If you think that only poor people rent, think twice.

In fact, it is anything but embarrassing or substandard.

We have enough single-use products being produced every day in the world so why don’t we help the environment by getting more use out of something?

Parents, you may feel that renting baby equipment (coming off as a poor man’s situation, unhygienic, etc) is a social stigma but you are also being environmentally responsible individuals when you do that.

PHOTO: Pixabay

Why rent instead of buy?

A child would outgrow and require different strollers at each stage of his growth.

In some cases, a child could go through 3-4 prams in his first two years. A pram can cost as much as SGD$2,000 and the wide variety of options is overwhelming. You might end up with four strollers at home when your child could finally start walking. In this aspect, it is not environmentally friendly at all.

Often these strollers are used for several months, and then are either disposed or left idling for months or even years. 

Save yourself the trouble, rent premium prams on a monthly subscription, and never worry about clutters and the next best pram fit.

How rental subscription works 

A rental subscription gives you the flexibility to switch prams whenever your baby outgrows it at an affordable monthly fee.

As your child’s needs change as he grows, you can switch out the strollers accordingly.

On how much you get to save when you rent versus buy a stroller for the course of infancy to 1 year, let’s look at an example of a Stokke xplory v6 seat kit ($1,200) from Motherswork. You would also need a carry cot for infant stages ($549). Total price is $1,749.

Assuming the parent chooses to rent the same Stokke stroller (as the above) for a year or even change 3 other strollers during the period, it would only cost $1,044 ($87/monthly subscription fee over a total of 12 months). 

Renting ($1,044) is approximately  40% cheaper than buying ($1,748). The added value from the flexibility to swap prams makes renting much more worth it than buying.

Keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all stroller on the market. Though it may seem cost-effective to let your child use the same stroller throughout his growth, it is also compromising your child’s safety.

Debunking the myth that sharing baby equipment is ‘unhygienic’

A common perception among parents is that buying a brand-new pram is much cleaner than renting one that has been used by other children.  

However, brand-new prams have not been sanitised nor cleaned, if you were to think about it.

On the contrary, PramShare promises detailed cleaning, technical inspection and maintenance of all their rental prams to ensure they are sparkling clean and fully functional just like any new pram.

You don’t even have to worry about cleaning your stroller. It would be delivered to you, sanitised and clean.

PHOTO: Pixabay

Renting is not an embarrassing thing to do 

In fact, it is anything but embarrassing.

It is time to drop our bias against renting.

Renting is not a social stigma but has an environmental benefit to it.  

You are not only saving money but also reducing environmental impact by avoiding the need to extract raw materials from the earth and processing them to manufacture brand-new prams.