Hand-me-downs are a new mom?s blessing and curse
I remember the first hand-me-downs I got for my baby, before I was even a mother. Five big black garbage bags from a new friend who had received them in turn from a string of friends?a veritable hand-me-down chain connecting moms of girls over a decade or more.
It was an absolute godsend, and I sobbed in gratitude as I unfolded outfit after outfit, sized newborn to 12 months. As a single mom, I was a mess of raging pregnancy hormones, living far from home and relatively alone. The money savings was incalculable, and the idea that someone else had been on this road before me was like a comforting hug of preloved cotton.
There were nearly new sleepers and onesies, adorable three-piece outfits, and a lot of older dresses with lace and bows and?new vocabulary for me?smocking. Decorative embroidery of baby bears and sailboats and lots and lots of floral?I loved it all. But there were also a few bedraggled and worn items in faded pastels that had seen better days, pilled sweaters, stained shirts, and hats that would never stay on a baby?s head. The hand-me-down chain had been going for years, added to along the way by newer moms, with nobody brave enough to separate the wheat from the chaff. A baby had actually worn these"! How long ago are we talking about" Everything seemed clean, but I washed it all again in whatever scent-free baby-friendly detergent I?d purchased in my quest to be the best new mom ever. I sorted and re-sorted the outfits, along with the sleepers an...
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