First Time Parent, First Time Blogger
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- January
- 14
I’m relatively new to blogging and almost as new to fatherhood. So right off the bat I welcome all suggestions, advice, criticisms and are-you-crazy!!!!!s you can muster. Keep ‘em coming…
One thing I’ll never forget from my son’s first week was a shopping trip I made to Manhattan’s Upper Breast Side, a small boutique devoted to everything breast feeding.
Every new father should go to a place like the Upper Breast Side as soon as possible after his first child is born. Take a shopping list from your wife and stand there among all the expectant and recent mothers.
The small store includes a few shelves of products (they are very particular about what they sell); a checkout counter; and two curtain-blocked areas where the expectant and recent mothers can test products in privacy. Invariably, a father shopping there will be the only man in the store.
When I got there, the woman behind the desk went apoplectic on me as I read off the first item on the list: Avent bottles. Her rant was about how Avent bottles have BPA, the dangerous plastic I would learn more about in the coming months. That couldn’t be your wife’s list, she was saying. Your wife would know better. Implication noted.
By the time I was checking out, I had been shamed into several purchases not on the list. By then I was fairly certain what those curtained off areas were really for. They were not for trying on things. Women gathered behind there, in front of a closed-circuit tv screen, I imagined, and got to snicker at the uncomfortable men sent by their wives to shop there.
If you don’t want to fork over a lot of money, show up prepared, armed with information – or at least a healthy dose of self-deprecation. That’s kind of been my shopping mantra ever since.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 5:10 pm by Jon Bandler.
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Congrats on the new baby! Welcome to parenthood!
As the mother of 3 (now much older) children, I have to tell you that you need to practice learning how to say no firmly and directly, and not let anybody bully you, especially into purchasing anything you don’t want and second-guessing your intentions. If you practice on adults, you will find yourself in good stead when your children pull the same stunts. And they, at least, will come home with you to continue the battle. The clerk in a store should not be deciding for you, your wife or your child what you need to purchase and how much you should be spending.
Nice intro post, Jon. If our readers hear half the fatherhood stories from you that I do by sitting next to you, then you will be a great blogger indeed.
Now how about a video link to that ittle boy of yours? He’s certainly a heartbreaker.
Hey Jon, congratulations on being a father! I’m so impressed that you had the courage to go into that store – you should be very proud of yourself. I bet there are lots of women who would not feel comfortable going in there either.
I do have to say though you shouldn’t be upset that you were bullied into purchasing anything. You made a decision not to buy that plastic that is bad for babies. And I’m sure you’re thankful that it never made it into your babies body. And I predict that before long you’ll be on-line sharing your wisdom with other new fathers – like here.
What good is all we’ve been through as parents if we can’t share it?? Read and learn from other peoples advice all you can -no need to reinvent the wheel here, especially if it saves your baby from harm, right?
I think I’m going to stop posting late at night – boy my grammar is bad ;-0