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Posted by Mommy Woobie on May 30th, 2008 in Baby Basics

Ok, we just got home from the mall and the whole place is teeming with moms! I half-expected the bookstores to be full with the arrival of the new school year, and sure enough the books were on aisle showcases, raincoats are on various maniquins, even the umbrellas were strewn across the floors unattended!

The usual suspects are there (i.e. Moms and their kids, with the surly looking dads patiently carrying tons of baggages), turning things over and over looking for damages, rummaging through layers of school uniforms and coloring books.

The Filipino way of buying school things is amusing. One example is notebook buying. The spring bound notebooks are cheaper than the ones that arent bound with the nasty looking metal springs. Pinoy moms still buy the cheaper ones, then some colorful strings with which to tie the notebook leaves together (when they remove the tetanus-friendly metal springs). If you compute the difference between the cheaper notebooks and the more expensive ones,
and THEN factor in the amount you pay for the string plus your effort, they’re almost the same price!

Another thing is ballpens. Some moms and their kids test pens incessantly, writing out long, long texts in scratch papers just TESTING the pens. Then, they complain to the saleslady that most of the pens don’t write anymore. Is it maybe the pens lost all their ink with the hundreds of moms who test them out the same way every time? lol.

The supermarket isn’t an exception. Though, one can tell that most of the moms there are those with just-about-to-start-school kids. Everywhere you look are labels saying “Great for School Lunch! (Baon, in Filipino)”. Oatmeals and breakfast stuff are piled on carts, lunch boxes are swept from the shelves for inspection, and even new cooking wares specifically made for frying these lunch food are suddenly out-of-stock with the high demand!

The cashier lines were loooong, I tell you! I was telling my hubby while we were paying for the stuff we bought, “Hun, the next time we buy your school supplies (he’s studying Health Care for going abroad), we might as well buy over the net if we waited this long to panic buy. There are also stuff on sale there.”

My advice: never go to the mall during “Kid’s seasons”, particularly at the start of the school year. But then again, I say that to myself every year during the end of May, and I still end up going because of the……. you guessed it…. SALE!

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Posted by Mommy Woobie on May 29th, 2008 in Baby Basics, Baby Quirks, Kids' Imagination, Mommy Alert

Moms are funny. Last week I had a chance to go to the mall for some alone time, and because I am a mom, I immediately went to the baby section. I see some brand names have gone on sale and moms are all over the counters. Not just clothes, but cribs, strollers and such. Sometimes I wonder if moms buy brand name baby products because of the security of tenacity. “Oh this is Branded, it’s like the Rolex of all stroller brands, it will NOT break under my son while we’re in a mall.”

Well, the argument is that better brands create more sturdy things, which justifies the high price. But there’s a conspiracy theory in my mind. What if the price is expensive because most of their money went into advertising?

Of course any mom will feel guilty at not providing the BEST to her child, so when salesmen approach and tell her that the more expensive brand is much more sturdy, she will buy it!

How the marketing people exploit the Mom-hood of girls eh?

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Posted by Mommy Woobie on May 13th, 2008 in Family Quirks, Proud Mommy

We went panic buying yesterday. Not food, but clothes. Baby clothes. Why? Because the Mother’s day dinner we attended made us realize that all of AJ’s ‘for outings’ clothes are too small for him!

I never learned my lesson on overbuying baby clothes. I bought dozens when I was preggy with AJ, out of excitement of course, and he wasn’t able to wear all of them because he outgrew each piece every week.

Passing blame, I blame internet hype. I go browsing sites that sell children’s clothes on a daily basis and decide that I (my baby, i mean) must own all the latest styles in baby fashion! Sometimes, I wonder if I am making up for my own fashion-challenged approach to shopping through my baby’s fashion sense.

Nonetheless, now I think I learned my lesson for real. I’m going to make him wear his ‘good clothes’ even on regular days. How’s that for a plan of action?

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Posted by Mommy Woobie on December 7th, 2007 in Proud Mommy

Shopping with a baby is never easy, but the gratification comes with the fun he’s having. The kiddie car-turned-shopping carts that our local grocery provides are a big help to moms bringing kids along for grocery shopping.

While we’re browsing the kids’ toys section last week, my son grabbed 2 things he liked. I was tempted to buy both but restrained myself. I then placed one item on my right hand and the other on the left and set them apart by a foot or so. I faced my son and asked him: “Which?”

He was torn between the two toys, and I could see in his soft eyes the indecision. One was a yellow car and the other was a red car. After some time he chose the yellow one. I then slowly put the red one back on the shelf as he watched. It broke my heart to see him so sad to leave the red one behind.

I felt the need to teach him the basics of choosing one or the other, not both. I am firm in my belief that I must not spoil my child. Choosing one toy over the other was hard for him, but so are the other choices he has to make later on.

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