Paper Obsession

July 26, 2011

Can anyone believe that school starts in a month? I am going to be an emotional basket-case when that school bus filled with my brand new Kindergartener pulls away. My neighbor just revealed to me that she followed the bus on the first day of school and then was one of a few equally as neurotic parents who were in the parking lot, tearing up, and taking pictures of their sweet tyke heading off the bus for their first day of elementary school. I mean – this is genius. You better believe I will be doing this – and without any shame. It is what it is, kittens.

And given that it’s school time in one month, so begins my annual obsession with all things paper. As soon as the calendar hits August, I think it’s reasonable to start thinking about Christmas cards. For real – through my sweat and hatred of the heat – I am thinking about my holiday card theme and what pictures I might still need to capture. I received my first Halloween catalog two weeks ago and frankly that annoyed me. But the arrival of August and the reality of Back-to-School and dreams of crisp fall mornings really feed my love for paper products. These paper products help me feign the image of being an organized gal. 

This week's deal on paper at Plum District DC

So imagine my delight over this week’s deal on Plum District for Erin Condren paper. I had never even heard of these products before (Thank you Plum!) but immediately hopped on her site and started trolling for pieces we all can be sure I had to have. I ended up with the return address mailing labels, which I legitimately needed. God forbid I have to use my delicate hand to actually write my return address.  And I also ended up with the birthday stickers, which I arguably didn’t need but seemed like a brilliant way to help a mom realize who the gift is from once her cherub has torn apart all birthday gifts at Nascar speed, and then I justified that I don’t need to worry about wasting money on kid cards anymore. Brilliant, right? And see how I’m thinking of other moms with that one. The question is – where will I place said label – on the outside of the gift bag? Will they see it there? I’ll let you know when the time comes.  I lingered over the holiday themed return address labels on her site for a little too long, I will admit.  Bottom line – you can get $50 worth of goods for $25 – so you better act fast if you’re as paper obsessed as moi. This is not the last you’ll hear of my paper obsession. Mark my words.

Disclosure: As part of my partnership with Plum District, they gifted me these items. But I wouldn’t be telling you about them if I didn’t genuinely want them.

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DC Parenting Blogger, Life with 2 kids, Motherhood

Kid-Free Restaurants and Planes?

July 25, 2011

With disgust and horror pasted on their faces, I intently eavesdropped on the conversation between a couple sitting next to us in Lebanese Taverna earlier this spring. These two were aghast over a family sitting behind them who had a baby, I guessed around 10-11 months old. The baby was perfectly well-behaved from my perspective. Beyond being super cute, he wasn’t making a sound and was eating his delicious meal. The trouble is the way babies eat their meals is up for judgment among those who have never had the pleasure of feeding a baby. Obviously this kid was both eating his rice and tossing his rice onto the floor, as any self-respecting baby does. These two near-perfect diners exchanged such comments as “If parents are going to let their  kids eat like that, then they shouldn’t be allowed to bring their children to restaurants.” And “Why doesn’t that mother do something about that kid?”

I couldn’t help but wonder if the flame had gone out in their relationship if the only thing they could talk about was the table manners of this unsuspecting baby. Then again, I was out without children and with my husband and was readily spending my time eaves-dropping on their conversation and shooting them nasty looks, so who was I to judge the state of their relationship? I was better-suited to keep my judgment directed towards their near-perfect existence enabling them to so harshly criticize this poor family. It was everything I had not to lean over and say “I know this will shock you, but you behaved THE SAME WAY when you were a baby.”

The other thing was, this kid was only tossing rice on the floor. When my youngest was that age, she was self-enrolled in the baby food-hurling Olympics and perfected the art of chucking pieces of meat into her dinner companion’s eyes, faces, noses, really anything at her level. We were like clay pigeons in skeet shooting practice for her and she squealed with delight over successfully pegging us with her food. Even I realize that is unacceptable table manners when out in public but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it until she outgrew that delightful phase. But merely tossing rice on the ground? Doesn’t that just come with baby-eating territory? The staff at Lebanese Taverna seemed to barely notice the state of the ground when that family left and cleverly moved another family to that same table – opening the door for this couple to begin judging yet another mother.

