You also get free shipping when you spend more than $25.

Well worth checking out.

Post from: Blisstree

Father’s Day Gifts from Amazon

Before the call I was unsure of what to expect. I didn’t think they would have cared beyond the fact that, in my opinion, their slogan “Ask moms who know” stinks. In my post I stated:

I’m surprised they haven’t adjusted it to reflect that modern fathers are very involved. Am I truly offended? No. Maybe a little irked that I dumped a couple hundred bucks on an item from a company that thinks I’m not quite all there. I can get that for free elsewhere. Just as long as the thing doesn’t collapse they could have scrawled personal insults on the box with a Sharpie and I’d still use it. I just find it interesting that in today’s politically correct world they would maintain a slogan that alienates dads.

I wasn’t irate, threatening action or otherwise distraught, just making an observation, and the call reflected that. The PR person with whom I spoke basically said that they realize that the slogan is not the best and the intent was not to exclude fathers. She said that their original goal with the slogan was to speak to the groups of women who often tend to be more talkative than men regarding baby products, which I completely understand.

She stated that they actively involve both mothers and fathers in their product testing and development, which I don’t doubt. My contention was that it seemed like only the moms made it into the marketing war room. She indicated that they’ve heard similar feedback from others and they may be moving away from the ‘ask moms’ slogan sometime in the near future.

I make my purchase decisions based on product attributes and quality, but this was a very good step towards developing brand loyalty. To Graco’s credit, they are at least listening. I have had customer service nightmares with other baby companies and many of my comments fell on deaf ears.

I hope that every customer receives a high level of attention, not just those with lots of readers.

I know that I’m not the only one who has had noteworthy experiences shopping for babies and kids, I just happen to have a voice. I’d love to hear from any of you as to your experiences, good or bad, with particular brands or retailers that you might want discussed.

Post from: Blisstree

To Graco’s credit

1. the toys are not from China

2. the toys are clean

While making sure that things are relatively clean is clearly important, what if the cleaning agent itself is harmful to a child? Over at GNMParents.com they’ve got a great post on cleaning kids toys naturally. In addition to these simple clean up steps, many people have the natural cleaning trifecta of lemon juice, vinegar and baking soda already in their homes.

If you’re worried about dust mites in things like stuffed animals, freeze them in a plastic bag for a week. Although this is remeniscent of Han Solo frozen in carbonite, it will reduce the number of mites in the stuffed companion.

Post from: Blisstree

Cleaning toys naturally

“Amid a fresh wave of toy recalls yesterday, a consumer advocacy group said it had found hazardous levels of lead in many toys made out of vinyl plastic, potentially expanding the scope of testing and recalls of contaminated toys.

A random testing of more than 50 plastic toys found high lead content in 11 of them, according to Mike Schade, a campaigner for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, which helped organize the testing.”

Among the results of the tests performed by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice was that the level of lead in a Go Diego Go backpack was more than 7 times the legal standard. Two other particularly egregious offenders were a Superfly monkey and a pair of Circo Lulu boots.

I’m beginning to find this almost conspiratorial. In this NYT article alone, the following fourteen products are mentioned:

Go Diego Go backpack
Superfly monkey
Circo Lulu boots
Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys:
- black cargo car
- Toad vehicle
- olive green Sodor Cargo Box
- green maple tree
- signal base accessories.
Target David Kirk Happy Giddy children’s garden trowel
Target Sunny Patch Safari children’s chair
Toys “R” Us vinyl baby bibs
Wal-Mart Neon Writing Slate
Wal-Mart Spider-Man pencil case

Just a small reminder, ingesting lead can cause severe neurological problems… so why aren’t these things tested BEFORE they get into children’s hands?! Maybe it really is time to start playing with cardboard boxes.

Post from: Blisstree

More Chinese toy recalls for lead content

“The truth is that the only new things a baby needs are a crib matress and a carseat. They need about 3 outfits, a few sleepers and about 10 onesies/bodysuits at a given time.”

It’s an interesting comment made in light of a child’s birthday and subsequently “drowning in new toys.”

