In the past few months I've had several baby showers to attend, which has been good preparation for getting familiar with the things that apparently we as new parents will need to purchase for our home. For instance, had I not made recent trips to Babies R Us, I would have never known such a horror of a place existed and would have foolishly limited myself to the paltry selection of baby items at Target for our own registry.
In all honestly, I thought babies only needed something to catch the pee/poop, something to sleep in, something to catch the throw up, something to eat and perhaps something to wear. I did not know that there were 5000 varieties of each of these essentials, not to mention the complimentary items that accompany each of them.
Until recently, I naively believed that when the time comes, we'll just buy a bottle or two (or how ever many you're supposed to have on hand). After a trip to Babies R Us, so many questions that I never previously consider start popping up. What type of nipple thingy goes on the bottle? How will I warm the bottle? If I'm breast feeding (don't even get me started on this dilemma), I'll need a different type of bottle. There are also 200 ways you can wash the bottle, I must choose my preferred method. Is it a comfort grip bottle? Is the bottle toxin free? Will the baby be able to suckle comfortably with the tilt of the bottle, will this type of bottle cause more burping, is the bottle environmentally friendly, will my friends/family/parents judge me on the ultimate bottle choices I make? Will the bottle I chose define my child? AAAAGGGHHH!
And what's up with the "BPA Free" section? I mean I know what BPA free means - but are they really still selling "BPA Laden, Full of BPA, or Xtra Toxic" bottles and pacifiers? It was my understanding that all baby products (particularly those sold at Babies R Us) would be BPA Free...and if they're not - isn't that something we as a society should be concerned about? Who is going to Babies R Us requesting the products with BPA? Why is "BPA Free" even a valid marketing/selling point for manufacturers? I probably still don't know enough about all of this stuff (since I've made no effort to know more), but it still doesn't make sense to me.
Next it was the car seat aisles...this is really an unfair section of the store. The price of car seats range from $89 to $400. What in the hell can account for that huge variance of something that serves one purpose - to protect your child in the car? I would assume both car seats meet the same safety requirements AND that the safety requirements are the absolute saftest way possible to protect a baby in a car. Are my assumptions wrong here? Am I really supposed to want to go and research all of this crap? I mean I've spent some time researching the really important things: names, how to hold baby, how to introduce baby to dogs, how to administer the right amount of nyquil to sedate but not harm baby.... I have no interest in reading about consumer ratings for car seats, strollers, swings, bouncies, bungies.... I just want someone to tell me what to buy.
So friends and family with children, this is where you come in...I need everyone to send me their one recommendation of the product that I cannot live without. Whether you had a kid 20 years ago, or have one fresh out of the oven, what's the one thing you used/needed/relied on most?
And please no smart asses, I know some of you who couldn't live without your au pair or housekeeper - I'm talking reasonable suggestions only please.
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