The holidays are coming! Yay!
Since the majority of this blog's audience is family and friends, who might be thinking about buying gifts for Baby Aisling (which is so kind!), we thought we should talk a little bit about Christmas presents. We hope it doesn't seem crass to talk about this topic, because we're so thankful for all of the wonderful gifts that we've received! We appreciate your love for our daughter so much, and we love to share as much as we can with you about her and include you in our family life.
The thing is, we're very limited on space (even living in the new 2-bedroom apartment). We also have some guidelines that we follow ourselves when buying things for Aisling and thinking about what we'd like her to have. Some of our guidelines are about values, and some are more health-oriented. Sandi has written before about the prevalence of pink in what is marketed as "girl stuff," and is generally concerned that Aisling be generally free to choose how "girly" (or not!) she wants to be. Doug is determined that we protect Aisling from certain poisons that permeate many children's toys and furnishing, and also that she become an independent thinker.
We know we can't protect her from everything, and we really don't want to make a big deal about it. That said, we want to share a few of the values that we'll use when selecting what we buy for Aisling:
1) As much lifetime learning as possible. We choose gifts that will be fun and enrich Aisling's life for as long as possible. Educational books, puzzles, games, really life-like stuffed animals, Legos (when she's older), a subscription to something educational like National Geographic Little Kids or Ranger Rick, memberships to a local zoo or discovery center, clothes and costumes suitable for all kinds of adventuring! Heck, a contribution to her college fund will give back for her entire life!
2) Not just "for girls." The reality is, girls (and boys!) come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and levels of "girliness." Until our daughter is old enough to choose how "girly" she wants to be, we'd like to surround her with as gender-neutral an environment as possible. That doesn't mean that she'll never wear dresses or play with dolls, tea sets, and toy kitchens (we think boys should be free to do those things, too!). It does mean that we'll try as hard as we can to be balanced in how we dress her and what kinds of toys and furnishings we surround her with. For every frilly dress and tea set she has, we'd like her to have a sword and a train set. Or something like that. Actually, that might end up being too many toys, which is another issue...sigh.
3) The minimum amount of plastic, chemicals, and flame retardants possible. You've probably heard about BPA in plastics being linked to premature puberty in girls, cancer, and other nasty things. Even BPA-free plastic isn't clearly non-toxic. We can't avoid plastic entirely, but we'd like to minimize it as much as possible. The same goes for fabrics, rugs, and furniture, which are often soaked in flame retardants and other chemicals. There are some incredible wooden and natural rubber toys. We've found that items made in Europe are the least poisonous, because they have better regulations governing toxins in toys. We know they're expensive, but they're the best, and they'll be wonderful heirlooms!
4) As little pink as possible. Even though we generally avoid pink, somehow there's still lots of it in Aisling's wardrobe. But it's not ALL pink, and that's what we're aiming for. It's not that we don't like pink... it's that there ARE other colors, and we love them, too!
5) No licensed toys, books, or clothing. We know it's licensed if we've actually seen it (or a character depicted upon it) on TV or in a movie. We don't have "real" TV programming; we have Netflix and a BluRay player. Ideally Aisling won't see popular kid movies and TV shows for a long time (and, unfortunately, this does also include Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, and PBS programming in general). Also, if it's licensed, it's probably made by a company that uses plastic, flame retardants, or generally has corporate values that we don't condone.
6) Used/Consignment clothing. Doug wrote about this back in May. We're so happy with our decision to only buy used clothing! We've found and been given some truly adorable outfits. Aisling has grown so fast that she's only worn some of her clothes a handful of times! We'd be mortified if anyone had paid full price for them. Also, the kinds of toys we generally prefer are fairly expensive, and so we'd rather invest the money on things she'll learn from and love for years.
Anyway, those are the major guidelines that we're using to think about how to decorate Aisling's room, what to include in her toybox, etc. We hope that the guidelines that we use, ourselves, might help others with their generous gift-giving, too!
The really neat sites called "Princess Free Zone" and "A Mighty Girl" that might help explain some of our general thinking and provide options/resources.
Another interesting site is Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.
Some suggestions:
http://www.habausa.com/products/baby-toys.html (one of our go-to brands)
http://www.oompa.com/european-toys/age-0-2-years#sthash.IIncPYOj.dpbs (good selection of different brands)
http://www.maplelandmark.com/ (if you'd prefer American-made, we especially like their block sets)
We also noticed that Costco has some great board-books.
Thank you so much for being open and interested in our thoughts about raising Aisling. She loves you!
