Babywearing Goes Around & Comes Around
Seventeen years ago I saw a woman wearing her baby in a cloth tied around her torso in a grocery store on Connecticut Avenue in Washington DC. I was 15 years old, and I didn’t know what it was or how you do it, but I decided then and there to wrap up my babies. I didn’t say anything to her. She never saw me, or knew how much she had just effected the course of my life.
Today I am sending gorgeous Vicky Storchenwiege wrap to the babywearers in DC. It is joining the lending library for the Babywearing International Group of DC-MD-VA.
I like to think that every time a mama wears this lending library wrap out in public, some teenager, or parent, or grandparent, or person is going to admire it, and quietly go home and find wrapping for themselves.
And if just half of those people one day show one friend, or neighbor, a stranger at the park, or their pregnant sister-in-law how to wrap up their babies . . . well, watch out Democrats and Republicans, because babywearers are about to become a majority party in our nation! (I apologize in advance for this next sentence…) A party running on a platform of love.
No pressure, DC-MD-VA mommies. Please feel free to just wear Vicky around the house, too!
Alana March 5, 2013 at 10:24 pm
I totally understand. I was 19, and I saw a lady wearing her two (yes, two!) children on her back in a wrap. They were fast asleep, and looked incredibly comfortable and secure. She was just doing her shopping at the market. I knew right then that I was going to find a way to wear my own children when I had them, and years later, I found that other people were doing the same. Honestly, though, from 19 to 27, I never saw anyone wearing a baby in a wrap. I definitely try to wear my Ellaroo out in public as much as possible. 🙂
Diana March 6, 2013 at 7:54 pm
I also didn’t see any babywearing to speak of in the decade between that incident and when motherhood hit (bang!). But I remembered. I’m glad you and I and a million others are out there flaunting babywearing for all those not-yet-parents!