Do you really need a $5,000 stroller? Lessons from adopting a baby (and a teen)

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When my wife and I adopted our second child, we skipped all the typical baby gear—the strollers, the cribs, the endless accessories. On our first adoption, and we’re suddenly the proud parents of an 8-month-old. Cue the baby registry panic.

Suddenly we were Googling baby gear like first-time parents. Bottles, cribs, car seats—and, of course, strollers. That’s when we stumbled across something that stopped us cold: a baby stroller with a $5,000 price tag.

That’s not a typo. Five. Thousand. Dollars.

It’s called the “Jeep 4x4 Stroller,” and if a Lamborghini and a Bugaboo had a baby, this would be it. The thing looks incredible, no doubt—sleek lines, all-terrain wheels, an adjustable suspension system. I half-expected it to come with Bluetooth and heated seats.

Now, I get wanting to give your child the best. Safety matters. Comfort matters. But let’s be real—babies aren’t in strollers for that long. And those strollers take a beating. They’re shoved into trunks, rolled through muddy soccer fields, dragged across gravel at the park, and sometimes doubled as grocery carts in a pinch. (You know who you are.)

So where’s the line between functional and just flexing?

I’m all for buying something that’s safe and reliable. But there’s a happy medium between a wobbly $30 umbrella stroller and one that costs more than my first car. Durability, safety, and affordability don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

The wildest part is, parenting culture has convinced us we need the best of everything to be good parents. We measure love in dollars spent, when really, the most important thing is how present we are in our kids’ lives.

I’ll admit—seeing the difference between our two adoption experiences has been eye-opening. With our teen, it was about earning trust, setting boundaries, and helping them navigate young adulthood. With our baby, it’s about diapers, bottles, and keeping them from trying to eat the TV remote. Same love, different accessories.

So no, we didn’t buy the $5,000 stroller. We went with something mid-range. It’s safe, sturdy, and still leaves enough money left over to, you know, feed the baby.

Because let’s face it—no stroller, no matter how luxurious, can replace what really matters: time, love, and a whole lot of baby wipes.