Do you remember the first pram you bought or had given to you? I certainly do. I was not quite 21 and within weeks of having our first child. We lived in New Zealand, having left England around 18 months before, and we had no family or close friends living there.
Life was sometimes lonely and not easy for a very young mum. Yet those days taught me so much about resilience and dealing with our own problems, it made us a unit. For that I am grateful.
We were excited and very happy about this baby; we were also very broke. Buying a pram was a bit of a worry for us, so the managing director at my husband’s workplace took pity on us, and offered a third-hand pram. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was in fact a good coach built English-style pram.
Our daughter was born and placed in the rather old fashioned but well sprung and comfortable pram. She slept outdoors in it and by five months the little athlete almost found out how to climb out of it! We also had the third-hand cot, which she challenged as an escapologist too. I can’t really remember what prams were like in 1960, but they were not high tech, that is for sure.
The well-used pram was also in service again, when 18 months later we had our second child. One child went in the pram the other sat on the front. I later progressed with some clever swapping to a twin push chair. I swapped my hairdryer for it… Barter was alive and well in Auckland. I never had time to dry my hair anyway, the terrible twins kept me busy.
Today, I stand in awe of the amazing designs for push chairs and prams. I saw one with with a bike included, prams with a little back seats, and shopping bag places. Prams that evolve for continually new demands or changed circumstances, in fact I really must go into a baby shop and see what is on offer. I think it will blow my mind! They look like racing cars now.
Mine was so basic, so plain. I walked miles around the hilly streets of our suburb of Avondale. I was very slim and so fit because it was all physical and tough on the body. I wish I could still feel like I did then!
Back in England again when our third child was born, I defied all logical assumptions and somehow managed to transport three children in my next pram, two sitting on the front, sometimes, and then it was back to the twin push chair.
I clearly remember the elation when the youngest went to kinder when he was 18 months and the other two were at school. Yahoo! I was free, I was not pushing a pram for the first time for six years. The euphoria spilled over into my choices when I shopped that day, I bought a short and very naughty lilac mini skirt. It was my prize for survivng. The year was 1967.