I've noticed on my Baby Daddy Twitter account a ton of people selling really top-shelf baby and child products. There are all kinds of organic clothes, chic furniture items, educational systems, and mind-power games. There's this whole subset of high-end, urban family, with-child-but-staying-hip accessories out there. The cynical, post-Marxist side of me wants to scoff at all this and lament the way that product-categories are used to replace personality. The aspirational, underemployed, post-PhD side of me wants to acquire nothing but the best for my own little one. In a certain light, it all sounds so unbelievably classy, this trendy child shopping -- more like a pleasant afternoon of casual boutiquing than the sad and probable alternative of scavenging the Wal Mart wastelands for Hott Bargainz.
I don't know what to make of any of it. I definitely like the principle of organic and otherwise ethical products, and I try to buy them whenever I can. I do find it annoying that they're still treated like this incredibly small niche market. Shouldn't absolutely everything be manufactured and sold in a socially rand environmentally responsible way? Shouldn't that just be the norm? Would it really cost that much more for those organic duds if they were mass produced? Or are mass-production and organic products just an irreconcilable contradiction? There are a lot of people on the planet these days, from what I've heard. Does the ethical have to be reserved exclusively for the incredibly small subset that can afford it? It's like, "You, too, can be a good person, but only if you can fork over an arm and leg."
I guess my alternative, barring a spectacular book deal or miraculous inheritance, is to buy less and focus my energy on providing the baby with a caring, stimulating environment. Let's face it, as far as necessities, a baby needs very little. I'm guessing a day at the park is probably just as good for the baby's mind, if not better, as an insane, vertiginous doodad that plays Liszt and subliminally teaches multiplication tables and Mandarin through light patterns. Honestly, I do think all this stuff is pretty cool, but there have to be multiple ways to do a good job (or at least I have to tell myself that).
I think one of the real upsides of all these products is that they're designed for people who want to give their kids the best possible lives they can. The fact that there's any market for them suggests that a lot of people really do care about making their kids into bright little citizens of the planet earth. Maybe the kids themselves will be the ones that can figure out better ways to make the world a greener, more ethical place without just cluttering it up. Maybe they'll have no choice. Until then, I guess we just keep trying.
I don't know what to make of any of it. I definitely like the principle of organic and otherwise ethical products, and I try to buy them whenever I can. I do find it annoying that they're still treated like this incredibly small niche market. Shouldn't absolutely everything be manufactured and sold in a socially rand environmentally responsible way? Shouldn't that just be the norm? Would it really cost that much more for those organic duds if they were mass produced? Or are mass-production and organic products just an irreconcilable contradiction? There are a lot of people on the planet these days, from what I've heard. Does the ethical have to be reserved exclusively for the incredibly small subset that can afford it? It's like, "You, too, can be a good person, but only if you can fork over an arm and leg."
I guess my alternative, barring a spectacular book deal or miraculous inheritance, is to buy less and focus my energy on providing the baby with a caring, stimulating environment. Let's face it, as far as necessities, a baby needs very little. I'm guessing a day at the park is probably just as good for the baby's mind, if not better, as an insane, vertiginous doodad that plays Liszt and subliminally teaches multiplication tables and Mandarin through light patterns. Honestly, I do think all this stuff is pretty cool, but there have to be multiple ways to do a good job (or at least I have to tell myself that).
I think one of the real upsides of all these products is that they're designed for people who want to give their kids the best possible lives they can. The fact that there's any market for them suggests that a lot of people really do care about making their kids into bright little citizens of the planet earth. Maybe the kids themselves will be the ones that can figure out better ways to make the world a greener, more ethical place without just cluttering it up. Maybe they'll have no choice. Until then, I guess we just keep trying.
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