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Presented by Pabbot and THE BABY GEAR GAME PLAN

Shownotes

In this episode of the BRB Podcast, baby registry consultants Kevin and Paris debunk seven common misconceptions about baby gear and registries. Here are the key points discussed:

Misconception 1: All Baby Gear is Safe

Kevin and Paris emphasize that not all baby gear is safe just because it is sold by a retailer. They advise doing thorough research to ensure the safety and suitability of each product.

Misconception 2: Baby Registries Aren't Necessary

While not strictly necessary, baby registries can be incredibly helpful in today's world. They help parents stay organized and ensure they have essential items ready for their baby's arrival.

Misconception 3: Buy Everything Before the Baby Arrives

Kevin and Paris explain that it's not necessary to buy everything before the baby arrives. Focusing on essential items for the first few months and understanding safe sleep recommendations can help parents prioritize their purchases.

Misconception 4: Expensive Means Better

Expensive products do not always mean better quality. Kevin and Paris discuss how mid-range products can often perform just as well as high-end ones. They advise looking at performance features rather than just the price tag.

Misconception 5: All Registry Checklists are the Same

Registry checklists can vary widely, often trying to sell different products. Kevin and Paris highlight the importance of personalizing a checklist based on individual needs and situations.

Misconception 6: It's Easier Than It Seems

Creating a baby registry involves a lot of research and understanding of what a baby needs. Kevin and Paris stress that this is a time-consuming process, especially for first-time parents.

Misconception 7: You Don't Need Help or Advice

Getting help and advice is crucial. Kevin and Paris share their experiences and emphasize the value of learning from other parents and professionals in the baby gear space. They encourage seeking advice to avoid common pitfalls and to ensure a smoother parenting journey.

Conclusion

Kevin and Paris recap the seven misconceptions, reiterating the importance of doing proper research, personalizing checklists, and seeking advice. They invite listeners to subscribe and leave a review on their favorite podcast platform.

Highlights

• 00:11:00 - "Oh my gosh, like it's just to see something like an Uppababy Cruz it looks like it's just like heavy and gripping the path and like it's sturdy."

• 00:12:00 - "Sometimes brands get a little cocky, and they start skimping on the quality of their product."

• 00:13:00 - "A misconception is that all registry checklists are the same."

• 00:14:00 - "When you go about it, and understand that a registry checklist is not something that a website could tell you."

• 00:15:00 - "Re-look at it, but like with your own self in mind."

• 00:16:00 - "If you care a lot, then you've got hours of work ahead, trying to do all that research."

• 00:17:00 - "Even if you did some babysitting, even if you did some child care, like there's some things that go with being a parent that it's just helpful to know."

• 00:18:00 - "I really learned on the fly, going through this, thinking that I didn't need any help, but, in the long run, realizing that I did."

• 00:19:00 - "It's important to have an understanding of what goes into a baby registry, what your baby needs and when they will be used."

• 00:20:00 - "So helpful to get advice, so helpful to find out the perspective of others, other parents, other professionals."

• 00:21:00 - "Expensive products do not always mean better quality."

• 00:22:00 - "Creating a baby registry involves a lot of research and understanding of what a baby needs."

Transcript

[00:00:00]

Kevin: If you don't care, you're going to be back at the store with a little baby. If you care a lot, then you've [00:01:00] got

Paris: we've had friends who were literally labor and delivery nurses.

Who, didn't know anything about this,

Kevin: just go to the bike path. They do not ride as smooth. The kids don't fit in them as well.

Paris: the difference between having a registry or not. You should

Kevin: you poked me?

cicadas are chirping, so if you hear a little background noise, that's what it is.

This is Real Life. Real Life with Paris and Kev, your favorite baby registry consultants. Let's get it.

Paris: Why don't, why don't we just fire down the, the whole round. Let's just do it. Yeah. Let's bee-bah-bee-bah-bee-bah

Introduction to Baby Registries

Kevin: Okay. All right.

Paris: All right. There are many mis There are many misconceptions about baby registries, but I think it's important to first understand what a baby registry is for. And that is, of course, for your baby shower for your friends and family, and possibly co workers, people, to help you prepare for your baby.

It's also, a guideline of the things that you need for your baby. Maybe not everything is purchased from there, or maybe you're not even intending for everyone to purchase everything from there. It's a place to keep track of the things that you actually need for your baby.

