Mum says what everyone's thinking about prams being used as a status symbol
A mother of one from Cornwall, UK, has hit out at the world of "pram snobbery" and the pressure to buy expensive parenting products.
In a Facebook post, Gylisa Jayne vented her frustration at the expensive price tags attached to many prams on sale in high street stores. Jayne says her excitement for having a baby was shattered when she went shopping for prams when she was pregnant.
"When you see the price that they are charging for a baby carrier, your excitement for the future literally drops out of your arsehole," writes Jaynes.
She says her hunt for a pram for her child introduced her to the world of "Pram Snobbery."
"I learnt that everyone else is either way richer than me, or it's just normal for a pram to cost more than we've ever spent on a fucking car," Jayne continued.
Jayne got a second-hand pram for her daughter, which she soon grew out of. So, she decided to buy "an actual Shop Bought Pram" for £40 from Aldi. But her excitement at joining the "New Pram club" soon wore off when her pram envy set it at other parents' flashier and more expensive prams.
"I feel like we put pressures on ourselves to have the best brand for our child. We want people to think that nothing is too expensive or too flashy for our kids. So we become 'pram snobs' ourselves," Jayne told Mashable.
She thinks there's an "aspect of snobbery" among parents who want to impress people with what they can afford.
Parents have praised Jayne for saying what many of them have been feeling for a long time. "Don't see the point if they only lie/sit in it for a couple hours a day," wrote one parent. "Yay!! You go girl. It's so bloody true and the snobbery doesn't stop at prams," wrote another mum.
"In the end, I realised that it didn't matter what type of pram I had for my baby -- who now as a toddler -- doesn't care how much I spent on the pram we have, cos she doesn't want to sit in it," Jayne continued.
"But when they can walk, will they sit in it? Will they fuck," says Jayne.
Topics Facebook Family & Parenting
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
