God Bless The Swing

Gabe and I were the parents who said no to all of the stuff, renounced consumer madness around babies, and declared that we would chose the simple, minimal path. We chose hot water and paper towels over prepackaged wipes, an eight foot piece of fabric instead of the baby bjorn. This was BEFORE the swing.

Jeremy and Claudine gave us this big, plastic motorized swing a couple of weeks ago when Henry was being particularly fussy. Benjamin had liked it when he was Henry's age. Henry was too small for it at the time so the swing did nothing more than take up precious floor space in our apartment. The other night Gabe told Jeremy that we were going to return the swing. Jeremy smiled knowingly and suggested we hang on to it for a couple more weeks. This week when Henry's fussiness reached an all time high, and nothing would make him happy, we put him in the swing and it magically put him to sleep. GOD BLESS THE SWING!

The swing was an important lesson in parenting for me, in being flexible and doing what works. I'm not going to run out and buy every bouncer, womb simulator, wipe warmer, etc. but I won't be so stubborn as to deny my boy the plastic, motorized pleasures in life.