Post from: Blisstree

Baby Needs

My brother is a stay at home with two kids, aged 2 and 4, and is a major role model for what I consider to be a great father and successful stay at home dad. I’ll be posting more about him in the future, but I wanted to relay a point that he made about all the baby and kid related paraphernalia available today. I mentioned that we have added numerous items to our baby registry and he made an interesting observation:

“Most of the things for sale out there are for the parent, not for the kid… Kids will play with just about anything. They could entertain themselves with a paper cup, they don’t need an expensive toy to have fun.”

- my bro

His point that the whole baby “experience” often portrayed in media is simply marketing targeted at selling more goods to people during an emotionally charged time. Parents, especially new parents, want to provide as much as possible for their children and so are often more susceptible to companies ’selling baby.’

A former co-worker also related to me that his daughter would often play with the boxes that toys came in rather than with the toy itself. Strollerderby has some similar commentary in an aptly named post, Half the Baby Stuff You Get is Useless Crap. Thousands of years ago children survived fine without baby wipe warmers. I think that in today’s busy and often materialistic world, parents are often wrongly made to feel that the price or quantity of what you buy for a child represents how much they love them or their quality as a parent.

Post from: Blisstree

Selling baby

Questions of paternity are among the largest concerns on the minds of fathers and expectant dads everywhere, but apparently it fairs significantly on the minds of the mothers, too. Wow.

Post from: Blisstree

Home paternity tests?!

While I’m joking about the diapers, these guys are serious about the backpacks. The pair got the idea for the bags after the Columbine school shootings, and have the packs on the market just in time for back to school shopping. Does this product play upon heightened media fear mongering? Very much so, that’s what marketing does. It plants a seed of doubt in your mind and plays with your emotions. On the flip side, does it provide a valid function of protecting your children? Most definitely.

The question of whether or not these packs are something you buy for your child becomes a balance of reasonable expectation with expendable cash. Is $175 not a big deal to spend on a backpack for you? Then why not buy it. Is there a reasonable expectation that your child will be shot at school? Not likely. However Columbine and Virginia Tech were not plagued by violence previous to the atrocities that happened there. Any one of the parents of students at those schools, even if not victims, would have gladly paid $175 had they known in advance what their children would be subjected to.

This YouTube video demonstrates Glock 9mm ballistics tests and impressively, the round does not penetrate the backpack. Granted, your child’s ribs may be broken from the impact, but I’d trade any number of cracked ribs for the alternative.

In the process of writing this post I considered whether or not I would buy one. And yes, I would, but I tend to be hyper-protective of my loved ones, which is also the reason I’ve registered for the Graco MAV (medium armored vehicle) stroller.

Would you buy one for your kid?

Post from: Blisstree

Kevlar diapers and bulletproof backpacks

I remember when my gate broke and I had to go without one for a day or two. I must have burned 5 times the amount of calories just chasing after the kids.

Do you use gates? I am able to shut 2 doors and put up one gate and my kids are confined to two large rooms. The older kids can climb over them easily to go into the kitchen and get to the bathroom. And I can personally just step over it.

Post from: Blisstree

The Toddler Gate

Looking for gift ideas? Why not try Netflix? If you aren’t sure what it is then it is time you learn.

Netflix – Rent, watch and return DVDs from home – Try free for two weeks

I have been doing Netflix for over a year now and have had minimal problems. At times my mail service is slow but the actual Netflix service is superb and the website is rated like #1 for user friendly. You just browse online in their movie archive and under each movie there is a Add button. You click on it and it gets added to your queue. You can rearrange your list as often as you wish. I have like 200 movies currently in my list and if the movie isn’t out yet you can save it so you won’t forget and then when it becomes available it pops into your queue.

There are no late fees, you keep 3 movies at a time for however long you want. Whenever you ship a movie back they send out the next one on your list and on and on it goes…

Now you have the opportunity to buy a subscription for other people. You can purchase them a one month subscription, 2 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12… you name it.

Post from: Blisstree

Netflix – The Gift That Keeps on Giving