Shopping for a child

I am sure every first time parent goes through this but shopping for a child is the more nerve wrecking than just about anything I have done before. If you have been a parent before, you know what I am talking about – if not, you soon will.

Let me take the simple example of buying a car seat. You can get a car seat for anything from 50 dollars to 130 dollars and a travel system for anywhere between 140 – 300 dollars. With everything else, you will probably see how much use it is going to be put to and then decide. If you are going to use it for at most one year, the 50 dollar one might just be good enough. This cannot apply to something you are buying for a kid. Is the 50 dollar one safe? If no, why are they selling it. If yes, why is there another for 130 bucks and why would anyone buy it unless you work in Wall Street.Is the 50 dollar one real uncomfortable? How will the kid know something is uncomfortable? The only experience is inside the mom and I am sure that was more comfortable than any thing else it is going to experience. How does someone who designs things for a kid know something is uncomfortable for the kid? Did they poll 3 month old kids to find out if one car seat is more comfortable than the other? Obviously, trial and error will not work – even if it did, who wants to test things on their own kid :)?

Anyway, after doing a lot of painful research on everything starting from a crib down to diapers and onesies (yes diaper research is one of the most painful things and you can apparently be absolutely wrong once the kid comes out :(), we are nearly done with all the shopping.

Now we are packing things for the hospital. My wife is running around deciding on what music to take, what clothes etc. I am more worried about what I am going to do after the kid is born and I will be staying in the hospital for 2+ days. Will my wife be pissed if I decide to take my comp and Civ 4 :)? Probably but considering the fact that she will be asleep or feeding the baby most of the time, she might actually agree to it. This will definitely be an interesting experiment. Civ 4 actually has pleasant music so she will not have to worry too much about corrupting the kid. And since it is turn based, it might just be easy to pull off with all the responsibilities.

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Tags: car seat

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