Flashback Journal Archives - How New Parent Consumerism Blurs the Line Between Tools and Things (I also discuss adding a new niche!)

“Two things we’re told we should be doing in quarantine/pandemic 2020:

Clean out our closet/kitchen/house

And

Fight the materialistic societal agenda once we reemerge from our bomb shelters.

I get it. Materialism is pervasive and has been intertwined into the fabric of our society since the Great Depression ended and credit was invented.

Not only this, but Keeping up with the Jones’ is now replaced with the keeping up with the curated ads shoved in your face 24/7.

Did you know your personal data is collected and then targeted on literally everything online? Your age, gender, sex, purchasing habits, job, salary – so much of what makes you you is being used to target, well, you. Companies collect this data, and sell them in batches to marketers.

You are no longer a faceless IP address.

You’re Sera, age 25, hetero, single, accountant making $50k/yr, likes fitness and animals, and spends a fair amount of time watching makeup tutorials on TikTok, Youtube, and IG.

You are then batched with other people in your category and then sold to agencies who wish to target you for their latest make up brush, dog treat, or Hinge app.

Fun, right? Gives you a nice case of the warm and watched…

Government officials are starting to realize this isn’t always the best thing and collecting this data isn’t always for the most altruistic motives.

California passed legislation earlier this year to try and reduce how pervasive our devices can be. Their new law used Europe’s GDPR as a template to bolster user privacy and user rights when visiting sites, apps, etc. Essentially giving users more power to decide what information is store, collected, and sold.

On one hand, it’s creepy to talk or text about a certain outfit, car, or problem and then see that exact item advertised on every platform you frequent. One the other, it’s nice to have targeted ads providing ‘solutions’ to all of my problems instantaneously. 

I’m now convinced there isn’t a more captive audience than new parents. The stressors, unknowns, fears, and crippling anxiety is a dream for marketers. 

Marketers target pain points. I target pain points in my writing. Targeting pain points highlight a solution and answer to a problem you may or may not have known you had.

Who on earth has more pain than a person with a newborn? Who has more issues or concerns or questions than sleep-deprived parents?

This creates a quandary between consumerism to assist and consumerism to appease. 

I definitely needed a Boppy pillow for breastfeeding. I’m not sure I needed 6 different baby-wearing devices (especially since we don’t go anywhere with her thanks to COVID). I needed gas drops and teething rings for my crying baby. I’m not sure I needed 20 different onesies or to buy as many tree-themed decorations to go with my tree-themed nursery.

An anything-themed nursery is arguably not needed either...but I digress.

I tried my best to reduce the collectionsim (yes, I’m saying that is a word) before my daughter was born. Not sure if I succeeded or not, I’m sure that is entirely relative. And now, here I am in a new era of post-partum-current-pandemic collectionism. 

Here I am. Nearly 3 ½ months postpartum. With a baby who has existed more than half her life in quarantine at this point. Here I am, looking at stuff.

Why do we have stuff? Why do we collect stuff? Why do we hate stuff?

For me, the stuff around me these days serves as part of my journey now more than ever. So as I reflect on the last six months – the stuff around me tells a story.

A story of pregnancy. A story of postpartum. A story of my infant turned newborn. Or newborn turned infant...I still don’t know the exact order.

My stuff tells a story.

My story.

Why do we hate stuff? Because we collect too much stuff? Stuff takes up too much space? We are trying to impersonate someone else’s story? Stuff puts us into uncontrollable debt?

As someone who strives to live with slightly less than most, consumerism has been on the front of my mind since I became pregnant and started my registry. I wanted as many multi-use things as I could get. 

I know I purchased or registered for more than the most efficient minimalist, but I tried my best.

As a mom in quarantine, it’s hard to see progress in myself. I have no real identity other than ‘mom’ right now. I quit my job as a nurse practitioner (pre-COVID) so I don’t even have that to fall back onto. I can’t work out because the gyms are closed. I can’t see friends because, well, quarantine.

