Baby Apparatuses.

I feel bad for new parents these days.  In my opinion often, life is all about marketing.  I have raised three of my own kids.  But, now when I walk into a baby department, I get overwhelmed and confused. What are these contraptions that are baby and nursery must have’s? 

My kids had a baby swing.  If I recall, it would swing for about 20 minutes.  You twisted the crank until it was tight and you were off.  Baby swings these days. (That sentence reminds me of my advancing age.) You have to plug them in. You have choices, a lot of choices.  They swing front to back.  They go in circles.  They go side to side.  They have lights on them.  They have songs on them. When does the child get to sleep in them.  That’s what I used mine for.

The crank wasn’t an inconvenience.  After my first child, he was in charge of winding it up for the others.  So technically it was a developmental tool for the older siblings. 

The swing is just one small example of the apparatus that seems to be necessary items to have when you have a baby.  Sure, many of them are great new assets to make life easier for the parent’s and something that will make life easier.  There are so many things to choose from.  Activity mats.  In my mind an activity mat is a blanket with toys thrown on it. 

Here’s the thing though.  Babies grow so fast.  These must haves are used only a couple or few months in many cases.  Then they are stored for the next baby or put out in neighborhood yard sales, taken to Goodwill or a consignment shop.  I think that is all great.  I have personally gotten baby apparatus from consignment shops and definitely yard sales in my neighborhood.  In our family, many of these things just get passed around as needed.

Where do parents even keep these things?  You almost certainly either need to be a pro at organization, or you have to have a room for the “stuff”. 

I actually, do have a nursery set up in my house.  That was because my oldest granddaughter would stay over starting at about 4 months.  I also watch combinations of grandkids, so a crib made sense.  Having said that I got it on sale for a very good price.  There is a little scratch in it too which got me another discount.  That’s also why it made sense. 

Back to the baby stuff.  I am a firm believer that babies grow too, too fast.  I will never miss a chance to hold my grandbabies.  I will not miss a chance to sit on the floor and play with them.  They are allowed to make a mess on the table with paints and glitter and glue.  It can all be cleaned up. 

Last weekend, my 6-year-old granddaughter informed me that I don’t have any “6-year-old toys”.  After she said that she came upstairs with a box and markers.  She decided that she would make a car to push her brother around in.  Every time she is here we work on some kind of project. 

I think we are trained to always entertain our kids and grandkids with toys, and gadgets.  I can honestly say that I cannot remember one toy I ever owned that was ever more important than time spent with my siblings, cousins, parents, and grandparents. 

I wholeheartedly believe that marketing “things” for our newborns and our kids are robbing us of time spent hands on with our babies and grandparents.  Having said that, I do absolutely see and realize some of the things for babies are quite nice and does make life much easier.  So please don’t take away that I am anti-baby-apparatus and gadgets.  What I am saying is that everything isn’t needed for the short period of time babies would use it.