Clogged roads: Suddenly, every other sidewalk seemed crammed with prams, strollers or buggies. At the supermarket, there was a traffic jam in the aisles as strollers converged in cheery chaos. Were people wheeling their children about irresponsibly, Pa caught himself thinking, where narrowness of lane would have made a baby carrier or sarong more sensible? It was a replay of arguments for and against, say, discouraging cars in city centres - except there's no stroller equivalent of the car pool.

Safety: We started observing how some strollers come with chunky wheels and wide-body features that make them ready for urban combat. Others are slimmer and lighter, but would crumple in a collision, or easily tip over on encountering a pothole. It is just like SUVs squaring off against nippy hatchbacks. On the subject of safety, speedy - and speeding - also came to mind: What would be a sensible speed limit for a stroller?

Pollution: At least motorised strollers haven't made their debut, so current incarnations are all human-powered and cannot contribute to global warming. But when we stopped at a coffee shop for a snack, luxuriating in not having to keep Sonny to our chests either in a carrier or sarong, pollution confronted us head-on: A chap at the next table lit up, and ciggie smoke wafted our way. Unlike with a sarong and carrier, where we could at least partially shield Sonny, the stroller left him utterly exposed. We ate fast and sped off home.

Of course, our continuing soul-searching over getting a car is also roiled by questions of cost. Our son's new wheels cost us a pretty penny, but they still don't come near the price tag for, say, a Hyundai Avante. It would have been cool, however, to have had a stroller odometer installed - so we'll know just how many miles we eventually cover with our Sonnymobile.