Gift registries are a funny thing. Very American, consumerist, yet, I'm finding, a lot of fun for the shopaholic in me!
It reminds me of the annual autumnal arrival of the Big Book from Sears. My brothers, sister and me would spread it out on the floor and lay down on the family room carpet to stare with delight at the Christmas possibilities. And, we would make our lists for Santa. Our lists for Santa definitely rivalled our lists for Grandpa, who could not share affection properly, so he would shop instead.
I like to think that I could live simply, with few possessions. That I'm not greedy. That I won't spoil my child. (And, that I won't ever stub my toes on piles of plastic toys.)
And then I start clicking "Add to my registry" like I'm pulling the arm on a slot machine. Not that I'm proud of this...really, I'm a hippie at heart. But, we're in this money-saving, "how are we going to live?! We must get our finances in order!" mode right now. So, reliving the Big Book experience is just enough like shopping to keep me from whipping out my credit card to buy rattles and booties and Pooh.
The things I put on the list are a combination of "must-haves" and "like-to-haves." Diapers, blankets, bibs, a mattress...these things are, in my mind, must-haves. I do remind myself that children have been put down to bed in a dresser drawer, transported in a car without a car seat, swaddled in whatever fabric is available...and survived perfectly well. The other voice in me says: SIDS, SUVs, Dust Mites. So, I'me taking advantage of a lot of hand-me-downs from my sister, re-using some pieces from my own infancy, and trying to include organic fabrics as often as possible.
"Like-to-haves" is another issue entirely. Many of you know that one of my favorite jobs ever was working at a small, independent toy store which specialized in early childhood education. We had THE BEST toys for babies and toddlers. I enjoyed this product line so much that I created a thorough business plan to start a baby-gear store of my own. (That may still happen someday...who knows? I'm just not sure if I'll get my MBA, CPA certification, become a doula or go to law school first, though...but that's another topic for another day.)
So, you'll see a lot of rattles, playmats, gyms, crib toys, and other developmentally-sound stuff.
Along with Penguin Bowling and a Green Monster Mobile.
I certainly don't expect to receive everything on the list...but just for a few hours, it was really fun to feel like I was on my belly in the family room one more time. Because, not only can I not lay on my belly anymore, but Sears stopped sending out their Big Book years ago.
Comments are open (as always) - What do YOU think about Gift Registries? Creating them for yourself, using them to shop for a loved one?
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2 comments:
I have to agree that registries are an odd invention. They are helpful, but they also do make you feel just a little greedy.
The thing I think is funny about baby registries, as opposed to bridal registries, is that often the person creating the registry hasn't had a baby yet! So, while the mom-to-be may have a pretty good sense of what she, daddy and baby will need, there are usually things that get overlooked that will be used every single day.
One thing that I like to buy for expecting mothers is cloth diapers. Most people don't use them anymore, as diapers anyway, and they are getting pretty hard to find in the baby aisles. In fact, last time I wanted to buy some at Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart has almost everything in the necessity category for babies), they were in the car maintenance aisle! Apparently, it has been very common for father's to adopt the cloth diapers for polishing their 'four-wheeled babies' once their real babies are done with them. And since so few people use them as diapers, they moved them to the car aisle. They even had 'manly' packaging. I bought two packages and felt it was important to take them out of the packaging before putting them in the baby-shower gift basket. But, if you have a baby, you know that cloth diapers are not just good as diapers. They are the world's best burping cloths, wipe-up rags, high-chair napkins and all around must-have-in-the-house cloths. Everyone should have some, even if they don't have babies.
I'm also very fond of baby blankets. I don't think you can ever have too many. My kids still use them to this day (ages 7 and 9) when they watch tv, listen to stories, lay on the floor to draw, in the car on trips. They are the best. My favorite baby blanket was a $7 blanket that someone bought for my daughter at Wal-Mart (again, Wal-Mart - truly it is not my favorite place). It was a thin fleace blanket. The best.
Oh, and onesies. How can you not love onesies. Even the word is cute.
Can't wait to see your registry and re-live.
Registries....Lindsay knows this story. But I think its worth sharing. We registered at Babies R' Us before my first child was born. Since I was the first of my friends and my family to have a baby...I had NO idea what I was doing. I also had a very short energy supply - because I was pregnant. Add a smattering of hormones ...and you can see where this is going....
We walked the cavernous, endless aisles and looked at all of the options for caring and PROTECTING (in caps because a serious marketing tactic is to scare the bejesus out of you) for our unborn child. We looked at the wall of bottles ...might as well been a thousand foot E1 climbing wall - and had no idea what to pick. Do we want the ones for colic? Do we want the colored ones? How about the ones that have the plastic insert... what about a sanitizer? a portable bottle warmer....egad...how did the pioneers survive?!>!
As you can probably guess, this happened in each and every section. When we finally got the stroller aisle -- which was an item with wheels, so my husband finally had an opinion to mix into the confusion of my head -- I became officially overwhelmed. Did we want an umbrella stroller? a pram? a light one that we can snap the car seat into....did it need a cup holder? toys to distract the baby...I will stop now because my heart rate is rising....
Anyway...I ended up in the glider section of Babies R Us, exhausted and crying. I had no experience to make these decisions and ask people to spend money like this on me - when I had no idea what I was doing!
At this point in my pregnancy, I had not consulted anyone about the plethora of baby accoutrement. Now - every woman who has had a child knows that as soon as your belly pops, everyone - including strangers start to offer the most bizarre and frightening advice. But about bizarre things like what you should and shouldn't eat, while you are unloading your grocery cart at the supermarket or how you shouldn't stand up and hold the straps on the subway because the umbilical cord will wrap around your child's head and strangle them. (NO, I didn't make that up....)
Now that my kids go to school, I have friends that I can compare notes with -- but at this point, the field of baby care items is drastically different than it was when my mother had her children...so I was desperate for some baby gadget intelligence. I was lucky to have a friend who had a child a few years older than me. She is also very open minded -- and didn't tell me what I needed to get, but was able to ask constructive questions and help me explore the options. I also read a book that did much of the same. It reviewed the items and told me who might be driven to buy which items. For example - where was most of our stroller activity going to occur? On a dirt road? in a mall? down paved sidewalks? on a hiking trail...etc. That gave me a bit more to go with.
I tried to picture how baby and I were going to explore the world. Kept coming up with images of me, baby and a jogging stroller or the sweet mother and child with an old fashioned pram. We got both.
Benjamin screamed bloody murder any time I put him in the jogging stroller -- and the pram was impossible to handle and turn. Being who we are as a family -- our kids were in a frontpack (Baby Bjorn) or a backpack 95% of the time.
So - did we never use the strollers? Not really...I bought a nice Maclaren umbrella stroller later and have used it for the tired toddler legs (GREAT steering and turning on this baby -- which Linz you can probably have), Drew used the jogging stroller to push Ben to school as he walked to the train, and the pram became a place for baby to sleep downstairs.
I think that is quite enough...but trust me - I could go on and on and on about the registry.
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