Some friends of mine (who also have baby girls) have recently become enamored with the pettiskirt/tutu/headband trend, and are snatching up these items right and left on places like Etsy and boutiques that women run from Facebook pages. The pieces can often cost a pretty penny, and I found myself wistfully looking at these multicolored, posh accessories for babies and wishing that I could buy them endlessly for my little one. The items look like creations perfect for a princess, and I was positively drooling over them.
Thanks to more thrifty pals, I discovered wholesale websites like Halo Heaven (mentioned in a previous entry) that sell pre-made pettiskirts, tutus, headbands, barrettes, bows, etc. for practically pennies, and I have been in, well, Halo Heaven. The other day, I bought The Bean nine pairs of crib shoes...NINE...for $18.00 total. Designer headbands for $1.50 a piece.
I have been reveling a little bit in my purchases. Hey, what mom wouldn't? I think most moms with little gals love dressing them up in fab stuff, and if you're anything like me, I like saving serious $$$ while I'm at it.
However, I noticed today that the same shoes I purchased for my baby for $2.00 a pair wholesale are being sold by these "online boutiques" out of crafty moms' houses for $10 to $15 a PAIR, unaltered, not enhanced, nothing. I wasn't overly surprised because I saw the same exact pettiskirts and tutus that I purchased for $2.00 to $4.50 a piece going for up to $35.00 unaltered at these same sites. And in some ways, I'm envious. I wish I had the business sense to buy up loads of items wholesale and to market and sell them for hefty profits. I mean, think how fun it would be to buy and sell cute little girls' accessories for a living? (I'd probably lose some profit keeping things for ourselves.)
However, part of me has been really saddened in thinking about this. I have friends that I shared this with--some were as excited as I was, and some (who won't read this blog...more acquaintances than anything) were actually very defensive and answered it by ordering more from these "specialty shops" rather than considering the possibility that they could get a better deal elsewhere. While the idea of playing with flowers and bows as a business sounds like so much fun, I feel like loving moms are being taken advantage of, or essentially, that they are allowing themselves to be taken advantage of when they are presented with another option and refuse to see it. People are making a killing off of moms who will stop at nothing to make sure their kids are dressed to the nines. Moms who want to say they "custom ordered" something that could have cost $3.00 off of a non-swanky wholesale website.
The profit margin here is insane. And I'm torn between wanting to have fun and sell these items, too, so I can totally stay at home with my kiddos, and wondering sometimes how much I too overpay or the lengths I am willing to go sometimes to make sure my family "fits in." How often do I crush my family's progress, say, to add another debt to a credit card in order to "have something special?" There are people out there eager and willing to take advantage of us when we are desperate to fit in, to look perfect, to have "nice things," and how often do we overspend and give what we don't have in order to keep up with the Joneses? How much do we pay, both literally and figuratively, for things that don't matter or happiness that we can find elsewhere? On one hand, I have to admit, there's a drooling part of me that thinks it would be fabulously fun to buy tutus, headbands, and pettiskirts, accent them with cute things, and resell them for profit. But, a part of me wonders if I would be contributing to something that, in the end, isn't good for anyone. Would I be contributing to something that has often caused my family pain, i.e. when I have focused more on what I want rather than what is best for my family, or overspent in order to focus on material things, rather than what is good for us in the long run? We, as mothers, need to refocus on what is truly important for our families, our spouses, our children, instead of constantly focusing on our wants and our desires. I include myself in this. If we let it, the world will take advantage of our envy, our wallets, our wants, our petty desires, our weaknesses, and our doubts, just like these "crafters" take advantage of Mommies who don't understand how much they are overspending on an item. It's more important to have a happy baby with a grounded, focused mother than a trendy tot with a debt-laden, unhappy, self-conscious mama who is never happy and always wanting more.
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