Before the baby arrives or even after the baby arrives.

So that's why it's important to not only create a baby registry, but also maintain the baby registry, throughout your pregnancy. And even sometimes possibly into early, the newborn phase. You might, be hearing about different, maybe while, perhaps while you're in the hospital or the birthing center, wherever you may give birth to your baby.

You may hear about different products. Pop it on the registry, it's right there. You'll be referring to it for a while.

To have everything in one place where you can easily see what you have. And the things that you still need.

Kevin: There are,

Paris: So then there's then comes the misconceptions about the baby registry.

Here are seven of them.

Kevin: Let me try something different. Okay.

Okay, today we are talking about seven misconceptions related to baby registries. Obviously, a baby registry is where you collect items together so that your family knows what to gift you at the baby shower, but it's also a way of keeping organized. The problem is with some of these misconceptions, they might be Messing up the way that you're going about doing your baby registry or even keep you from doing a baby registry altogether So today we are going to tackle seven of the most common misconceptions that we see And hopefully that'll help you out and make your journey in creating a baby registry just that much smoother So let's get started with misconception number one, and this is a big one a big one All baby gear is safe

Misconception 1: All Baby Gear is Safe

Kevin: Okay. Okay. Okay. All baby gear is safe. Bullshit. . Okay. Okay. Misconception number one, All Baby Gear is safe. That is not even close, like You really have to be careful nowadays. There's so many bootleg products that come in, all different ways. And if you don't know it's if you can always go to the CPSC website. We'll have a link down below and you can check if it meets the certifications and if it is recalled or

Paris: not.

Some things though, you just have to go with your gut. And if [00:02:00] your gut's telling you it's probably not safe, but your friends are. Like, oh, it's great. I don't know. Just maybe go with your gut. Those things like being weighted sleep sacks

Kevin: yeah. No matter what, no matter when your baby comes along, I feel like there's like, when your baby is due, there's always something in that window that's like on the verge of recall.

Like for us, it was like, they never got recall, but like docketots were all the rage.

Paris: They did get recall, or.

Kevin: No. It was a

Paris: warning put out about them.

Kevin: Yeah. The AAP. Infant

Paris: loungers. Which is

Kevin: separate.

Paris: It is, it's obviously very important to understand these things.

Kevin: Mm hmm. It's, the misconception is that all baby gear is safe.

It's important to understand that no, it's not. Just because the retailer is not protecting you, you need to check your own stuff.

Paris: Yeah, you do. You need to understand what is safe, what safety, what the safety standards are, and understand, I don't know what you feel comfortable with.

Kevin: There's another layer to it, and that is, okay, when you're looking at the safety of baby gear, you have to look at not only Are you buying something that's not a bootleg? You have to look at if the product's been recalled, but the last thing you have to look at is if you're using it correctly.

Yeah. And that's, and that's probably the biggest piece about it because, you know, even like a baby monitor becomes incredibly dangerous when the cord is too close to the crib. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? So even items that are designed for safety car seats are dangerous when they're used wrong.

Read the manual. Make sure you're following the [00:03:00] best practices in terms of in terms of safety, if it's a product in your home, in terms of baby proofing and yeah, that's the ticket. It's not safe just because it's baby gear. That's the point. Yeah. Okay.

Misconception 2: Baby Registries Aren't Necessary

Kevin: Misconception number two baby registries aren't necessary.

You see this a lot people like I'm just gonna buy this stuff And I feel like this is actually like a really common thing right now where everyone's Oh, I'm just gonna buy it like it doesn't matter but man, like you have I think I feel like this is a little bit misled because This isn't always just coming from like folks that are just ballin' out of control.

Paris: No, this is coming from people who they, they're just going to wing it. Oh, they're just gonna, they maybe can't afford everything. The registry really is necessary. You need to know what you are needing for your baby. It's a lot more than what you think it is. There's a lot of little things that you're going to need and you're not going to remember them all.

And.

Kevin: First of all, like the fact that like people that think baby rhinoceros aren't necessary, we can say whatever we want about them. Cause they're probably not watching this video.

Paris: That's true. But maybe they are. Some people think that they're not necessary, but they just do it just because other people are asking.

