Comments on: Three beads and a baby

By: mpclemens

mpclemens — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:53:28 +0000

A co-worker is expecting twins this summer: it’s been like a stuff-removal bonanza at our house. (“You need a crib? Great!”) More room for typewriters!

By: olivander

olivander — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:44:20 +0000

We’re fortunate that much of our stuff has been provided for free by friends whose own children have outgrown it.

On the other hand, I’m beginning to understand why they were so eager to give it all to us in the first place.

By: mpclemens

mpclemens — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:07:48 +0000

Of course, what is “essential” also changes as your children grow or as you have more children. I would like to think that we were reasonable and level-headed in buying things for the first child, but I know that we over-bought. By the third child, it’s down to a science, and thanks to the network of friends, we have needed very little.

Baby care is really just about dealing with baby’s bodily openings: food goes in and out of one of them, and everything else comes out of the rest. If you’ve got those basics covered (ha!), blankets, and some clothes, then just about everything else you’ve bought is Surplus Stuff. The old joke about a cardboard box being the best toy in the house is true: kids will find their own fun, if given half a chance.

Of course, my kids would have jammed those beads up their noses the first chance they got.

By: CStanford

CStanford — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:28:56 +0000

I’m really enjoying your baby-related posts while I wait for ours to be born.

I’ve helped people move who had loads of baby stuff, and our apartment is small enough that we’re thinking just “the essentials” are going to make for tight quarters.

“The essentials” is a slippery slope as you’ve written – we were looking at a list of things a magazine said we would definitely need and it seemed a lot of stuff! Of course, there are books you can buy that will give you hints on what you don’t really need . . .

But you’ve helped strengthen my resolve to draw lines where I’ve thought they should be – if nothing else, for the sake of our sanity and pocketbooks . . .

By: duffymoon

duffymoon — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:50:57 +0000

I’ve often thought along these same lines. We all want our kids to have a childhood better than our own, better than our parents’ and grandparents’ childhoods. Those of us who are maybe just a little more thoughtful about it tend to get caught in this internal battle: does a “better” childhood mean one with more stuff? With lesser hardships or more coddling? I don’t know. I think our folks just did the best they could with what they had, and we’ll likely do the same. I reckon that’s the way it’s always been.

But good on you for living the examined life.