#HTE

Contours Creates an Adult-Sized Stroller

Years ago my neighbors had a baby boy. Shortly after he learned to talk, he repeatedly said something that terrified his parents: “My hands are bothering me.” His hands were obviously causing him some distress or physical pain, so his folks took him to doctors for tests but they could find nothing. Because the child was too young to have a proper vocabulary, he could not articulate what type of pain he was feeling and the doctors didn’t know what to look for.

Because infants cannot express themselves, parents must make decisions for them based on guesswork. One such decision is which stroller to buy, and whether it’s actually comfortable for the baby. To address this, stroller manufacturer Contours created something funny, if a little silly: A scaled-up, adult-sized version of their stroller that allows parents to take it for a “test drive"—as a passenger.

With any luck someone will begin circulating this video, with the audio stripped out and absent any explanation, overseas. Then I can use Google Translate to read acerbic comments about the infantilization of the American adult.