And what they do is they just put on a bunch of stuff and [00:04:00] just are like, do whatever. They're still going to have a baby shower, buy whatever you want. If you do that, you're going to end up with random things. Just random things. You're going to be completely unprepared. It's better to know what it takes to actually successfully raise a baby.

No matter what you're gonna raise the baby.

Kevin: Yeah, but even whether or not a baby registry is involved

Paris: whether or not you have Mass amounts of stress doing it is the difference between having a registry or not. You should

Kevin: you poked me?

So, Okay wait for baby registries are there they are actually not necessary like when it comes down to it like There is, there could be another way to get the baby gear that you need. Sure. To take care of your baby. Sure. And obviously in some settings, like you don't even need a lot, but

Paris: people wanna help you and it's a good place to point them.

Kevin: Yeah. And also like, it's [00:05:00] extremely practical especially like the way that, most of us run our lives and I think if you're just saying, oh no, I don't really need a baby registry. Later on, you're gonna probably be scrambling for a lot of that gear that you might have, that you might have gotten.

And I think the, maybe the bigger misconception is that babies just don't cost as much as they do. Some studies are showing like the first year, there's that New York Life one or whatever, like the ones that the insurance companies quote all the time, shows 20k to 50k for the first year. I don't know.

You need as much help

Paris: as you can get. And people want to get you things that are going to be helpful. They want their things to be used. They don't want to just get you junk. That's why it is important. They want to be pointed to somewhere where you have stuff that you need for your baby.

Kevin: I think it is worthwhile to do your research around what baby gear that you want.

And just plan for it because it really can add a whole lot of convenience to your life. Yeah, in the context of all of human civilization, baby registry isn't necessary. But I feel like for, the lifestyles that most of us have These things are designed to add some convenience and certainly a baby registry will help organize that if not help get you part of the way to Having those things That will help you in your life.

Paris: The baby registry has been a part of just Society for I don't know a very long time And Probably at least a hundred years in some form. We should look at

Kevin: that. We should do a deep dive on the history of the baby registry. That would be interesting. Of

Paris: course, they've come in different forms, but essentially people have a list of things, and people have a party, and people bring those things, because it takes a lot to raise a child, to raise a family.

Kevin: Yeah, I think, I mean, even if you're going outside of what we, what today we would definitely define as a baby registry, still Obviously the idea of community support around welcoming a baby is probably ancient.

Paris: Yes, it is. And the thing about that is that a long time ago, it literally took a village, an actual village, to raise children.

And the village would raise the children, along with the mother, and the father, the family. Yeah. They literally helped raise all of the children. It slowly receded from there, down to, your family helping you raise the children, and then, your friends, and a little bit of family.

Now, in today's world, you really can't bank on that being something, you can't really count on having Your family and friends help you raise your children in the way that you could, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. But you can bake on them, helping you a little bit at that baby shower.

So think of that as your tiny little bit of village. It's maybe a little bit sad, but it unfortunately is true. It's true.

Kevin: It's true. In some ways. Depending on what your situation is, some people have more social support. Yeah, it's not the same for

Paris: everyone. But just generally, just in a very broad sense, things have changed.

This is the modern world. This is how things are done now. And it's not the same as when we were kids.

Kevin: Yeah. And, just having a registry can just be extremely helpful. Reduce the amount of stress that you have both [00:06:00] before and after welcoming a baby.

Misconception 3: Buy Everything Before Baby Arrives

Kevin: So yeah, it's it's just useful let's go on to Misconception number three and that is you should buy everything before the baby arrives No you don't have to no, you

Paris: don't need everything I would say definitely focus on like the first six months though or like up to Introducing solids so like Month 0 through 5.

Kevin: Is the

Paris: most important to focus on.

Kevin: But even with a nursery the nursery doesn't have to be, like, fully set up. Oh,

Paris: yeah, no. No. It could be your storage area for a while, which it probably will be. A little bit.

Especially if

Kevin: they're not sleeping in there. Yeah. Which,

Paris: it can be, like, your quiet space to meditate.

Just, the clothes in there. Someday they will use it, but yeah, it will take a while for them to actually get there, so don't worry about, that, that's more of a nesting thing, that's more something for you while you're pregnant, to prepare the nursery than it is after the baby arrives.

