Ahhhh I wasted a whole hour this morning searching for books for baby girl. Amazon free shipping over $35 will be the reason I go bankrupt (and Etsy headbands). It goes a little something like this: I have an actual need for one item. I don't have time to make a trip to the store, so I end up getting it through Amazon and just find other things to buy to get the free shipping. This time it was sunblock. Well, of course being a first time mom, I have to research a dozen brands and get the one that holds up to all my crazy standards. And I don't have time to make special trip to one store for sunblock, let a lone multiple stores searching for a specific brand. So to Amazon I go. I think to myself, "This give me a chance to get that cute global babies book I've had on my wish list for a month". Global babies gets added to the cart, along with another book. Just $3 shy! This is when I got sucked in. Another book, but which one!? No, not that one. This one? No. That one looks tempting, hmm maybe-No, no I can find something better. Oh look! No. Hmmm what about a new toy? A school bus? Little people? Do they make wooden people? Oh yay Melissa & Doug! I can't really tell how big those are? They're kind of creepy. Never mind, back to books. And that is how a spent an hour of time while baby girl was sleeping when I could have been doing much more productive things.
And then, after everything was purchased, I realized that I'm going to need more than one bottle of sunblock and I could have just got multiples to reach my $35. FAIL. Epic fail.
This has become a reoccurring pattern in my life now. Getting so excited to buy such cute baby cloths or fun -and educational!- toys only to feel really guilty after buying said items. I can justify the need for sunblock, but I didn't need to get the brand that I did. I'm glad that it ranks well on the EWG database for cosmetics, but I know that not everyone can afford that luxury, and I feel a little guilty that I can. Plus, I'm definitely going to feel like a pompus butthead when I show up at daycare with fancy sunblock. All that guilt for the item that I actually needed! Then of course there is the guilt from all the excess stuff. I try really hard to avoid buying so much "stuff", since we get a lot of gifts from friends and family anyway. But sometimes it can be really hard to resist temptation!
As far as toys go, I think we have done pretty well all in all. I usually just end up getting so overwhelmed looking at toys, both online and in stores, that I just give up. But I know what it is like to see something on facebook and think-oh I need to get that for my little one! It is sad to me that, as parents, we place so much value on what toys we buy for our children, as if more toys equals more love. We just want to give our kids everything we can, and now a days more people are financially able to do that. Parents that grew up poor want to give their children everything they didn't get to have, and who can blame them? But does 'because we can' mean that we should? I would like my baby girl to learn that she doesn't need material things to be happy and that the earth is more than just a planet of resources for us to consume, so I am trying my best to model that. Of course I do buy her (and myself) things, and sometimes I catch myself going overboard -we are all human. But I think it is a worthwhile goal to live modestly and value time spent with loved ones as the most cherished gift there could be.
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