Most Hated Children’s Gear


Being that I am still a working nanny, I still exist in the nanny spaces of the internet. An interesting question came up recently: What baby/kid item do you [nannies] absolutely hate!?!

My answer was something that is not a secret and I will shout it from the rooftops: baby buckets. Also sometimes known as infant carriers or baby car seats. These are usually basket/bucket shaped car seats with bail handles for those within their first few months of birth and have a click-to-attach system to attach to bases secured in cars or strollers or sometimes even grocery shopping carts.

When I was growing up, my own nanny taught me to never say that I hated anything, because that was a very strong and absolute word, but instead to say that I disliked it. I really, really dislike baby buckets.

A regular convertible car seat with an infant insert is just as safe as a baby bucket for transporting the tot by car and saves you from having to buy two separate carseats before tot is two years old. It is a one-and-done purchase. And the tot can be worn or wheeled around in a lie-flat stroller1. Yes, there is the issue of transferring out of the car seat and into the baby carrier or into the stroller, but honestly, it becomes a nonissue as the kiddo will quickly fall back asleep if they were asleep and need more sleep. Baby sleep isn’t as precious as you think, and motion-naps (naps induced by motion such as riding in the car) aren’t something we want to encourage, so waking them from a motion nap pays positive dividends in the end.

1 My personal favorite in this category, and one I personally own, is the MacLaren Quest (affiliate link for the North Carolina Professional Association of Nannies – a nonprofit – because I support them where I can). I got my stroller second-hand through FreeCycle.org, a gift-economy rehoming service for durable household goods.

Since the nanny group where this question was posted does check to ensure that you are a working nanny, and you are likely not, I thought you might be interested in the rest of the responses from the other nannies in the group.

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