Pages

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Over the borderline

So I had a minor meltdown whilst trying to register for baby paraphernalia the other day at Target. Apparently, according to the women the husband works with, such is a common occurrence, but since I am surrounded by "super" Mormon mothers only, I have never heard of such a thing, because most of them do not admit weakness...or mess...or stress...or anything even vaguely resembling a non-chipper moment. (It's a lot to live up to, this standard of mothering perfection, so I have already given up--ta da!)

My meltdown was less spectacular than others, I gather, in that I was not reduced to tears and didn't leave the store running and sniveling. I did, however, decide that I simply could not comprehend the amount and variety of bottles, bouncers, pacifiers, blankets, sleepers, etc. available to me with the knowledge I then had. So, I calmly walked back to guest services, turned in my scanning gun, and walked away after a confused half hour or so.

Luckily, I have (and have always had) a very helpful family. I called my mother, who referred me to my (mother of one and also now pregnant) sister who sent me an extremely informative and detailed email that has answered many of my questions and made me feel much more confident about my next trip with the gun. Hurrah for family!

But I do have to say, once more for the record, boy, is there a lot of CRAP for babies out there! And boy, do they (you know, "them") make you feel like every single piece of it, especially the pieces you can't pronounce or describe, is totally and completely necessary and you must have it RIGHT NOW!!! Lord help the woman who is more easily cowed than I am. The whole industry/endeavor is frightening!

But I am breathing easier now, thank goodness, rising panic having been averted. Here's hoping the next freak out is still in the far distant future!

2 comments:

Nate and Sina said...

Hi, I am a blog lurker...(but friend of your sisters' so not really too freaky). I just wanted to say when we were registering we did the exact same thing, placing maybe three items on the scanner and not returning until forced to do so by our baby shower planners. When we finally did go back to the store, there was a couple there carefully debating the differences between the Boppy tummy time activity center and the Baby Einstein one. My husband jokingly said, "It is a tough decision, wrong choice and junior is headed to state school instead of private." The family wasn't at all amused, because apparently, that was exactly what they were worried about.

Lilita said...

So true: the sense of humor is sucked out of people in all this! Maybe that should be my goal, huh, just keep a healthy sense of humor about the whole things and it will all be fine...? Sounds good to me!