Baby Shower Rant

Yes I'm going on a rant.  This weekend my mom, Princess Bear (PB) and I are driving to the way west Chicago suburbs for a baby shower for my cousin and his wife.  That means last weekend my mom, PB & I were cruising around Babies R Us looking for shower gifts from her registry.  They registered at Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby.  It's also one of those idiotic "don't buy a card buy a baby book instead showers".

 I'll go with that part first.  DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT think that people are not going to buy you a card.  How are you supposed to know who the gift is from?  So what you are basically saying to people is buy me a gift and a book to boot.  Also don't think that you can get any sort of decent baby board book for what a card costs.  Sure you can get a dollar bin book made in China....do you really want your precious bundle of joy sucking on that?  I can assure you that said book will wind up in your childs mouth at some point in time.  Yes if you didn't already pick up on it this is a pet peeve of mine.

Now back to the actual registry list.  Oh first I have to premise this with the fact that my cousin and his wife are young, young very young.  Looking at the registry list it was very clear that they had NO clue as what they should be registering for.  I'm sure either mother would have been delighted to offer some guidance.  Hell if they spent more than 2 minutes on Babies R Us they would have found recommendation lists of all kinds.  Instead the parents to be just wondered around Babies R Us with the little zapper gun hitting whatever delighted them.  That's all well and good if you've done a couple of things first.
         

-Use your registry to request the big stuff

You know those big ticket items like a crib, crib mattress, changing table, rocker/glider, infant carrier and stroller, bigger car seat, high chair, bassinet, a pack n play, and a swing.  You might not get all of it but people might be willing to go in on gifts together to help you get the big stuff taken care of.  I know that from my shower I received a car seat/stroller combo, a highchair, a pack n play, a swing, and then a lot of the smaller stuff like a diaper genie, umbrella stroller, booster seat, baby bath and tons of clothes and diapers.  That doesn't include the several hundred dollars worth of gift cards so I could buy things down the line.  My parents also bought PB's crib and changing table.  They also did a very cool thing where they gave her a gift on the 11th of each month. 

-Don't ask for the same thing on both registries

I really don't have to explain why it's stupid to do this do I?  For 2 seconds I thought about calling my Aunt to see if she wanted to suggest to her son and daughter in law that they clean up the lists some but decided it wasn't my place.

Instead of being smart about their registry my cousin and his wife didn't ask for all the big stuff and did ask for a whole bunch of really idiotic stuff.  I'm talking about multiple requests for lotion and baby shampoo.  Where in the heck are you going to store all that stuff?  Also people have a set idea of what they want to spend.  My mom and I were each spending $80 and we were giving $40 in PBs name.  Can I tell you how I have no desire to go through a list of $5 items so I can schlep $80 of it twice over 3 1/2 hours?  

Also in looking at it there was stuff that wasn't on either registry that had me thinking "Really?"  For example no mattress covers on either list, nothing on the list for help soothe a newborn to sleep.  No cloth diapers or burp rags.  No side snap undershirts.  Please tell me that people still use those.  Perfect for letting the umbilical stump heal and also much easier to put on than a onesie.  

Ok, I'm done with my rant for now.  I'm sure I'll have a dozy having spending the day with my family on Sunday.  Catch ya later!