Kevin: Yeah, and the fact is, you're just [00:07:00] gonna be purchasing Plenty of things after the baby arrives anyways, because you're going to have to be adapting to certain, specific needs that they have. Maybe they have different preferences, like we always talk about with bottles, you're just

Paris: going to be also you're just going to be so sleep deprived and out of your mind and like, How do I get this baby to do this or that?

Insert whatever it may be. And then you're probably just going to randomly buy something on Amazon. Or five things on Amazon.

Kevin: Yeah. Like for us, like we had, I mean there was a number of things that we had that we probably should have waited until after the babies arrived to, to get.

Like we had the, certainly the bottles that Tommee Tippee we did not like. We did, yeah,

Paris: we did not know better.

Kevin: They were just way, there was just way too much, way too many parts and way too hard to clean.

Paris: We didn't know that the babies choose the bottles,

Kevin: yeah, which is a weird thing.

Paris: It makes, it does make sense, though, if you think about it.

Kevin: Yeah, anyways the Tommy Tippy, the, so for us, the Tommee Tippee bottles, despite, , for the Tommy Tippy bottles, obviously they advertise the colicky, anti colic. Anti

Paris: colic, free of all kinds of chemicals.

Kevin: Yes. So obviously for the Tommy Tippy, they advertise the anti colic.

Free of a lot of chemicals. And

Paris: also that it is closer to [00:08:00] the shape of the natural breast than other bottles at the time. I'm not sure that's so true now because there are a lot of bottles that are like that now. The

Kevin: problem we had is that the nipple that came with the 4 ounce bottle, the flow rate was too fast.

Yeah. And also we couldn't even keep up keeping them clean with twins because there's so many parts and even putting them in, washing them, putting them in the dishwasher, it just, We pretty much had to hand clean them because there's so many little nooks and crannies where they get disgusting really fast.

I really admire, I have to say, like, when parents are able to clean off and rinse off everything right away with their bottles. To me that's, uh, I don't really understand that because a lot of times they aren't finishing a bottle. You can throw it back in the fridge.

For a little bit. Some

Paris: people say no. No. But, however, once they were, like, once you were back at work and once I was doing my thing, I knew exactly how much they were going to eat. Oh, okay. And if they finished it and were still sucking and it was still, and it was air coming through, I'd stop.

Obviously that's not ideal, but then I knew that, okay, they're ready to go on to another. So you could just

Kevin: rinse it.

Paris: Yeah. So we almost never had anything left over.

Kevin: Yeah. That's smart.

Paris: Yeah.

Kevin: So did you like, were you able to like just rinse it right away and just keep it from getting. Yeah. Okay.

I see. I find that so challenging.

Paris: It definitely took some dedication and time.

Kevin: Okay, misconception number four, expensive means better. Almost, that's almost never the case. Typically, I think, so from a lot of, obviously, you do see if you group everything together, you see sort of these categories, you see the budget stuff. And there's a certain way that it's made. Yeah. And sometimes the issue with how it's made affects the performance.

That happens. And then same thing from the mid range to the high end. But a lot of times, I think especially from the high end product to the mid range, there's going to be something that's just as, just about as easy to use. Maybe it doesn't look quite as. It doesn't look like the Rolls Royce, but it but it [00:09:00] drives really nice.

Paris: Yeah, I think, I feel like a good example of that would be the high highchairs.

Kevin: Yeah.

Paris: Where you can get the Antelop highchair from Ikea for 20 19. 99.

Kevin: That really is the budget option there, though. That's not even the mid.

Paris: No, that, that is the budget.

Kevin: Yeah.

Paris: That's the budget option. It works great.

Isn't very pretty. And also it's big. I know that they sell like an insert for it But honestly, when six month olds are actually in the high chair, It's, they're like, they sit very far back from the seat.

Kevin: Yeah.

Paris: They they do sell like an like a blow up insert where it will push them forward.

But we never had that.

Kevin: Yeah, but As far as like the, I think, the, as far as the ergonomics for the babies, it's not that different from some of the higher end high chairs.

Paris: No, it serves the weight of the plastic is

Kevin: different. The look of the legs is different. Yes. But the overall like shape and fit isn't, except for.

Yeah.

Paris: Yeah, it just as far as expensive, versus [00:10:00] inexpensive products go, they aren't this, it's not necessarily better, it just depends on what your definition of better is. Obviously one of the high, like what I was saying with the high chair, the antelope being the low price point, the, trip trap high chair being the a high price point for highchairs.

