Parenting - Making Those Important, and Not So Important Decisions.

Whether you've planned for the baby you're expecting or not, there is one thing parents to be, or parents expecting again all have in common - the list of things you need before baby makes their arrival. If you thought decorating the spare room - making it into a nursery was hard enough, wait until you tackle a list that's bigger than the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk. 

Newborn nappies, dummies, bottles, breast pads, newborn and 0-3 months clothing (vest, sleepsuits, mittens, hats, tops, bottoms, jumpers, coats, snowsuit, socks etc), a steriliser, a cot mobile, cot sheets, baby monitors, comfortable underwear for mum, chocolates (or was that just me!?), a breast pump if you're breastfeeding, formula if you're formula feeding, a bouncer, a moses basket, a rocker, a changing bag, a baby bath, a pushchair, a car seat, rain covers... the list goes on and on (I did tell you it was bigger than the giant!).

Most things are quite easy to buy, you're not going to spend 20 hours searching for the right breast pads for example, and I doubt you'll spend more than a few minutes picking out some big comfortable knickers, and I doubt you'll spend more than a few hours looking for the right cot mobile. The chocolate decision making is done within seconds (well it was for me), and the clothes you'll never stop buying, but there are some purchases that can take us days, weeks and even months to decide on... purchases like the cot, pushchair and car seat.

The hardest decision-making process I had when I was pregnant was choosing the car seat and the pushchair, I was torn between wanting a traditional allover colour that would go with everything, or two plain colours like the Kiddies Kingdom’s icandy range and the more funky, unique styles that stood out very loud. Do I go with a plain coloured pushchair, like black, blue or red and keep it plain, or jazz it up with accessories, the one in-between - not just one solid colour, but broken down with two, or do I go for a standout in the crowd sort of buggy - well at least then it wouldn't be hard to spot in a buggy parade.

Of course, above all this come other factors like comfort, ease of folding (considering I was 15 and not old enough to drive) to get me around on public transport if needed, could I attach a car seat if needed and much more, but those things didn't take me long at all, what took me the longest was picking out the colour of the system that I wanted! I knew if I settled on black, it would go with anything and wouldn't clash, so if colour was what I wanted I could jazz the pushchair up with accessories - I'm talking footmuff, carrycot, changing bags etc, however with them costing quite a lot, did I really want to settle for such a plain 'boring' colour?

I'm not keen on the colour green, not because my parents named me after a shade of green, but because I've never been drawn to the colour, so any green pushchairs were out of the question, so was any red ones for the same reason, but what about navy blue? A dark yet plain colour, however, would navy go with everything, possibly not, nor would brown or grey, but black could and would wouldn't it? Yet what about the zebra print pushchair I see, or the light blue one covered in cars? Just a few unique funky styled ones that caught my eye, but what if my baby didn't like cars or zebras? What if I wore a black and white outfit once, could you imagine how I'd look, pushing a zebra print pushchair down the road looking like a zebra myself? Yes, these kinds of things went through my head!

Isn't it funny that although being funny with my own baby buying essentials, I recently chose a black car seat for my nephew from Kiddies Kingdom that I fell in love with instantly! From the process of looking for a car seat, doing some research (reading lots of reviews basically) and making the final decision - the whole process took me less than a few hours. These days there are thankfully much more nicer designs around on the market, and some pretty strange (in my opinion) ones too, but above all - there are so many to choose from, I can only imagine if I went through the baby stages again - how long it would take m

I finally settled on the first black one that I noticed once I'd found all the more important factors such as the comfort etc that I mentioned above, often the way with me, I'm the same with handbags, outfits and shoes and it got me thinking that actually, looking around, quite a lot of us parent's stick to traditional colours and styles don't we? Whilst it's not uncommon to see funky unique pushchair designs these days, the majority of pushchairs we pass on our travels are traditional colours, aren't they? 

Then there's the many, many different brands and styles, I recently noticed on a Christmas shopping trip last weekend, that traditional colours aren't alone with them being favourited, but also the old school traditional pushchairs are making a comeback too, I must have seen at the very least - 25 traditional pushchairs being pushed down the busy, packed with Christmas shoppers highstreet, and whilst I've never been one to follow fashion trends, this is one thing I'm glad to of made a reappearance, the tube tops however... well let's leave them for another day. 

Until next time,

Jada x

Disclaimer: I was gifted a car seat in return for this post.