Babies Make Adults Go Bananas

03.03.2011

I went with my sister to buy a baby shower gift and I thought I’d run out of the store screaming. First off, the service wasn’t very good and second, the store was split into two locations, each across the hall from each other. So you had to walk from one side to the other to find what you wanted and if someone was helping you on one side but you needed something from the other, they’d send you out and you’d have to wait for someone else to help you. I couldn’t understand why the first person couldn’t just walk over the 3 steps to the other side of the hall and help. But I’m being rational.

I don’t understand why we go so bananas for baby stuff. It’s damn expensive for one. You buy an outfit for $30, the kid’s gonna wear it once because he or she will completely destroy it or he/she will have grown out of it by the time you want to put on that outfit again. I keep telling Rob that I wish it were acceptable to not put shoes on kids and make them wear a burlap sack until they’ve stopped growing. Or at least until they’re in high school and are old enough to get a job and pay for shoes and clothes themselves.

There’s just so much stuff that comes with having a kid. And I’m sure parents don’t mind because of the mushy, gushy, “unconditional love takes over” mentality but…I don’t know. Half of the stuff we have for babies and kids wasn’t around 100 years ago and people still got by. I mean, a $200 video baby monitor? That creeps me out. Newborn toys that make noise? Don’t get me started. Swaddles that lock a baby in preventing him/her from moving? I know babies want to feel like they’re back in the womb but when I held in my hand that packaged swaddle that locks in a baby, my claustrophobia kicked in. They’re able to move more in the womb!

I suppose I don’t “get” any of this because I don’t have a baby. But honestly, I look at what’s out there and, you have to admit, most people expecting a baby register for pretty much the same items and after this Saturday I will have been to 2 baby showers in a month with another one in 3 weeks, and I’ve seen the same items on the lists. So I’m picking up on what mothers are getting but just like I questioned ¾ of the stuff I was told by “experts” I must register for on my wedding registry (and didn't), I’m beginning to question the whole baby registry must-haves too.