This Giveaway is Closed – The Lucky Winner is Amber Porter! Congratulations!!

The new Britax Chaperone stroller includes all of the features that are most important to busy moms on the go, including a realistic one hand fold, large storage compartments, and an adjustable height handle that also allows for one handed or two handed pushing. Busy Mommy Media had the opportunity to review the Britax Chaperone and test it out with some of the hardest critics – 3 active little boys . . . at an amusement park.

Ease of Use

One of the most important features I look for when it comes to strollers is how easy it is to fold. This is important, not only because I’d prefer not to need an engineering
degree to figure out how to open and close the stroller every time I use it, but also because it is next to impossible to leave a hard to fold stroller with anyone who is brave enough to help out and babysit my kids. During my 2 month search for the perfect double stroller I was annoyed to find out that my top choice required several wheels to actually be removed from the stroller in the process of folding it. It’s been my experience that umbrella style strollers are usually the easiest to fold but I was pleasantly surprised to find how easy it is to fold the Britax Chaperone. One quick look at the instructions and I was able to fold the stroller on my first try and visiting grandparents quickly learned how to open and close the Chaperone for themselves in a matter of minutes.

The Britax Chaperone has an easily adjustable handle, which is great if you have parents with large differences in height and an ergonomical design that allows your arms to rest in a natural position. The Chaperone offers one handed and two handed pushing options and I was impressed with how easy the stroller was to push with one hand. The Chaperone is a fairly large stroller but it is surprisingly easy to maneuver with one hand.  I found myself frequently pushing the Chaperone with one hand, leaving an extra hand free to hold the hand of my wandering 4 year old, and did not feel like I was exerting any extra force to stay in control of the stroller.

The one foot brake operation feature is a great extra touch on the Britax Chaperone. While most strollers do have easy brake operation, many require you to engage the brake on each wheel, which is not only more time consuming, it can be extremely frustrating when you are ready to move again and have to determine which wheels still have the brake engaged and which ones do not. The Chaperone makes it easy to visually see whether or not the brake is engaged and takes the guesswork out of making sure your child is safe by displaying a red indicator when the brake is on and a green indicator when the brake is off.

Extra Features

The Britax Chaperone comes with some handy extra features that we took full advantage of as we tested the stroller out on a trip to Legoland California. An extra largebasket fit my entire diaper bad plus several odds and ends without any noticeable difference in maneuverability. The cup holders (2 in the parent’s tray and one in the child’s tray) were deep enough to hold a 16 ounce bottle of water without allowing it to wobble as the stroller moves (although the cup holder in the child’s tray is better designed for a shorter sippy cup). I took full advantage of the closed compartment on the parents tray, which fits far more than it looks. I was able to fit my cell phone, keys, and several granola bars in the closed compartment at one time and I really loved having them accessable while remaining more secure than simply throwing them in the basket. The Chaperone features a nearly full recline and an adjustable foot rest.

Britax Chaperone Pros and Cons

Like any stroller, the Britax Chaperone is a better fit for some people than others. If you need a stroller that is going to fold up small enough to fit in small trunk space or carried up apartment stairs – the Chaperone is probably not for you. The Chaperone takes up more space when folded than my MacLaren double stroller but is fairly comparable in folding size to other full size single strollers. If you do need a stroller that folds up as small as possible, an umbrella style is probably more up your alley (and Britax just happens to make an umbrella stroller as well), however, you obviously won’t get all the bells and whistles that are possible in a full size stroller.

With that said, if folding size isn’t an issue for you, the Britax Chaperone is one of the best full size single strollers I have seen, especially considering the price range (msrp $299.00). The extra features take into account everything  a busy mom on the go needs in a stroller and you really can’t beat the ease of the one-hand folding feature. My mom, who generally opts to leave my strollers unfolded so she doesn’t have to mess with them, felt comfortable folding and unfolding the Chaperone on her own after only a few minutes. The storage compartments, between the huge basket and the closed compartment on the parent’s tray, are fabulous for carrying everything you need, and while the handle of the stroller does not lend itself to having a diaper bag hung on it (which actually puts too much extra weight where it doesn’t belong anyway and can shorten the life of your stroller), a heavily loaded diaper bag easily fits in the basket. The Britax Chaperone is comfortable to push and the seat must be comfortable because my 2 year old has been so thrilled with it that he frequently asks to sit in the stroller inside when we aren’t even going anywhere.

We tested the Britax Chaperone out in the hardest of situations – on a trip to an amusement park with 3 active boys. The Chaperone remained comfortable to push throughout the day and was easy enough to use that visiting grandparents frequently grabbed the stroller to push around for a while. My dad actually commented at the end of the day that he’d been looking at everyone’s strollers and that the Chaperone was by far the best one there. The nearly full recline allowed my tired 2 year old to lay down and rest whenever he wanted to and was sturdy enough to push my 4 year old around without noticing the extra weight as you pushed.

Enter to Win

One lucky winner will receive a Britax Chaperone stroller.  This giveaway is open to the U.S. and will end on February 28, 2010.

Enter the giveaway by commenting on this post.

Please see our site’s Terms and Conditions for a complete list of our contest and giveaway rules.

In compliance with the new FTC Guildlines, please note that this is a sponsored post.  I was given a Britax Chaperone stroller to test and review free of charge.  However, I was not paid for the review and the opinions are my own.

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