Ok, so I don’t know about anyone else’s experience with registries, but I spent a lot of time and energy building a few for my first pregnancy.
Everyone was happy for me and asked where I was registered. The long-distance friends I kept after the Army, my settling-into-a-new-city-budding-friendships, work friends, family… so lots of people. My work friends were gleefully planning my shower to be held in the restaurant we worked at and local family said they’d throw their own. It seemed great. Yeaaah. 2 people bought off my registry, my mom and one aunt. Not a single friend that had mentioned buying me things or throwing me a shower came through. My side of the family (they’re the ones that live several states away) mostly sent money, so I don’t feel neglected by them, just pouting about all the time wasted on the registries. Hubby’s side threw us a shower where we got just about everything we needed… but not to sound ungrateful because everything is beautiful and it was an overwhelming level of generosity, but… there were lots of repeats – an expensive registry item my mom had bought too, 6 baby blankets, a crap ton of baby clothes – especially socks, three years later still using lotion from that shower – and since no one seemed to have consulted the registry, there was no coordinated color or theme for Deedee’s nursery. Unless you count that bafflingly trendy gray.
Moving on… I didn’t even bother with a registry for this baby. It’s another girl born in the same season so clothes should line up pretty on point. Because of family’s generosity with Deedee there’s very little we NEED this time around (god, we got so many clothes we’re glad it’s another girl so things can be worn more than once), and after the disappointing waste of time that first registry turned out to be I wasn’t going to waste my time again. But if I did (and was willing to sound bossy and decided it wasn’t weird to ask for pads) it would need to look like this…
- Any cute baby clothes you might be tempted to buy… pick out something in 3T and/or 4T for her big sister, she’s the one that needs clothes. New baby will benefit from them in time, too
- Coordinate, people… 2 baby blankets tops, a couple stuffed animals to get her started with a personal collection – I understand not everything should be a hand-me-down
- Pacifiers and starter sippy cups
- Max 2 rounds of baby hygiene products – hold the lotion
- Bulk sized containers of each size batteries that power all the toys ya’ll got me 3 years ago for Deedee
- A few visits from a cleaning service
- Gift certificates for grocery stores that do delivery
- Photo shoot for holiday cards
- Deedee’s favorites we stream on Disney+ so we can cancel that subscription
- Panty liners, stretch mark reducers, hemorrhoid products, and do OTC skin tag removing products actually work?
- A sewing machine (yeah, I wanna be the “I’ll make your Halloween costume, hem long dresses, and patch your ripped knees” kind of mom)
- A fun girly pamper kit… stuff to do my own mani/pedi and some makeup to play with when I have the time and desire to feel pretty again. (I’m a super low maintenance tom boy kind of woman so it really says something for me to want this… I’ve hardly even tried to artificially enhance myself since I stopped working, my poor husband (Recently went to use mascara only to discover it had dried up).
- Personal trainer (mostly for the motivation and accountability, I more or less know what exercises I should be doing)
- At a minimum (will not turn down more) 2 people willing to give us a day’s help with DIY renovations. There’s not much left that requires many hands, but it’s about the speed. For most of what’s left, the extra people, brute strength and sweat could knock tasks out in a day.
Are registries falling out of fashion? I’ve known several pregnant people over the past few years I liked enough to spend money on that have not created them.
Random SAHM Thoughts 