Baby, you’re hot.
So hot that we’re getting more interested in buying stuff for you before you’re born than when you’re here.
So lucrative that struggling Toys “R” Us will soon convert two of its Manhattan stores to Babies “R” Us, with blankets, bouncers and bottles more geared to the still-spitting-up.
So intriguing that we are now applying feng shui principles to nursery design and trying to figure you out with astrology.
At the same time, we are trying to make you more like us. Your bedding and borders are no longer so cutesy, not just pink or blue. Instead, more of us are spending money on strong nursery colors–black, red, navy–both to fit in with our prechild cool stuff and to encourage boldness in you.
We are paying $800 for a new stroller that purports to nestle you high above the fumes and dust of the cities where, natch, we feel you are urbane enough to travel.
We want you to be unique as well as hip and wonderful.
Babies, after all, represent pure possibility. And if one thinks about it too much, pure responsibility: Parents want everything to be perfect.
“There’s a lot of pressure on parents to get it right–developmentally, emotionally,” said Tracy Chapman, co-director of brand consulting at Just Ask a Woman, a New York marketing consulting firm. “There’s so much product out there that they want to get the right things for their child, and they want all of it.”
Increasingly, new parents have the money, the confidence and the inclination to seek special accouterments for baby. The birth rate is on the rise for older women, for whom having a first child is as much a reason to celebrate and spend as the wedding that usually preceded it.
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A 2003 study conducted for American Baby magazine found that women over 30 with household incomes of $75,000 or more were most likely to remodel for a nursery.
Diane Schoen, a partner in a travel promotion agency who is six months pregnant, is one of those willing to spend. She and her husband, Timothy Schoen, have registered at ababy.com for, among other items, a Bon Nuit Cherubini Crib ($2,000), a Bon Nuit French Changer ($2,450) and a Magic Garden Iron Baby Cradle ($1,500).
Having her first baby at 35, Schoen is excited enough to splurge and to invite others to do the same.
“We’ve spent the majority of our lives together traveling and jetting off to events, and now it’s all about the baby,” said the St. Louis mother-to-be.
The greater variety of items marketed to women like her, Schoen admits, has lured her in. “Things are made better. It’s refreshing,” she said.
What about the inconvenient reality that babies grow up and out of those sleek and pricey strollers, bassinets and blanket sleepers?
Manufacturers have added convertible features to many items so that they can market furniture as “growing with” children. Changing tables can become dressers; cribs turn into beds.
Cribs that depart from the standard rectangle are becoming more common, such as round ones and “corner cribs” that are angled to fit into a corner.
When it comes to gear, companies are marketing items that make toting baby both stylish and easier on parents.
Peg Perego’s Dinamico stroller–in suede fabric for 2005–claims to be the first with a motor that makes those hills easier to navigate. (No, it doesn’t push the baby for you.) The price tag: $599.
Those worried about the little one’s safety in the car can buy the new Tattle Tale Smart Car Seat ($200) that tells you–yes, by talking–if it’s not properly installed.
Will all of this spending and preparation give baby a leg up on the world?
Not without something that’s not available in stores, said Claire Lerner, a child development specialist at Zero to Three, a national non-profit organization that promotes healthy development in a child’s early years.
“The love and interaction they get with you,” she said of parents, “is what’s going to help them thrive.”
Baby trends
– Strong, previously unorthodox nursery colors, like black and cherry red.
– Strollers in bright, solid colors.
– Chandeliers and wind chimes as alternatives to mobiles.
– Custom-made bedding.
– Clean design that blends with other home furnishings.
– Stripes and muted patterns.
In the stars
For parents who are just itching to know how their little bundle will turn out, astrologer Helen Hope offers a primer. In “Star Babies: Astrology for Babies and Their Parents,” she gives “suitable vocations” and characteristics for each sign of the zodiac. You can expect a Cancer baby to go into hospitality, media or nursing, among other professions, she writes. Tiny Capricorns “will retain their good looks throughout their life.” And cranky Libras love to be pampered. Hope recommends wrapping them in a cashmere shawl.–THE BALTIMORE SUN.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale ([email protected]) and Kris Karnopp ([email protected])