Money, money, money...

I've been extremely busy recently, which is why I have not been able to devote as much time to my blog as I would have liked. We have moved house and the last three weeks have be spent involved in much sorting, packing, cleaning and then unpacking, re-sorting and more cleaning and then just a little more cleaning to go with all the rest!

It occurred to me, whist packing, that there are definitely two types of people in this world. The hoarders and the liberators. I am a liberator, Gavin is a hoarder and so is Emily by default of course. So I have spent the majority of the last few weeks sorting and packing items that don't belong to me. In fact I would go so far as to say that only 1/5 of all the items that made it to the new house were mine.

Which brings me onto the subject of why babies need so much. As a prospective first time parent, you throw yourself into the act of buying every available item that you and your baby could ever need. You soon learn that you only need about half of the items you have bought but trust me that enough!

I never realised that such a small person would need so much, I mean people tried to warn me, but I never appreciated what they meant until Emily came along. prams and cots, moses baskets and car seats, baby baths and sterilisers, bibs and sleep suits and vest and the list goes on and on and on.

A simple trip to the shops becomes like a military maneuver, have we got a change of clothes, nappies, wipes, the dummy, etc... And going away, forget it, it's just not worth it. Beside by the time you have packed up the car with all the belongings you need to look after the baby there will be no room left for your things anyway. I took Emily to London for 3 nights when she was 3 months old, the back of my mums car was rammed full, you could barely see out the back. And she owns a people carrier!!!

And the money you spend will very soon run into the thousands. Add up the cost of all those nappies and babies wipes combined with the fact that your new baby will need new clothes every 3 months and you can start to understand why parents walk around in clothes that went out of fashion 3 years ago. So what is the consolation? At least you won't have to buy anything for the next time you temporarily lose your sanity and utter those 5 words. 'Should we have another baby?'.