So I look to the things in my home as signs of progress.

When I was pregnant, the things surrounding me were much in survival mode. Things helped me survive from the moment I woke up to the time I attempted to go to sleep.

I had Tums next to my bed, next to my couch, in my kitchen, in my office drawer, and in my purse.

I had Zofran (anti-nausea medication) and towards the end, I also had Fioricet and Phenergan (anti-migraine medications).

I surrounded myself with Miralax and magnesium to help with constipation. I took prenatal vitamins as much as I could remember. I also took Unisom to help me sleep. 

I slathered my belly and hips with ‘belly butter’ to reduce the itching of my stretching skin.

I slept with 4 pillows – two under my head, a long one between my legs, and one between my arms. This was to help support my back, aching hips, and tight psoas muscles as pregnancy dragged on.

My fridge was full of orange juice and my freezer full of waffles to satiate my cravings and calm my nausea.

I used a warm rice bag on my neck and an ice pack on my forehead to try and remedy my headaches.

Those are all things – or tools – of my pregnancy. If we were suddenly nuked – archeologists would dig up our home and yes “hmmm, yes, this Homosapien was clearly in her 3rd trimester of childbearing as evidence of all of her shit”.

Now, all of those things are gone.

Once I emerged into postpartum, my stuff took a 180.

Zofran and Fiorecet were replaced with Tylenol and Motrin for my perineal tear and breast pain. 

Ice packs were replaced with blood pressure medicine for my headache.

Nipple cream and Tucks pads replaced belly butters.

Perineal spray and Sitz baths replaced the need for laxatives.

And a newborn baby replaced any need to try and find comfort for sleep from pillows or Unisom.

It’s been a fascinating still life of things. Things change as progress is made. Since I can’t go out and I haven’t started working at my new job yet – it’s kind of hard to track change. 

But it’s happening.

Those first few weeks, I had my rental breast pump next to the couch. I had pillows and blankets – chapstick and coffee for the many hours spent feeding and pumping. My sink was full of pump parts and bottles. My nightstand had a little changing station full of wipes, diapers, snack for me, water bottle, wet bag, and burp cloths for the multiple wake-ups each night.

I wore giant pads and Tucks pads. I only wore comfy PJ pants and nursing camisoles. 

My baby slept in a bassinet, or in my arms, and sometimes even a laundry basket.

For better or worse we live in a world of instant consumerism. Push button, receive bacon. Thanks to Amazon, Grubhub, Ubereats, and FedEx - we can give nearly anything within hours

I didn’t know NB (newborn) was a size of clothes, I thought ‘0-3 months’ was what babies started in. I didn’t realize until we got home that all the clothes we had except for 2-3 onesies were way too big for my five-pound baby. So I made the Amazon Prime purchase to obtain the tiniest white newborn onesies I never knew could exist and they arrived by lunchtime the next day.

She was still too small for them at first. But she eventually grew into them. Just like she grew into the newborn diapers, little hats, and swaddles.

I swear we wrapped the swaddle around her 4 times for the first month to make it snug. 

Burp cloths, baby clothes, plastic breast pump equipment littered the bedroom, living room, and kitchen…”

Above is an excerpt from my life in March 2020 during Pandemic 2020, Postpartum 2020, Life 2020. I have a habit of using Google Docs to quickly journal

I have a draw to shift into e-commerce to understand what makes the stuff around us useful, special, invaluable. Maybe having a baby made me more interested in the stuff around me. Maybe I see the value in things beyond services.

I also want to know when stuff becomes too much, excessive, problematic, and cluttering.

Where is the line between reasonable and exorbitant? 

Where is the happy medium in life of providing services and goods?

What would you like to learn more about – in the consumer world we live in? The options are truly endless.

Stuff to satiate every sense.

Where would you like the line between adequate and additional to be?

Stephanie Klein is a Nurse Practitioner and Healthcare Copywriter. Learn more about her here.