Ride-on Dilemma

Piglet is fast outgrowing his stroller, so much so that he looks positively ridiculous sitting in it. I realised this during our trip to Chennai, when he got up and started walking around still strapped in the stroller dragging it wherever he went!!! It was so funny to see, I dropped my phone from laughing and never got a proper photo of him.

Basically, everyone at the mall gaped at him like he was He-Man or something.

So, last week at yet another mall, we visited Hamley’s in Phoenix MarketCity in Bangalore (one of our favorite places to hang out) to see if we could find a more suitable ride for him.

What’s not to like about Hamley’s? There are plenty of toys on display, children can try out a lot of stuff, and the staff are the most serene. At one point, Piglet threw a dump truck on the ground, and I instinctively looked around guiltily (I really should have been sharper), but the sales assistant was very chill about it. According to him, the children throw toys around all the time. It really showed the quality of that truck, that nothing happened even though it was thrown with such force!

Anyway enough rambling about the store, and on to the main topic. Ride-ons!!

I was thinking for some time now that Piglet doesn’t really need a stroller as such, but he could do with a ride-on. His best frenemy has a bunch of ride-ons (a car, a bike, and a scooter! Overkill, you think?), and Piglet and he often get into jealous tussles. I thought it would be nice for Piglet to have one so that they can both share and ride together.

So, that’s what Piglet road-tested while we were at Hamley’s.

There were a couple of parameters that we kept in mind throughout:

• No motorized vehicles because I never remember about replacing batteries and stuff like that
• Must be good quality and rugged keeping in mind Piglet’s awesome destructive capabilities
• Something that can be used for a several years. These things are expensive, and I don’t want to spend so much moolah for Piglet to outgrow within the year

So, Piglet first tried out this car. He liked that it was a car, but it was a bit of a squeeze for him. Also, it doesn’t have pedals which basically means that he has to pull himself along with his feet, unless I push him from behind. Pushing him around was very uncomfortable as I had to stoop a lot.

I could also visualize Piglet walking around everywhere with this thing around him so we put a stop to it right away.

The next ride-on we tried was the Little Tikes trike (the red one in the background of the following picture).

I liked it straight away. It’s pretty rugged, it has pedals so Piglet can cycle on his own when he is ready for it, there is a comfortable holder that I can use to push him along if he is slow or tired, and it comes with a sun protection shield which I appreciated but Piglet hated.

Yeah, Piglet hated the ride-on that I loved :(. For some reason, he kept getting off/sliding off, and no amount of coaxing could get him to ride it for a long enough time for us to test. I suspect he found the seat uncomfortable.

Anyway, the last ride-on we tried was the pink all-in-one scooty that he is riding in the above photo. It doesn’t have pedals, boo, but he could sit comfortably on it and move around on his own. As he grows older, it converts into a proper scooty that he can stand on. I love convertibles. The downsides? The only color available was pink, and it doesn’t have a push option so that it can be used to move him along when he is tired. And, there is no strap-on available to keep Piglet firmly in his seat. See here for a better idea of the specification of this ride-on.

So, basically, we came out of the store with our heads spinning. Now, I understand why Piglet’s friend has so many ride-ons. It seems it’s pretty much impossible to find one ride-on that suits all our needs 🙁

Do you have any ride-on recommendations for us?