Avant-garde parenting purchases

High heeled pain was the title of one of my last posts. You know I love a good high heel, but for babies? Really? We're always saying with regret that kids grow up too fast, so why do we want to speed up the process? I blame this on Katie Holmes.

When we had our first child we didn't buy anything until the baby was born because we did not find out the sex of the baby beforehand. At my shower, everything was unisex so we were set until the baby arrived. On the way home from the hospital we stopped at the PX and bought some girly things. It was so much fun. From that point on, we decided that was how we were going to approach the rest of the babies that would hopefully come to us. What we didn't do was fall for the unnecessary gadgets and the ridiculous baby items that are out there. I think the most gadgety gadget we bought was an electronic thermometer. You can get caught up in it.

Parenting.com has highlighted some of their picks for ridiculous parenting purchases.

Take the Baby Box for example.

If you really feel that this is something you should have, you can go to any store and ask for a box when they are stocking shelves. It will save you $30.00. Reuse, reduce, recycle! I just saw a beautiful, new Moses basket at a thrift shop for $5.00, by the way.

Next up, the Placenta Bear. You read that right, Placenta. (And I just lost my husband as a reader. After his experience, I promised I would never use that word in a sentence. Oops.)

After you emulsify the placenta with sea salt and whatever else needs to be done to it, you sew it up in this bear. And like most stuffed animals, it may end up at the next garage sale you attend.

Bear kit: 25.00,

Average cost of having a baby at a US hospital before

co-insurance: $10,000.00.

Having your spouse run after the people yelling, "Stop! You have my placenta!" and explain that they just purchased the accidentally placed placenta bear at the garage sale: Priceless

If you don't want to do that, their website touts their ideas as "5 fun things you can do with your baby's placenta" so you'll have 4 more things to try. Think placenta pills here people! (How many times can she use placenta in a sentence? you're asking yourself.)

The time out mat.

This makes time-outs fun! Unless this is an adult time-out, I don't want it to be fun. I want it to be silent while they stare at the walls. Actually, I'm describing my time-out...

Theirs is usually defined by weeping and wailing. They would probably stomp on this product and break it anyway so it's a no go for me.

Studies have shown that babies can hear outside sounds and recognize your voice. Why not refine their musical taste while in utero? For $130.00 you can have a pregnancy sound system.
And because it's portable, you can wear it anywhere, just like in the picture. I don't get why she's wearing headphones though...

All I did was sing to my babies. It was zero dollars too. That's so 2008.

What was your best parenting purchase?