And why is it always the mom’s fault?

I must admit, their harsh and ongoing judgment of the families left me incredibly irritated but also wondering – how often have I been judged by others at a restaurant based on how my kids are acting? I work pretty hard at bringing a bag full of supplies to keep the girls entertained throughout the meal, offer rewards for good table manners prior to entering the restaurant (I mock the experts who tell parents not to bribe – have those people ever had kids?) and rarely fully taste my meal or finish a conversation – so it’s not like I’m lounging over a 4-course meal noting the hints of wood and fruit  in my glass of wine while my children are terrorizing other tables.

I might hang this sign all over my own house.

The experience in the spring helped soften my surprise when news broke last week that a restaurant outside Pittsburgh banned children under the age of 6. Even more notable, an online poll on MSNBC accompanying this news indicates that only 3% of survey respondents feel it is patently unfair to ban children from restaurants. Whaaa? 44% of respondents said children should be banned right now and if you are a statistics geek, this is a statistically significant survey because that 44% represents over 42,000 people. Apparently a generous 53% were at least nice enough to respond that it depends on the place.

So are parents of young children, here defined as those 6 and under, universally hated in restaurants beyond inexpensive chains?

To me it’s really about common sense and attentive parenting. Would I bring my children to Citronelle? Of course not – why would I spend an enormous amount of money on a restaurant only to waste it on my kids not eating the food and me not enjoying the experience. Is it respectful to other patrons to bring young children to high-end restaurants?  And does it even make sense? Isn’t that the parent’s call?

I do firmly believe that all parents are responsible for keeping the children quiet and as well-behaved as possible when eating out – but to go so far as to ban them strikes me as unfair and unkind. The trouble is – we’ve all seen other parents out with unruly children running around, shouting, fighting and generally bored while the parents just ignore them – so are those people dragging the rest of us down?

And what about planes? Last summer a survey came out that revealed the majority of respondents believe there should be a family-only section on planes. On some level, I have to wonder if that might offer some relief to the parent whose baby is screaming and there’s nothing that they can do about it – at least they are among company – but again – who’s to say that young children are any worse behaved than obnoxious adults? I’ve seen plenty of them on planes in my time.

One friend suggested we could just start taking this whole concept of banning similar groups to one area a little further. Her thought was – how about we ban all the skinny bitches at the pool to the same section?

Actually, I think if we need to resort to these kinds of boundaries, I’m in favor of how this old guy in North Carolina handles unruly kids – and I can’t say I fully disagree with him – he has a zero tolerance policy for screaming kids. And how does he communicate said policy? With a sign on the front door of his restaurant. OK then – perfect. As a parent, I know the rules. If my kid starts screaming, I leave the restaurant with said child, otherwise have fun and enjoy the meal. I can dig it.

What do you think?

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DC Parenting Blogger, Life with 2 kids, Motherhood, Traveling with Kids, Washington Mommy Blogger

Mid-Summer Sweltering Survival Tips

July 21, 2011

The dog days are seriously here – and if you are looking for ideas on how to survive – here’s a recap of some of the summer ideas covered here or links to other great DC bloggers who offer some fab tips. Call me a little lazy today because of all the link-love but it’s too hot to think.  And hopefully there’s something for everyone below.

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DC Day Trips with Kids, DC Events with Kids, DC Moms Expert Series, DC Parenting Blogger, Express Blowout/Keratin Treatments, Family Travel Tips, Motherhood, Summer Hair Trends, Summer Highlighting Trends, Summer Survival with Kids, Summer Travel Tips, Theater for kids, Traveling with Kids, Washington Mommy Blogger

Today’s Topic: On Teething, Jewelry & Celebrity Baby Showers

July 14, 2011
If motherhood is the necessity of invention, then today’s Wired Momma Experts should be pictured next to the phrase in the Dictionary. Frankly, our experts are an example of worlds colliding for me. First these women had me at teething, then they had me at jewelry but then to add on celebrity baby showers –  it’s like putting the hot fudge on top of my already decadent sundae. I couldn’t wait to speak with Kendra LaDuca, who along with her business partner Amy Maurer Creel, founded Teething Bling right here in Silver Spring, MD.

