What would a dad possibly have to say about baby showers? Most men look at a living room filled with women opening baby gifts and diapers in the same way they would look at a hospital ward treating people infected with the swine flu. Granted, I've only ever been dragged to a couple of co-ed showers. They both involved the men watching sports in the basement. None of the men ended the event saying, "We should do this again sometime." We did not complain, however, about chowing down on the food and snacks the ladies upstairs hardly touched.
Now here's the crazy part. I actually LOVE baby showers. Allow me to explain. In my pre-parent days, I used to spend my evenings obsessively researching anything that I was considering buying. For three hours every night (and I mean EVERY night), I would read reviews on cameras, electronics, cars etc as a form of entertainment. Each purchase my wife and I made was thoroughly researched and had to universally have outstanding reviews. This made the buying process extremely slow and painful for my wife. At a glacier's pace, we started to accumulate some super cool stuff that most people either hadn't seen, or had seen but didn't know enough about it to make a buying decision. I started getting phone calls on a regular basis from friends and family asking what products I would recommend for them. This gave me more excuses to research products, and in the process, help my loved ones in the process.
Skip forward half a decade to my wife's announcement that she was pregnant with our first child. After the initial thrill, we realized that we'd need to get some basic things to get ready for the future arrival. We felt a bit bewildered with no idea what babies needed let alone what products were any good. This is what I'd been preparing for.
I dove head first into researching the find the coolest, safest, most practical and top rated products for my baby. As an added benefit, I enjoyed every minute of it. Eventually my wife and I became known as the family with all the best baby stuff. Relatives, friends, and complete strangers began asking me what we would recommend for them because they had heard that I was a complete baby gear nerd. Helping people is what I love to do, which probably explains why I am a school teacher by profession.
This desire to help others combined with a weird baby product research obsession has led me to actually like baby showers. Don't get me wrong though. I would rather stick a fork in my eye than attend one of those events. Baby showers simply give me the opportunity to help gift buyers get amazing products that make parents' and babies lives better. Gifts that the mom-to-be will love and actually use.
Now here's the crazy part. I actually LOVE baby showers. Allow me to explain. In my pre-parent days, I used to spend my evenings obsessively researching anything that I was considering buying. For three hours every night (and I mean EVERY night), I would read reviews on cameras, electronics, cars etc as a form of entertainment. Each purchase my wife and I made was thoroughly researched and had to universally have outstanding reviews. This made the buying process extremely slow and painful for my wife. At a glacier's pace, we started to accumulate some super cool stuff that most people either hadn't seen, or had seen but didn't know enough about it to make a buying decision. I started getting phone calls on a regular basis from friends and family asking what products I would recommend for them. This gave me more excuses to research products, and in the process, help my loved ones in the process.
Skip forward half a decade to my wife's announcement that she was pregnant with our first child. After the initial thrill, we realized that we'd need to get some basic things to get ready for the future arrival. We felt a bit bewildered with no idea what babies needed let alone what products were any good. This is what I'd been preparing for.
I dove head first into researching the find the coolest, safest, most practical and top rated products for my baby. As an added benefit, I enjoyed every minute of it. Eventually my wife and I became known as the family with all the best baby stuff. Relatives, friends, and complete strangers began asking me what we would recommend for them because they had heard that I was a complete baby gear nerd. Helping people is what I love to do, which probably explains why I am a school teacher by profession.
This desire to help others combined with a weird baby product research obsession has led me to actually like baby showers. Don't get me wrong though. I would rather stick a fork in my eye than attend one of those events. Baby showers simply give me the opportunity to help gift buyers get amazing products that make parents' and babies lives better. Gifts that the mom-to-be will love and actually use.
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