Friday, June 09, 2006

Electronic Babysitting



Mr.G: “Is it OK for him to be swinging for so long?

Mrs.G: “I didn’t find anything against it online

Mr.G: “Tell me you didn’t look at just the Fisher-Price website

OK so I didn't look too hard. But we all grew up in those jhulas ourselves didn’t we? They are omnipresent in a household with babies, every once a while spilling over to non-house locations too (Recall Indian Railways, any class, as long as you have parallel sturdy berths, there’s a sari/dhoti make-shift jhula quickly knotted up and in no time, a blissful baby can be found fast asleep inside)

Five years from now, for the Maharaja’s sake, I hope and pray some random study doesn’t end up with this in-situ result showing a close relationship between slower kids and the ones that spent an unmentionable number of hours in the Fisher-Price Nature’s Touch™ Baby Papasan™ Cradle Swing. Because this swing rocks. Not just in the way swings are supposed to but as in “It ROCKS my world”. It allows me to shower, eat, watch TV, talk on the phone and need-I-say, blog! It allows Gabby to catch up with her whole other non-mommy life and doesn’t make her feel like a bad mommy one bit. The baby is napping, and that’s good for him, isn’t it? He smiled in his sleep too, there you go.

I suspect my thoughts on this approach to buying oneself some time would have been very different 3 months ago. Let this be a lesson to me and to the person who grimaces at short-cuts in parenting, at crying babies in crowded flights (you feel cramped, bored and impatient yourself don’t ya?), the person who raises one eyebrow at pacifier-happy babies, who wonders about the need for security blankets in a disapproving tone or who wishes family-friendly restaurants mean you can bring your child but check him/her in with your coat at the door. You really need to be on the other side of the fence for this one.

Now when I pass mini-vans with purple dinosaurs dancing in the darkness, I don’t cluck my tongue or shake my head. Instead I wonder if these can be coupled with vibrating car-seats. You know, to cover the transitional stage.

21 Comments:

Blogger Alpha said...

*Shakes head and clucks tongue*..will come back to this blog after 15 years when maharaja has left his kingdom to conquer the world and the queen mata has gotten over bouncers.

9:58 PM  
Blogger Huma said...

The only thing i feared while tempting to buy it was that once baby gets used to this way of nurturing i would have to carry this mass everywhere I go. In the very early days after Maryam’s birth when I was over whelmed with the joys of being a mummy I used to rock her to sleep and then keep holding her while she was still asleep. Kissing and twitching everywhere making her less comfortable then I thought I was making her. Soon realised that she was unable to settle down unless being held and rocked every time she wanted to doze off. So since she been around a month old it’s been a routine to put her down in her own cot, pat her to sleep and walk out. It not only left me with less hassle to put her down but also made her independent enough to put herself back to sleep in case she wakes up in the middle of night.
But i would defiantly buy it for my next kid . (he he he)

1:27 AM  
Blogger KJ said...

looks like the lil guy is doing great n u doing a super job!! btw have u decided to call him a Maharaja? wat is his name?

show us some more pics of lil maharaja!!!

take care

hugs to lil one

KJ

6:03 AM  
Blogger Sudipta Chatterjee said...

Yeah that sight of the jhoola on Indian railways is very familiar! I refer to then as udan-khatolas :)

Post some more pics of the Maharaja, will you?

7:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

LOL @ Alpha

Hey, Gabby, glad to see that the industrial strnegth jhoola is returning you to us :)

7:30 AM  
Blogger Hornswoggler said...

oh the joys of fisher price. feel like sending them lurrve letters
-- totally-commercialised-to-keep-baby-quiet-mom

12:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So now the maharaja has been downgraded from bed to cradle in the space of just one post .... Hmpfff!!!

12:42 PM  
Blogger Alpha said...

zoheb: even for a baby illiterate, i know that maharaja's nightly sleeping chambers are not that bouncer (NOT CRADLE). that's only for his day time naps.

gabby, love his cute little cheeks making appearance in that pic. yes, i know i promised not be back here for a while, but kya karen aunty ka dil hai na.

1:42 PM  
Blogger Vee Cee said...

aah! the transition of Gabby to the dark side is almost complete. now all that's required is a helmet (it helps) and a Sith name - Darth Cestlaviator!

8:22 PM  
Blogger manuscrypts said...

:O mechanical mummy!!

11:39 PM  
Blogger Ellie said...

And people thought that you have to be a politician, a filmstar, a business tycoon et al to have your own personal bouncer..:-)

Hail the Maharaja![:D]

1:34 AM  
Blogger tris said...

saw something similar is a recent re-run of Sex and the city.

6:29 PM  
Blogger Visithra said...

i dont think it harms the kid well didnt we turn out right? humm but but kid might get too used to it - but good too car travelling should be a breeze

oh pics pls ;)

10:59 PM  
Blogger phatichar said...

Oh boy, how I wish we had that when Aayu was a baby...oh never mind, the next one i guess. Pssst, how much for shipping it across?? ;) And would you mind doing it for me, if the need be?

Welcome back, mommy!

2:07 AM  
Blogger Aqua said...

oh i wish i had found this swing when my dd was a baby :)

y're right...earlier i used to myself raise an eyebrow at babies with pacifiers, but now it's the most important object in the house. it keeps baby quite and happy and i haven't seen grownups with pacifiers in their mouths, so i reckon we're ok :)

2:35 AM  
Blogger anantha said...

Gabby: Ohhhh..the maharaja is rocking! hehe.. Nice :) And pliss beware of Alpha playing "bua"! She does not know even a wee bit of what it takes. Trust me!

10:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gratis Gab,

I visited this site a few months ago i think when you were still carrying and for some reason brought a smile to my face now to see to see a crib with the 'maharaja' in it.

I can't begin to think the kind and number of blogs you're going to come up with for the next few years when he's growing up, so could you email me at capone_9610 AT hotmail dot com so that i could send you an invite for a community where you can link your writings. And i know there are readers for what you write. Acceptance is upto you.

Thanks

3:45 PM  
Blogger Rhyncus said...

The manually-rocked swings would stop being rocked as soon as the baby commenced slumbering, or so I think. Beyond that little tidbit, the rest of the post could well have been in Latin for all the sense it made to me. :) Sigh, all these worlds I'm ignorant of.

11:49 PM  
Blogger Ardra said...

Hi!
just back after vacation and overjoyed to read abt the Maharajah's Grand entry!
Revel, enjoy, savour every moment- the good, the bad, the smiles, the tears, the sniffles, the sobs...
ardra

1:01 AM  
Blogger Pallavi said...

awesome I am sure that has made life easier for you and your maharaja :)

7:24 AM  
Blogger the mad momma said...

there will always be some research that disses the choices you make. ignore it!!! nobody is permanently damaged by delayed sleep training, potty training or by cuddling to sleep... if its a swing that works, so be it.... !!!!!

10:50 PM  

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