Boston Globe: Baby Planners!

[walkitout]

You can hire someone to cook for you (McD's up to personal chef). You can hire someone to shop for you. You can hire someone to plan your wedding. And now, you can hire someone to ... what?

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/family/articles/2008/08/25/easing_parent_to_be_overload/

"prepare for a new baby by advising on everything from the most absorbent diapers and sleekest strollers to decorating a nursery and readying a pet. For a fee of $250, Kristen DiCicco of Natick, a Baby Coordinators cofounder, walked White through Babies "R" Us. She offered the pros and cons of products"

Read the whole thing; it's only 2 pages and it is non-stop hilarity.

I would say this is not about the commercialization of having a baby. I mean, shit, there is no _end_ to the commercialization of having a baby, long, long, long before the baby coordinators came along. They came along to help consumers navigate the Plastic Jungle. This is about the professionalization of parenting. These are "experts", people whose background is in professional childcare/nannying. And _yes_, parenting has been being professionalized for at least a century in this country. It's just riotously funny to me that even the _consumption_ aspect of parenting -- buying toys! -- has become professionalized.

I, personally, find the consumption aspect to be highly enjoyable. And I _do not_ think other people should. This is a reasonable service to provide in an unreasonable world.

But ROFL does not even begin to cover it.

ETA Can someone explain to me what Baby Shower Preparation might be and why it might cost the parent $500?

My friend L. had someone provide the walk-thru-babies-R-us service for her when she was pregnant with her first. No charge -- this was a friend, after all. But I could imagine, if you didn't have a friend to do the deed, being able to hire it done would be Teh Awesome.

Comments

a bit more about baby planners/baby concierge etc.

[walkitout]

Turns out this is a nationwide phenomenon. The Seattle version will hook you up with a nanny, a post-partum doula, an interior designer for your nursery, help you stock your freezer -- you name it. The Colorado outfit I found offers a package for the new "grands" to teach them how to properly use your stroller, car seat, etc. While I'm busy mocking all these things, let me just note that the package aimed at mothers on bed rest actually strikes me as genuinely useful (altho I bet too expensive for a lot of the women who could make best use of it).

Portland, LA, Toronto

At least one outfit is either opening branches or franchising.

Hell, there's a _trade association_: National Baby Planners Association (look for their logo on websites you are investigating ;-). But one of the Seattle operations appears not to be a member (yet?). Their press page goes back to May of 2007 (which isn't to say they haven't been around longer).

because I _cannot_ leave this topic alone. . .

[walkitout]

If you do something foolish, like, say, google blogs for baby planning services, you can find all kinds of judgmental commentary on these services. A remarkable number of comments seem to come from women who had their kids quite a while ago (and don't seem to be factoring in (a) there's way more shit to buy now, some of it mandatory like car seats and (b) a lot of, if not most, mothers with the money to pay for these services are working crazy hours). And there are some wack jobs out there who seem to feel like you haven't "earned" your baby unless you sewed the layette yourself (this is a -slight- exaggeration).

Despite those, there are some insightful remarks that reminded me a bit of some surprises we encountered when we talked to people about planning our wedding. Because we are DIYers in general, seriously cheap, and think that if you do something yourself, a loss of quality can be made up for by the personal touch, we addressed our own wedding invitations. A friend of R.'s, however, whose only daughter had wed in the not too far distant past and used a calligrapher, was actually quite shocked that we did not hire a calligrapher for this particular task. He wasn't unpleasant about it -- just genuinely surprised.

Honestly, I have no more trouble with the idea of a baby concierge service than I do with the idea of hiring a wedding planner or a personal organizer or whatever. I'm _completely_ fascinated (as much by people's reactions as by the existence of this service). I can't imagine hiring one myself (well, maybe, if they could hook me up with a good post-partum doula), but that's mostly because it's pretty clear the parenting style the exist to support runs in a very different set of directions than the one R. and I have adopted.

interview with a couple of baby planners

[walkitout]

http://www.iknowamomblog.com/2008/05/moms-on-monday-baby-planners.html

I swear, I'll leave it alone after this. They say two really cool things here that all the people calling their clients "lazy" and "have too much money" might want to stop and contemplate. First, they're trying to serve a mediator purpose -- be one clear voice when friends and family are saying contradictory things. And given the sea change of the last 15-20 years (Back to Sleep, breastfeeding, etc.), that could be huge. Second, they are pushing parents-to-be to do wills and similar, which is a hugely wonderful thing that's hard to think about but necessary.