She can sleep in a clothesbasket... can't she?

I'll admit it.  Babies R Us sent me into a complete meltdown.

I mean, I knew we'd need stuff for the baby. But it can't be that complicated, can it?  As far as I knew we needed:

Boobs
Diapers
Place for kid to sleep
Clothes/blankets
Things to wipe her butt with.

Boobs = covered. (And aren't you thankful for that.)
Diapers = covered. Friends of ours provided us with a pack of environmentally - less - hostile disposables for the icky meconium phase, and a trip to the Cloth Diaper store will be completed as soon as we know how big this kid's butt is.
Sleep place = covered. We did get a bassinet, although I totally would have been OK with a dresser drawer. Does that make me a bad mother?
Clothes/blankets = covered. These are things that aren't hard to accumulate - quickly.
Butt wipes = covered. Seriously, isn't a facecloth more than adequate?

But then you start thinking about it. Well, we need a carseat, or they won't let us take her home from the hospital. Fine, we get the carseat. Oh, we need a stroller too. And you know, baby furniture. To put all the clothes and stuff in. So that's ordered. Oh, and a rocker. Because you need to rock babies. Done.

And you go in to the big box stores and they tell you, hey, don't forget, you need a change pad.
And a baby thermometer.
And a breast pump.
And a diaper bag.
And a carrier.
And a sling.
And a swing.
And a playmat.
And a mobile.
And... and.... and. And? AND.

Don't get me wrong - I like shopping. I like cute little baby stuff. I love this insane little baby flowerpot bathtub and these Bumbo Chairs make me laugh and laugh and laugh. And far be it from me to turn my nose up at hipster yuppie onesies like this one. But all of it makes me wonder - what do we really need? As opposed to what everyone *says* we need, or what the big-box-stores tell us in their catalogues that we need. Do we need a swing AND a playmat? Or do we even need either? Is a nursing pillow a must-have or an extra - and how do I know without buying and trying it out?

It's kind of like that statistic, that one that says that even though we've invented all sorts of great time-saving inventions like vaccuum cleaners that run themselves and spray bottles and disposable cleaning products and all that jazz, we still end up spending almost exactly the same amount of time cleaning our homes as we did 75 years ago.  Do all these inventions really make our lives easier, or do they just put another yoke around our necks of Things We Should Have If We Have A Baby?

So I've purposely decided: that's it. No more stuff until we think we really need it. Swings and bouncy chairs and all that jazz can wait. No more shopping.

Except for socks. I think we really might need socks.

This is an original post to Canada Moms Blog. Shannon blogs about life at ThreeSeven.ca and saves the world at ecochick.ca.