Monday, November 17, 2008

The Motrin Saga


I am not a conformist. I make my own rules. I do not follow the crowd. But according to the makers of Motrin - I wore my girls to be fashionable. To be cool. Here's the ad if you missed it before it got pulled.



In reality, I wore my babies for convenience. For ease. To be close to them. For safety. I had three daughters in under three years. By the time the third arrived, I had a 33 month old AND a fifteen month old. Keeping my daughter in a infant seat, didn't always mean she was safe. Same goes for a pack and play. There was always a big sister waiting in the wings, to gently push the baby in the swing, to rock and tip the baby in the infant carrier and to smother climb in and play with the baby in the pack and play. So for her safety (and my sanity) I wore her. She was happy, and I was happy. I was comforted in knowing she was somewhere safe and I was able to get things done around the house.


When we were out, I carried them for a variety of reasons. First, to be able to accomplish simple tasks as shopping. When Moe was born, it was hard to find a shopping cart to hold two toddlers, an infant car seat and the actual items I was buying. Second, Do you know what type of germs live on carseats> Yeah, me too. Third, have you ever actually tried to lug around an infant car seat with a child weighing more than 10-15 pounds? Talk about pain! Fourth, Have you ever tried to cross a parking lot with two toddlers while carrying an infant car seat? As you can see, I still have all three kids, so having my hands free must have been a good thing. Fifth,chasing after two toddlers on the playground while pushing a stroller, only to have them zip under something and head further away from you? Totally not happening on my watch. And lastly, I live in New England. It gets cold for 6 months of the year. My last daughter was born in September. So yeah, keeping her warm was a concern as well.


Now, I didn't start wearing babies on my last child (although this post is mainly about her), but with Einey, my first. The ease and convenience of knowing she was safe was top of our list. We like hiking. Have you ever tried lugging an infant car seat or stroller through the woods? You haven't? Well maybe you should try it!

I've got the best seat in the house!

We started with Einey with a Graco front pack. It wasn't the greatest. She was supposed to fit in it until 20 pounds, but for some reason, once she hit 10, she got stuck in it. We waited a bit and purchased the Kelty Backpack. It is great! I used it for all three of them until they were close to thirty pounds. So we purchased a Kelty Kangaroo when we found out we were expecting Meenie - best purchase ever! Did my back ever hurt? Yes, sometimes, but it was usually when I didn't have the straps adjusted right. If I felt my back hurting, I'd usually remove the carrier and make some adjustments. Many times, I didn't feel anything until I took the carrier off. And that feeling - not pain, just the feeling of having 20 -30 pounds removed from your body. A sort of tiredness, but definitely not pain.

So Motrin - you can suck it.




If I can find other pictures (I know I have more - they just are not digital) I'll add them later!

4 comments:

SciFi Dad said...

Wow, they really screwed up with that ad. I know my wife uses both a sling and a Baby Trekker (it's a Canadian thing, TOTALLY awesome, sort of like a Bjorn only more comfortable) for a host of reasons, but mostly to AVOID pain.

Not smart. Someone will be fired for this, I am almost certain.

Stacy said...

Seriously? What idiot put together that ad?? I was the same as you, it was just easier and safer (mine were 17 months apart). I loved wearing Anya in the Mei Tai because it wasn't hard on my back. I wish I had discovered it before with Kai because I think for a colicky little baby...it would have been so nice!

Anonymous said...

the ad is now pulled from the website and a reply has been posted...sounds like a bad case of "have a happy period"...despite good intentions some ads just crash and burn!
MMHR

Suburb Sierra said...

I actually work in the social media industry to pay the bills and this was ALL the buzz this morning from the weekend fall out.

Very, very interesting how powerful us Moms can be :) Watch out corporate America - we're watching and we're sharing!!!