4363/17282
It’s about three months before our baby is due and impending fatherhood is beginning to feel a little bit more real (though I am trying to make the most of my time where I don’t have the responsibility of caring for a weak and defenceless human being - other than myself). Today we went shopping for a pram and a car seat. I still managed to convince myself that these were just items we needed for our home and wouldn’t one day be filled by a tiny, shitting human. But it is a big ask. I could conceivably use the pram to move things around, but the car seat has little practical use beyond protecting a baby.
First we went to Mothercare in Kew, which we thought would have a big selection of stuff and be relatively quiet on a Tuesday lunchtime. It was indeed quiet, but there weren’t many staff there either. We couldn’t work out how to release the brakes on a pram we liked, but we had to search out a sales assistant, who then immediately disappeared when he’d shown us the button. That seemed like poor business sense. You’ve got a very good chance of a sale in this situation and if he had hung around to demonstrate this rather expensive pram we might well have bought it from him, and maybe a car seat and who knows what else? Instead he left us to flounder, lose confidence and leave a little bit dispirited and confused. He had to man the tills so it wasn’t his fault (though it wasn’t like he was being rushed by customers), but Mothercare lost them a sale there, as we left uncertain about what we should be doing.
Later we’d have another go and walked up to the Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush and looked round the slightly trendier store “Mamas and Papas”. Here a sales assistant was with us almost straight away to talk about what we were thinking and showing us the relative ease of putting the pram together and taking it apart. He wasn’t pushy, but very informative, correctly realising that we were very likely to buy and just giving us all the available info. We had chosen a good time to go as it was now 9pm and not many pram shoppers were out at this time. So he showed us the prams and then asked about car seats and demonstrated those on a false back seat of the car in store. I had no idea there would be so much choice of design, but we managed to get a car seat that is compatible with the pram and which also sits on top of a base with a sort of an anchor that clicks into the car and which does not require the seat to be strapped in. What a future we are living in.
I like the tech aspect of all this stuff, but am personally looking forward to having a valid excuse to buy toys again. We picked up a few nicknacks like a bee with a mirror on it, which was a bit childish for my tastes, but when our kid if 3 we’ll be able to get much more fun stuff, like a little garage with a lift for the cars and keyboards you can dance on. There was even a tiny pinball table. Even though I spend a good chunk of my day playing at the moment it will be good to have a valid excuse to carry on. Our child is not going to get a look in at this stuff.
And maybe the baby still feels like it’s part of a game at the moment too. It’s essentially just a doll, right?
In an attempt to be slightly more professional we’ve started gathering all my videos on my own YouTube Channel, which I might also record some extra content for every now and again. So subscribe in order to be notified when new things get posted and spread the link to your pals. As usual, it’s all free and we’ll try and keep it ad free too (beyond ads for ourselves). The Steve Coogan video RHLSTP has just gone up (you can also see it on vimeo and iTunes) and the audio should be up tomorrow.
You can read about everything that’s going on in the coming weeks in this month’s newsletter. Put your email in the box on the right to get these sent right to your inbox every month.
