Saturday, July 03, 2010

Awkward Babywearing comments

I have a pretty awesome woven wrap. See it? I made it myself. (Oh, the door isn't dirty- it's painted courtesy of Rose. We still need to fix it). I took five yards of 100% linen from JoAnn's fabric (where I conveniently had a 40% off coupon and a $50 gift card- linen ain't cheap, you know), washed it, cut it in half lengthwise, hemmed it, and voila- a woven wrap. I love it and wear Ri in it all the time. In fact, my new Costco membership card has both me and my baby in the picture because he's in the wrap almost excursively when we're out and about. Which sometimes leads to interesting comments.

One day I took the kiddos to the library (a frequent occurrence in my house- we LOVE the library!). While checking out, a woman said to me, "Wow! That's really cool! Where'd you get that carrier?" I replied by saying, "Actually I made it myself out of linen. And I just wrap my baby up on me and he's so comfy." She responded with, "I've been looking all over for one of those so I can put my dog it it!" Seriously, what do you say to that? I know people love carrying their little dogs all over the place in doggy carriers, but... I don't know. I was just speechless.

So, I take all three kiddos out to the van and we start getting in. The car next to my van has the driver sitting inside. He rolls down his window. "Hey, that's a pretty neat carrier! Where'd you get that?" I respond with my usual, "Oh, I made it myself out of linen. Just took 5 yards and cut it down the middle lengthwise..." And then, creep mode set in with his response- "Oh, I'd like to be carried around in one of those" I think I smiled and nodded and turned to the kids and said,"Get your seatbelts ready! Hurry up! We need to get home!" That guy seriously creeped me out. I understand that babywearing is unusual (well, not too unusual in the town in which I live- I see people in Ergos every single day, and I'll often see wraps or other less commonly used carriers) but my goodness! Keep the weird comments to yourself and google it yourself when you get home (or even right then in the library! You've got a card to use the internet there, you know.).

2 comments:

LMS said...

No kidding. Creep factor. You need to read "The Gift of Fear" a cop friend of mine loaned one to me.

Carolyn said...

Thanks. I just put that book on hold and will read it.