Stroller: Danger on the left

You'd probably be bored stiff reading yet another post about a quirky young thing with a wandering attention span. Except we're not talking about Sonny this time - just the stroller that we've been using to ferry him around in.

Yes, our handy-dandy Maclaren Quest - let's use 'Mac', shall we, since there's something of the naughty boy about the contraption - is rather a prima donna. There's no denying that he's nifty: He has a marvellously tight turning circle and folds up with a friendly 'click'. Lightweight too. But Mac has a tendency to drift to the left. We'll be wheeling Sonny along, and suddenly realise that we've been veering off towards the rose bushes. We need to apply extra pressure on the right arm to keep our direction dead-ahead straight. It's even more dangerous when Pa snaps off one of his patented push-ahead-and-stroll-up moves. At that point, Mac's solo, and before he slows down, the stroller can spin quite a distance away from us - towards a drain, perhaps, or slope.

Now, since Mac's been with us for less than three months, you might suggest we just pop back to the retail outlet and have the staff there sort things out. But here's the tricky bit: Mac's leftist tendencies have a way of suddenly disappearing for days, leaving us scratching our heads. Pa has spent some time scrutinising Mac's wheels (not that Pa's much of a handyman), looking for wads of chewing gum or anything else that might impart occasional spin. Nothing has ever been found. Since we'd feel pretty foolish bringing in a stroller in apparent perfect condition to the shop, we're waiting for Mac's errant ways to become set in stone. But he keeps us guessing.

Mac's other quirk is a stiff neck, so that it's hard to get Sonny to lie back comfortably. There's a latch that needs to be clicked in order to maximise the reclining position and, for some reason, each time we fold and reopen the stroller, the position is reset to an uncomfortably highbacked one. Perhaps Mac likes to have us fumble about in his innards each time, or wants to reminds us who's really in the driving seat.

Not that we should mind too much. In the general sweep of life, after all, we're often in danger of forgetting who keeps things ticking over smoothly, whether it's the maid at home, the cleaners who keep our corridors and roads clean or the service staff in hotels. Mac allows us to dispense with lugging Sonny about in our arms while he slobbers over us, and lets us eat in peace while our son paws at Mac's canvas walls. All this, normally, without a squeak of complaint.

Though that could be just because Mac is so new his wheels don't need oiling yet.