They both serve the same purpose. It depends on what you value. The Antelope highchair, it, you can store it away and stuff. It can just be, you could probably just stick the, pretty much the entire thing just like in the dishwasher if you really wanted to. If you took off the tray, probably just, do that.

Except for the legs, of course. The TripTrap you could potentially keep like forever as a chair. So Better

Kevin: I Think we're like where I noticed though the difference like in quality the most Again, it doesn't mean it's always better But a lot of times in the strollers like just seeing them on the bike path and on the trail.

Oh my gosh, like it's just To [00:11:00] see something like an Uppababy Cruz it looks like it's just like heavy and gripping the path and like it's sturdy. And then you see some of these others and they're like, Oh, people online, they're like, I bought this. It's just as good. No, it's not like the blast.

You see them on the, you see them on the bike path the plastic is flimsy and flapping and the kids like sinking in and like in all this stuff that was aluminum is now or steel is now plastic. And. Just go to the bike path. They do not ride as smooth. The kids don't fit in them as well. Will it get you by?

Yeah. Is it fine? Yeah. But there, there is a quality difference in some of this stuff. That's true. It doesn't always mean that it's better and certainly better can encompass budget as well. But a lot of times like this, especially I feel like in the strollers, like they are higher quality builds in the above a certain price point.

Paris: Sometimes, though, I have to say, sometimes brands get a little cocky, and they start skimping on the quality of their product. Once their brand has, has been trusted, become a trusted brand, then they start going back, going down to the level of just about anyone else, [00:12:00] but people will still buy it because of the brand.

I am not sure that I would want to say

Kevin: Yeah, I don't know, I don't know about brand, but like I'm just saying in some of the more expensive tiers, you'll find the higher quality. So for instance, like a stroller travel system, look at it yourself. If you're like, Oh, I want a high quality stroller, that's always going to feel good and last.

And you're wanting to spend that, like just know, chances are you cut 400 out of the price. You're in a different product category. That's going to be a little bit more rickety. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I don't have any like special love for the high end strollers, But I just I'm just saying on the path.

I can see the difference. Yeah the I was gonna say something about that Oh, I forgot I get into the bathroom.

Misconception 4: Expensive Means Better

Kevin: Okay, so misconception four expensive means better It doesn't necessarily mean better, but sometimes expensive means better. Yeah. But not just because it's expensive.

Check and see if it's actually better. That's the, that would be my tip there. Yeah. Misconception number five. All registry checklists are the same. Actually, they're all over the place.

Paris: They are. They're, a lot of them are just very different from each other.

Kevin: And why? Why is this?

Paris: Because people, uh.

They disagree on what may or may not belong in a, on a baby registry. Obviously we [00:13:00] also disagree on some things. What, what belongs. You and

Kevin: me.

Paris: No.

Kevin: I think we do. Sometimes.

Paris: Maybe sometimes. I, honestly, I feel like it is sometimes situational.

Kevin: Yeah. I think it's I think it's all the time situational.

In terms of what essentials are.

Paris: Even my rules for it, like my, uh, rules for it are still situational.

Sum things up so all registry checklists A misconception is that all registry checklists are the same.

Kevin: Yeah, they're definitely not.

Paris: No.

Kevin: And I think the reason that a lot of registry checklists.

Paris: It's a tongue twister.

Kevin: Registry checklist. No, I'm just like saying that because we keep saying like the reason it, the reason they, the reason you. Yeah. So the reason that I think a lot of the registry checklists are not the same is because a lot of the registry checklists are trying to sell different things.

Paris: Yes, I 100 percent agree. We also disagree with some of the things that are on other other people, or other

Kevin: Okay, here's the real deal. Checklist, just, registry checklists just don't cut it. Because you need more than a checklist, you need to actually think through On a family by family basis, what needs to go on a baby registry.

Paris: Yes. So that's the problem. Okay. A registry check A registry checklist is a guide. But it's not like a scavenger hunt where you look and find every single thing on the list. You maybe could start that way but that's not that's maybe not your life. [00:14:00] That's maybe not everyone. Yeah. You don't need every single thing that's on there.

You have to, if you want to, just go through a checklist, you, you can. But then, weed out the things that you're not going to need. It might be redundant, or it might be, something that's not applicable to you. Think about those things. When you go about it, and understand that a registry checklist is not something that a web, a website could tell you.

