When a woman in the US is pregnant, one of the typical responses by friends and family is to throw a baby shower. Mom-to -be creates an online registry and everyone buys her stuff. You know the story because maybe you have been to a shower or had one yourself. Its true, some things are helpful to have when a new baby arrives. A car seat, diapers, clothes, and a sling, to name a few. But so many items thrust at new moms are extraneous. They become clutter and clutter sometimes becomes overwhelm and anxiety at home. I know this pattern because I have worked with dozens of people and I see how clutter brings them down. I also see how that pattern is hard to avoid because we have a culture that’s very good at injecting fear into moms, specifically when it comes to consumerism. Ie; buy stuff or baby will suffer!

What about finding better ways to show love to a new mom than buying out the entire Buy Buy Baby? I propose its time we adopted a new norm. I say we shower mothers with our loving presence over the months. So many new moms are lonely because their family lives far away. When they’ve had their fill of company, bring them homemade food. Once their belly is full and happy, give them cold, hard cash so they can buy a few of those items that they actually need.