Tuesday 22 February 2011

The baby bottle incident

The other day we took the boys to Toys R Us.
We headed over to the baby section to get a stairgate, as W was very nearly on the move (and as it turned out he started to crawl half an hour after the gate was installed!).
Whilst I was browsing the choice of white metal gate, wooden gate, part wood part metal gate, slam shut, screw fix, pressure fit (oh the thrill of choice), I got a feeling that all was not well.
I felt  that the couple in the same aisle as myself were boring their eyes into me. I turned round, and there was J with a baby bottle in his hand. Empty, just.
He had opened a pack of them from the shelf, assembled the teat, and was looking for the ready made formula carton to pour in.

I took them off of him, to his cries of "bottle bottle bottle".

Now I am aware of the moral dilemma here, that it is not nice for the person who buys them. But the bottles were not sealed and were already exposed to the elements and other people handling them, so I thought that with a sensible parent head on the purchaser would wash and steralise them before use anyway.

He loves baby bottles. I have no idea why as neither he or his brothers ever had bottles, they were all (and W still is) exclusively breastfed, and only weaned onto baby cups and beakers for water.

On the verge of a tantrum involving the floor and screaming, I compromised and allowed him to choose a cup instead.

He choose a pink cup with the name Jessica on it.

Do I care that he choose a pink cup? Am I bothered by it? Course not! He does not suffer the prejudice of choice or the surmount of peer pressure. Plus, in a male only household it is quite welcome by me to inject some other colour into the house rather than blue.

So then. Crisis averted. Bottles remained in the store. Couple stopped staring and the pink cup is in situ in the cupboard.