You need that. It's, it is up to you. It is up to you and your family. And it's just like there to help you understand what a baby needs.

Kevin: I'm making something. It'll be, we'll put it out there. And that is a quiz that is going to at least help you, Not, it's not going to build your checklist. It's not going to tell you the essential items. But it's going to, it's going to basically give you a, an idea of who, it's going to, Okay, I don't know if this really makes a difference.

For this okay, so it's not going to give you a checklist, but it's going to give you a profile of who you are and, what you know in terms of building a baby registry, which could be helpful. Yeah. So at least, then you can, fill in the gaps, once you have, an idea of, your profile.

Because I think a lot of the times the danger is taking that generic checklist, trying to apply it to yourself, and actually it's you're living someone else's, life, or maybe even live in someone else's lie. Yeah.

Paris: Honestly, something that, that I have found helpful is actually going through, a checklist.

You could just go ahead and maybe knock off the things that you don't, that you know for a fact that you don't need. Although you may still need them. You may not actually know that. But the things you think you may not need, And just put all of those, all the rest of those things on your on your baby registry.

And then, go through and re look at it. Yeah. Maybe like a day or two later. Re look at it, but like with your own self in mind. With your own family, your own partner, your own life. Consider those, consider it then, with fresh eyes. And you might be like, oh, you know what, this actually needs to be like this.

This needs to be here. This is oh we don't need that. Oh, we need this. It's, it'll help to just go through the baby registry with fresh eyes after, [00:15:00] going through the checklist.

Kevin: Yeah, I will say that one, I think one I will say that one one aspect of building a baby registry that we have huge advantages Registry consultants is that we can really develop a checklist rather fast.

Yes. Seeing all the patterns and what really needs to go onto a baby registry. Yeah. And knowing that really inside and out over the course of several years. Yeah. Yeah. That is true. So yeah, just give us a call, . Whatever, or don't, I don't care. Whatever. We're here to help. Just spin your wheels.

Okay. Misconception number six. It's easier.

Misconception 6: It's Easier Than It Seems

Kevin: Okay, so this leads into misconception number six, which is it's easier than what it actually is.

Paris: Yeah, it's a very big misconception.

Kevin: It's a very big misconception.

Paris: Yeah,

Kevin: there's, there could be so much work and research, especially if you don't care, which there's other problems if you don't care.

But. There's a lot of room to get it wrong on a baby. There's, okay. If you don't care, you're going to be back at the store with a little baby. Or you're going to be trying to get to the UPS store or something. FedEx. If you care a lot, then you've got hours of work ahead, trying to do all that research, depending on where you're starting from and what you know and don't know.

And the issue with that is that you're, The issue with that is, as a first time parent, you probably don't have that knowledge. No. Unless you spent years as a nanny or in child care. Then you might know but otherwise, it's [00:16:00] very hard. Yeah.

Paris: We've had friends who were literally labor and delivery nurses.

Who, didn't know anything about this,

Kevin: yeah. Yeah, that's true.

Paris: It, it just, you don't know what you don't know. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. But just understand that this is not actually an easy process. This is very time consuming. If you're going to do it right,

Kevin: If you're doing all that research around all the major products, Yeah, which I

Paris: Highly recommend that you do.

Otherwise, you may end up with some things that you don't need, some things that are very dangerous, some things are outdated. It's just Yeah. It's important. It's important to have an understanding of what goes in to a baby registry, what your baby needs and when they will be used.

Kevin: We know that's why we exist to take that off of your plate if you so choose.

So it's not a requirement, but it, but if you are going it alone and doing it yourself, it is a requirement. If you want, if you really want your baby year to be at that level where it's truly helpful. If you

Misconception 7: You Don't Need Help or Advice

Kevin: And that brings us to misconception number seven, you don't need help or advice.

Get as much help or advice as you can. Seriously, if you've never done this before, there's certain nuances that come that you learn about when you become a parent. Even if you did some babysitting, even if you did some child care, like there's some things that go with being a parent that it's just helpful to know and the only way that you can [00:17:00] really do that is by talking to parents and people that know.

Yeah, so I know some parents are reluctant to get advice about their baby registry and about their baby gear. And I was actually the same way because I'm the oldest of five and spent a lot of time in my, teenage, early adult years doing some babysitting. And so I thought it was like, going to be a certain way, especially when it came to baby gear.

