The Lure of the Barcode Scanner Part 1: It Beckons

This is the first post in a multi-part series where I document my adventures in registering for and receiving gifts for my unborn first child.  Join me in my quest to keep from falling into too much of a consumerist pit.

It’s waiting for you.  Taunting you.  “Come on, it’s so easy.  You don’t even have to buy anything!  Just click my little button, and you’ll be on the road to happiness in no time…”

So it has begun.  I have received my first phone call offering to host a baby shower in my honor.  “So, where are you going to register?” Well, uh….

All things considered, we came out pretty well from the gifts we registered for during our wedding engagement.  We didn’t go overboard, only registered for what we though we’d actually need (aka no fine china or fondue pots, although we received three of the later anyway), and actually received most of what we registered for.  And yet, we bought/received all shiny new products for our life together, including a living and dining room full of brand new furniture.

My values have changed considerably in that amount of time.  Now, I’m looking at an empty nursery, dreading the idea of buying anything new for an infant – such a transient human state.  Cribs, strollers, car seats, mounds and mounds of “plasticrap” – the idea of it makes me shudder.  I imagine my house turning into a colorful plastic jungle, threatening my bare toes and my mental state at every turn.

My husband does make a good point however.  “Jessie, they’re going to want to buy that stuff for us, and it’s going to be new, and you’re not going to be able to stop them.”  He’s absolutely right.  I will be thankful for the generosity of my friends and family.

Luckily I’ve already scored most of a nursery full of secondhand furniture.  The items will require a bit of paint to “coordinate”, but I think it’s well worth it.  Now all that’s left is to walk into the big box baby score, scanner in hand, dread on my face…