build a better baby carriage, please, I can’t move
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AS IT IS
One of the prime examples of living in excess today is the whole arena of baby goods. My mother, who babysits my new nephew every week, is constantly horrified by the number of products and gadgets the modern mother feels they need to care for a baby. Since all of my relatives have recently had one or more babies, I can definitely attest to the baby gluttony going on. From the drifts of toys and stuffed things cramming their home, along with some fairly large, frightening objects that look like plastic crayola colored versions of medieval torture devices, it’s a wonder all of us made it to adulthood without those things.
As a result of these overindulgences, new parents move through the world like a caravan of nomads. And the rest of us have to deal with it. The classic example is the baby carriage. They are everywhere - huge plastic and fabric monstrosities. Parents take up the whole grocery isle, clip your heals on the streets, require two assistants to get in and out of doors and forget about stairs. The modern baby carriage is the SUV of the gadget world. Or depending on the maker - a ‘57 buick. The worst thing about it is these pushers of carriage project an attitude of ’space entitlement.’ Because they are traveling en masse, they think they have a right to all the room they are taking up in the world.
Some sites that show exactly what i’m talking about:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2718786
This PICK UP TRUCK, is specifically marketed to be able to hold a baby stroller. There is something fundamentally wrong about that.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://info.detnews.com/dn/pix/2005/02/02/0drive/dr02-RidgelineGate-0205n_02-02-2005_I8429N5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosconsumer/0502/02/G01-76895.htm&h=267&w=400&sz=37&hl=en&start=30&tbnid=opCyewpjLE03xM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbig%2Bbaby%2Bstrollers%26start%3D18%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
this modern stroller next to something I used to sit in. Seems overly component heavy. And this is not even one of the big ones.
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This is an example of some of the features of a typical running stroller:
The 2007 Ditto™ Jogger Lite — Dreamer Design’s mid-level, double jogging stroller — comes equipped with everything you need for running or walking with your little ones.
Features
# Welded aluminum frame
# Handbrake with parking button
# Rear footbrake
# Easy compact folding
# Large dual footplate with easy clean recessed leg area
# Dual reclining seats
# Under seat storage basket
# Breathable padded seating area
# 5-point harness
# Many convenient parent and child pockets
# Safety wrist strap and key leash
# Fully rotating dual Bubble Sun Canopy™ with dual pivot system
# Large view port canopy windows
# Canopy side ventilation system
# Removable and machine washable fabric
# Reflective fabric and binding
tTHE TRUTHS
Therefore, to help the new parents of the world I have composed an informative master list, in an effort to dispel common motherhood misconceptions about the baby carriage and how they affect the rest of the world, :
1. baby carriages are not wheelchairs. You and your children are not ‘handicapped’ and the space you take up is not necessary.
2. your child is not an angel in elephant’s clothing. Babies are about one quarter the size of an adult. They should not take up the space of three grown people.
3. motherhood is your choice, not necessarily ours. I’m sure your child is super, but I don’t think our lives necessarily have to revolve around them.
4. just because a product is marketed for children, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for them. We have all read about contaminated food from China and recalled faulty products from China and potentially harmful off-gassing and residues. Well, I hate to break it to you, but your baby carriage was probably made in China or at least some of the parts were. This is not necessarily special ‘baby plastic.’ It’s just regular plastic - the kind that off-gases and has residues that your child could potentially lick off. Why feed your child organic carrots from Whole Foods if you are pushing them around for two hours in a carcinogen-mobile.
5. everything you give to your child is depleting the rest of the world. …including you, and them, later in life.
6. do you really need all that stuff? no, seriously…NEED. like food and water and air
A NEW BABY MOBILE
This is partly the fault of a capitalistic society. New parents are subject to the mass market like anyone else and they are led to believe they need things. It is not that easy to dispel these myths. But maybe designers are partially to blame. Even the carriages that look nicer are not necessarily more compact or enviro-friendly. There should be a baby carriage that can safely carry a child around AND be efficient AND look good. To make a better carriage, I have narrowed the list down to a set of basic directives:
1. it should only be as big as it needs to be It does not need to be big to be safe.
2. It should be environmentally friendly Not just for the rest of the world but for your child’s health.
3. it should make your life easier, not more difficult
4. it should not make the rest of our lives more difficult
5. it should look nice. We have to look at it too after all. And because all babies are NOT cute. Sorry, it’s true.
this might have come closest to being just what it needs to be:
http://www.my-joolz.com/media/photos/bloom.jpg
detechnologizing of the wheelchair - interesting….
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October 29th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
1. baby carriages are not wheelchairs. You and your children are not ‘handicapped’
Counterpoint: That depends upon your definition of the word. In general, someone trying to base a point on a definition, is usually wrong. An infant most definately is disabled in comparison to an adult: most adults can talk, they cannot. Most adults can walk, they cannot. If you compare an infant to other infants…then the answer goes from being yes, they are handicapped, to, it depends upon the child. Nevertheless, the real point is there is a need for baby strollers, it is not merely a fad.
3. motherhood is your choice, not necessarily ours. I’m sure your child is super, but I don’t think our lives necessarily have to revolve around them.
Counterpoint: I don’t think there is any chance your life revolves around them.
5. everything you give to your child is depleting the rest of the world. …including you, and them, later in life.
Counterpoint: Matter can neither be created or destroyed. The issue of sustainable environment is more complex than baby carriages. In point of fact, a baby carriage that is built to last…in an environment of zero population growth, would be relatively harmless…it would be nice if most baby carriages were bought used, and only the occasional new one was made to replace one that had gone out of service. Very little environmental impact…compared to buy one for yourself, and toss it when you are done.
6. do you really need all that stuff? no, seriously…NEED. like food and water and air
Counterpoint: did your post really amount to something you NEEDED to do? Like eating, drinking and breathing? It’s not a fair comparison, now is it.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:01 am
I’m definitely not suggesting the elimination of all baby carriages. They are needed, they just don’t need to be as big and complicated and wasteful as they are. I am merely suggesting that parents seem to have an increasingly distorted sense of ‘need’ when it comes to their children. The differences in the amount of STUFF and the complexity and cost of those things from when I was a child is so significant. And I believe, unnecessary.
I am also not suggesting that my life revolves around any child, but for moments that I am with many children, it does. That is fine when they are children I know and love. But I think in many cases this is a conceit of (particularly) mothers. That people around them should constantly be making exceptions, allowances and compromises to accomodate their lives and their children. Baby carriages are just a simple example of taking up an unnecessary amount of space, and the problem I have is many mothers who you don’t know expect you to wait around while they fidget with their children in carriages, and they can’t move properly around a shop, for instance, so the shop should move around them. There is a sense of entitlement that comes with some peoples’ child rearing, which can be unfair to the rest of us.
I also do not suggest in any way that the issue of sustainability can be simplified to the issue of baby carriages. It was a one week project for which we were asked to make something ‘bigger, slower…’, or as I took it: simplified, with honesty in what it does and needs to be. I agree that it would be best if a carriage was built of non-toxic substances and made to last, and then passed on from person to person until it may need to be disposed of due to wear and tear (at which point it can return to the earth in a nonharmful way). But the unreality of this is the point I am trying to make - that parents seem to be progressively buying and using and wasting thing *supposedly* for their children’s needs and wants. And I don’t think that is true. They are conditioning their children to want and *need* the things that they want and need and raising them in societies that put too much value on possession and consumption. This is certainly not true of all societies. My post wasn’t ‘needed’ at all, it was just a challenge to what others consider ‘needs’ in a particular situation. Need is relative, that’s what I’m saying. Also what you are saying, strangely enough.