But the part I failed to realize is that, okay, when there's so many people in the household There's a lot of hands that can take care of baby gear, which a lot of baby gear has to do with where to put baby at any given time. So I didn't really understand that, but thankfully, like you were powering through and coming up with so many of these strategies and how to use things and both on the road and at home, where they could go be taken care of and, stay safe and comfortable.

So that was really helpful. And that's something that. I really learned on the fly, going through this, thinking that I didn't need any help, but, in the long run, realizing that I did, and then, it was just, it's [00:18:00] just been this process of pushing that further and further, ever since day zero.

Paris: Yeah. Yeah. Be aware of your realities I think is a good way to

Kevin: Or just, ask. Yeah. When you start to get some insights, I know you were talking about like when you were on Reddit and the baby bumper communities and being a part of that and like how that filled you in on so many things that you know you didn't know before.

Paris: Yeah.

Kevin: Obviously our conversations.

Paris: You can anticipate what is going to, what life's a little bit going to be like. Your partner's. paternity leave, maternity leave, whatever it may be, your own maternity leave or paternity leave, whoever's watching whole entire structure, what the timeline is of what it's going to be like, who's going to be caring for your baby, or babies and how many people are going to be around, and for how long that help is going to last, and everything.

If you're aware of those things. that will help you a lot in determining what needs to happen. What gear you need, [00:19:00] especially.

Kevin: Yeah. And the other thing too, is just when it comes to help or advice, like even for me, I'll just speak for myself, someone who's in baby gear all the time, baby registry consultant, CPST, design training, parent of twins, I'm constantly learning stuff, and I know for a lot of people who are in the baby gear space,

it's really hard to even call yourself an expert, even if more than everybody else, just because things change so fast and we're all learning together. So I think certainly if you're looking at welcoming your first, understand that there is just so much to know and that this journey of parenthood.

Starting with your baby registry is, in the grand scheme of things that may seem insignificant, but starting with your baby registry, there's, it's going to be a learning process for many years, so don't be embarrassed if you don't know something, ask because even for the professionals, sneaky things come up where it's like, how did I not know that?

And that happens all [00:20:00] the time. There's just so much to know.

Conclusion and Recap

Kevin: Obviously, we're here for that reason. So if you need help, this podcast is here for that reason.

So go and subscribe, leave a review. So what did we talk about? We talked about the seven misconceptions. One, all baby gear is safe. No, don't, the retailer is not deciding whether it's safe necessarily for you. So do your research. Baby registries. aren't necessary.

They may not strictly be necessary, but they sure can be pretty helpful in today's world. Misconception number three, you should buy everything before the baby arrives. No, you really don't have to. If you're following safe sleep recommendations, or sleeping in your room anyways, you don't necessarily need everything for the nursery.

And you certainly can focus on that. earlier on

Paris: zero to five needs

tackle the first half of the year and then right? Especially

Kevin: if money is tight or space you don't have a very much space.

Paris: Don't worry about the solids yet

Kevin: Yeah, just shift everything up.

No [00:21:00] misconception number four expensive means better not always the case There's some products we've certainly found some products that performed incredibly well. And then we also, all the time we'll hear feedback from, folks that bought products in a more expensive range that just couldn't stand them at all.

So you really got to find the product that's right for you and look at some of the performance features just versus looking at the price tag when it comes to that. Number five, all registry checklists are all the same. They're all over the place. And most of the registry checklists are going to be different because they're trying to sell you different stuff.

The reality is there's not going to be any one checklist that's perfect for you. You really have to figure it out based on your own needs. Misconception number six, it's easier than it actually is. It's a lot of work, especially if you're trying to do a lot of research on specific products. But even if you're trying to get the download on the larger categories, developmental milestones, what life is actually going to look like with baby that takes a lot of work.

And finally, misconception number seven, you don't need help or [00:22:00] advice. So helpful to get advice, so helpful to find out the perspective of others, other parents, other professionals. And even if you've been doing this a long time in focusing on nothing but baby gear and baby care for S for years, someone like me, someone like Paris, we're still always looking for information and looking for help and perspective of others in this space.

Again, go and leave a review with your favorite podcast player, either on Apple podcast or on Spotify, and we will see you again back here next week. Thank you.