grrlTravels

When a boy becomes a man

Warning: Sappiness in high doses

I can't help it. I was just doing the laundry and ended up falling in love with E. all over again. Let me preface this by saying that I am a product of advertising, and good packaging can make me buy almost anything. Really.

I have to hand it to the people behind Dreft. In my book, Dreft is the most lovely, sweetest baby smell in the whole world. I adore the smell of Dreft. In fact, I may be addicted to the smell of Dreft, and poor E. will be in the high school locker room trying to look cool and not worry about the size of his package as compared with the size of the other packages but that will be extremely hard to accomplish while he smells like Dreft. Because I was just realizing today that he won't be a baby forever and probably isn't really a baby now since he will be 2 in November. So I thought perhaps I should start washing his clothes in Tide, just like his father and I. And then I almost sat right down on the floor and cried in the teeny, tiny closet that passes for a laundry room in our house at the thought of giving up his Dreft.

Why did I buy the Dreft in the first place? Because advertising told me to, that's why. How else do you explain the fact that good parents would never wash their child's clothing in normal detergent, but need special baby detergent "For A Clean You Can Trust"? A detergent which just happens to be the "#1 Choice of Pediatricians", I might add.

(I know, I know. Babies have sensitve skin and might get a rash. Just stick with me here. Rashes aren't funny. Especially when they are covering the beautiful skin of your baby.)

In this case, the packaging was not an enticement. First of all, it's pink. When you have a baby boy, you must avoid pink at all costs, and sometimes it's hard to do. My cousin was particularly apologetic at the beach this year because she had bought swimmy diapers for her grandson and had mistakenly bought the GIRL swimmy diapers, which were pinkish with GIRLY things on them like dolls and ribbons. How awful! Poor grandson sporting those GIRL swimmy diapers and just knowing there was something terribly wrong under his bathing suit.

Secondly, the packaging is in a "warm-and-fuzzy-country" motif with the pink plaid and the little bunny. My best wishes go out to all of the parents out there who are going to try and not be overtaken by the cutesies when they make purchases for their offspring. Just try to find a blanket, burp cloth, crib sheet, diaper bag, changing pad, you get the drift without adorably anthropomophic critters with big scary eyes all over the place. Go ahead, just try, I'll wait. Aha! I knew it. Very hard to accomplish, folks, very, very hard.

Dreft Update:
I have just noticed that the bottle also clearly states "For babies 0-18 months" which means I am already 2 1/2 months past my Dreft deadline with E. So is he embarrassed at Gymboree when he's with the other 20-and-a-half month olds and he still smells like Dreft and all of the other kids are smelling much more grown up?

Today when I open the door to his room, the sweet baby smell of the Dreft floats out to me. I don't know how much longer it will, but for today, he's still my baby and he still smells like one. Until he makes his thrice daily deposit in his cutesy, pastel, anthropomorphic googly-eyed critter lovin diaper, that is.

Posted by grrlTravels at August 29, 2004 4:22 PM