The National Post has a story about whether or not affluence is leading people to over-indulge their children. The opening paragraph mentions that people actually buy Gucci baby booties at $220 a pop.
I guess I didn’t follow infant clothing trends closely, but I wasn’t even aware anyone made designer baby clothes until shortly after my daughter was born. One of my favorite relatives is extremely wealthy (yes, she was my favorite even before she became wealthy) and about a week after my daughter was born a package from this relative arrived at our house containing something that I thought portended the end of the world — a Baby Dior (which is a brand owned by Christian Dior) sleeper.
I was literally shocked. Most of the things my daughter wore as an infant and wears today as a toddler came from second hand clothing stores, not because we couldn’t afford to buy Emma the latest toddler fashions, but because it seems like a pretty lousy idea to spend so much money on new clothes that are going to last 6 months at most.
On the other hand, I’ve been on the other end of that with some of my relatives thinking my wife and I were out of our minds to drop a few hundred dollars on a computer for my daughter for her fourth birthday. (Though part of the concern there was that Emma would simply spend all of her time in front of the computer — which might happen, if she ever slowed down enough to sit anywhere for more than 15 minutes at a time).
Of course the same relatives who were concerned about the computer are the same ones who bought my four year old a small TV/VCR, an enormous kitchen playset that doesn’t even fit in my new house, and enough Barbie toys and stuffed animals to start our own army and take over the world (and that was just one birthday).
Not that I’m too worried about my daughter becoming spoiled. Most of the time she doesn’t even play with all of the expensive toys and gadgets, but is instead preparing for her musical career with a variety of cheap musical instruments which she plays while making up songs off the top of her head (in fact, she often drags out a little stool, stands on top of it, and performs a mini-concert which is hilarious).