The Dollar Rule

The Dollar Rule vs. Baby Gear

If you are a new parent (i.e., your first kid is <1 year old), we have only one thing to say: STOP buying all that new baby gear. At least wait until you read this article.

We're not talking about obvious consumables like formula or baby food. We're talking about all those big ticket items, that you think you need because of all the marketing hype and "safety paranoid" that they try to instill into new parents. If you talk to parents of older kids you might be surprised at what "essential" gear often fails to pass the the Dollar Rule. We aren't going to do a full Dollar Rule vs. analysis of each type of gear. But we speak from direct experience and from that of our fellow parents.

• Strollers: Usually the new-parent stroller buying pattern is that the smaller the child, the bigger the stroller. So first comes the big heavy duty shock-absorber 5-point harness, double-sun-shielded, transformer-like stroller for when the baby is still a wee infant. Then maybe 8-12 months later you might get a medium-weight stroller, since by then you will have tired of collapsing and hefting the heavy-duty stroller into your car. Then as the kid is a young toddler but not quite able to walk everywhere (say 2-3 years old) you may end up with umbrella strollers. Umbrella strollers tend to get beat up a bit and actually may satsify the Dollar Rule, but the large and medium strollers are usually still in excellent shape by the time most people are done with them, even through a couple of kids. Get these big and medium strollers used and save yourself $200, $300 or more.

• Rocker swings: A child will outgrow these pretty quickly. Our swing was only used probably 10 hours total, but it cost $60 (fortunately a gift). Your mileage may vary, but generally these seem to fall short of Dollar Rule in our experience.

• Bouncy chairs: Same as swings. Although they don't usually cost as much.

• Cribs or bassinets: Stay clear of very old cribs that have their slats (bars) too far apart. The current standards state that the slats should be no more than 2 and 3/8-inch apart to prevent the baby's head from getting wedged in between them. Most recently made cribs should be okay if they weren't damaged. Kids are going to outgrow bassinets in just a few months; cribs they'll outgrow in a couple years and move into a toddler or youth bed by they time they're 3 or so. If you have some sort of 3-in-1 or 5-in-1 crib (like the Graco Pack-n-Play) then that might get your money's worth out it. While technically a $80-100 for a dedicated bassinet would still probably reach a DRR (Dollar Rule Ratio) of 1.0, since the baby probably will sleep in it for at least 80-100 hours worth in the early months, but we would suggest the money is better spent for gear that you might use a lot longer.

• Crib toys: It's tempting to believe all the hype about how you should stimulate a baby with all sorts of sounds, lights, and moving objects. This leads ones to buy $30-50 toys that might be in use for just a few months (and only for minutes at a time even at that). Although you might think that one might break-even with something used at naptime and at night, usually these gizmos only run for a few minutes and then shut off automatically. Also, once the child can really grab things and use their super-human baby grip on things, those $40 mobiles and $30 crib-side toys will find that they're suddenly not able to withstand the onslaught and need to be removed, if only for the child's safety. By the way, the whole stimulate-the-baby-movement has been shown to be largely unproven. They probably won't hurt, but it hasn't been shown to help either.

• Stimulation Toys or Videos: While certain companies would have you believe that their products will dramatically increase your child's IQ simply because they watch some silly video of a toy spinning around for 20 minutes, this is essentially unproven marketing (see the TIME article) that many people fall for. Babies need to interact with real people, real objects and real language. Not just gibberish on a TV screen. The only ones benefiting from these products are the companies selling them.

• Monitors: These often cost from $40 to well over $100 for a set of baby monitors. Some are both audio and video, for the very paranoid. After kids are around 3 or so, these are likely not needed, but they usually have little wear and tear. But they're still fine. Get these free or used and save yourself a bundle.

• Baby safety gates: One might get a few years out of these. Although most are not especially re-usable (the kind that screw into the wall), the ones that are only pressure-mounted are certainly good for many years.

If you don't believe me, sign up to Freecycle in your area and just monitor the posts for a while. Or Craigslist.com. You may surprised at just how much nearly-new, barely-used baby equipment there is to be had used (for free or for cheap).

 Tags:

• baby
• books
• equipment
• freecycle
• kids
• money
• parents
• safety
• stroller
• swing
• time
• used

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