Seeing things through different eyes
Last year, with MOTS only a couple of months pregnant, we went to Glasgow's SECC to The Baby Show. This year, with junior around 8 months old and MOTS most certainly not pregnant, we went through again.
And what a difference.
It was amazing to see so many of us last year this year. By that totally unreadable sentence I mean this year we saw so many couples who clearly resembled what we must have looked like last year. They were easily spotted, ranging from the startled rabbit to the I'd rather watch a horror film types.
Startled rabbits, wise owls
The stuff there was really different, too. There's the usual dross, the expensive photographers who promise everlasting oh-so-kitsch images. There's the innovative "must have to make your life easier" products, the ones why you wonder why they are there given you buy the stuff regardless.
So, what was hot and what was not?
This year it was all "personalised CDs" and stitched blankets. Pick a song list, burn a CD and we'll print a label with the kid's name on it. Or stick the kid's name on a blanket.
The innovative, which we got caught by twice. One was the travel high chair - we already had one, and we amazed the seller as MOTS was the first person she didn't personally know who had one. Sadly, junior didn't get a call-up for a photo-shoot to be the face on their new ads. The other was the cuddly dry robe. Junior has outgrown his hooded towels, this is the big daddy of them all, all natural fibres (bamboo) and really nice.
The fashions, which weren't really for MOTS (not pregnant) or Junior (seen his wardrobe?).
The preying on paranoid parents. Do you really need a camera monitor, hooked permanently into your TV set?
We did get a playmat we saw last year. That was about the only given.
The absent - no Simply wipes or Sudocrem on show, no freebies in that department. Somewhat of a shame, the free samples of Sudocrem come in perfectly small tubs to be ultra portable for those days out.
The booming. Babybond were there last year, we'd found them before the show, but saw them there anyway. They had a 3x1m stand last year. This year, a much bigger stand, with a scanning machine on site and appointments through the day there and then, making an absolute killing.
Last year we were the startled rabbits. Everything was either "we could do with that" or "that's a great idea" or "we need to think about that". This year we still had all of those, but also mixed in with "waste of time", "ripoff" and "that's for what, exactly?".
So what was the biggest difference between the two shows we'd been to?
Us. And our different eyes. It's amazing just what a little experience can do to influence your outlook.
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