Mrs C bought a Baba Sling from the NCT this week. She says she’ll need to keep her hands free when she goes for walks so she can keep control of Bernard. Fair enough, it’s hard to walk a dog and push a pram at the same time, I would imagine.

Despite not being to concerned what people think of me I do have a level (regardless of how low that might be) of self-respect. So I had already ruled out the papoose as an option as an affront to anyone’s (and most definitely my own) dignity. You can’t wear a papoose and hold your head high. The only positive I could come up with is that you’d be so embarrassed to be seen wearing a papoose by another living soul that you’d have to go walking in some pretty remote places. But we want to walk the dog in the local park, not trek through Snowdonia. So a papoose was out of the question.

The sling seems like a reasonably good alternative. Not too shameful to be seen with one and the baby seems to fit quite snugly and securely inside (that’s what I’m guessing from looking at the promotional pictures anyway and why would they lie about something like that?). Plus if caught carrying Junior in it by someone I know, I’m pretty sure I get away by claiming I’ve broken my arm (I would then have to avoid seeing that person for the next 6-8 weeks, possibly by taking a long walking holiday in Snowdonia).

I think I’m going to stick with the pram as number one baby transport method though. Especially after I spent so much time on Sunday trying to work out how the bloody thing fits together…