Amy Maurer and Kendra LaDuca with their baby teething rings

 If you haven’t heard about or seen their necklaces, they are fabulous and stylish but also safe for babies to chew on. We all know how aggressively a teething baby goes after our necklaces, breaks them, chews on them – the idea is genius. Kendra and Amy are a classic and wonderfully reassuring example of how you can take your career in a different path, start something utterly new, inspired by motherhood and caring for your babies, and build it into a business that is sold internationally, as well as hob knob with pregnant celebrities at their baby showers. Read on to learn how to take an idea from concept to reality, how motherhood can really inspire your inner-entrepreneur and for some great advice on embarking on your own business adventure.

First question, how did the idea for Teething Bling come about?

I really think our story is a great mom story. Becoming a mother is a natural segue into new things, including new ideas and new friends. Me and Amy were new moms at the same time and we struck up a friendship at a baby playgroup. I knew I didn’t want to go back to work, I was really looking to do something different because my priorities had shifted. I had a background in events and project management and Amy had a background in marketing. I think becoming a mom and being home on maternity leaves affords you the opportunity to not just meet new people but meet new people from all sorts of business backgrounds who you might not otherwise have been exposed too. I had the initial idea of teething jewelry because we all know how the babies grab for your jewelry, try to chew it, and sometimes break the chain. We both liked the idea and embarked on a long idea stage of prototyping our concepts.

Did you know how to prototype something?

No! Not at all. I just started doing research first to see if the product already existed and discovered that it didn’t. I couldn’t find anything else like it on the market. Then we had to research what teething toys are made of, which as it turns out, is silicone. We learned that silicone is safe for babies – it’s what teething toys are made from – and we can do any color with it. Next we started shopping around to different jewelry stores to really find out what’s out there, what could be viable and then we sketched it out.

Ok. So you had a concept, you’d done some background research, and you don’t have any experience in bringing a product from concept to market – so what did you do next?

We really just started making lots of phone calls to silicone companies, sometimes we’d find people who couldn’t help us but would point us in the right direction. Because we knew how important safety is when dealing with products for babies, we started looking into industrial design firms, specifically those with experience in baby toys. We found a group in New York City and reached out to them. They couldn’t help but they did put us in touch with a client of theirs and he was interested – he became the liaison to factories.

Amazing. So to give us all a realistic sense of the timing of this – how long did it take from idea to the first prototype and how you got it from the factories to the stores?

Well, it took us about 18 months from the idea to the first prototype. We realized that the first design was too big for the mom’s chest and the colors weren’t quite right, so we had to tinker with it. In terms of getting our finished product into mom’s hands, we went to craft shows, local fairs like the Flower Mart at the National Cathedral, Christmas fairs and we would cold call stores and send samples. We really loved doing the fairs and craft shows because we would interact with our customers and we loved getting feedback from them. It’s very motivating. Cold calling stores is really impersonal.  Things started to take off and then we went to big industry shows, like in Vegas. The shows are where you meet with stores who are selling to maternity stores, children’s stores and so on. The word also really started to spread which is wonderful because our customers began doing our marketing for us. We would hear about customers walking into stores wearing our necklaces, asking them if they sold our necklaces and then the store would call us.

Tori Spelling with her Teething Bling necklace

That’s fabulous. So I have to ask because I’ve seen this on your Facebook page – how did you end up at a celebrity baby shower and what is that like?

Basically what happens is someone organizes the baby shower for the celebrity and they invite vendors, at your own expense, to provide free stuff at the shower. Whoever is organizing the shower for the celebrity pitches it to the celebrity as the best products available on the market for the mom-to-be or baby and if the celebrity likes the product, she’ll pose for a picture with it. We’ve done Tori Spelling’s shower and most recently Jewel’s baby shower. The truth is, the celebrity baby shower is how we generate the highest traffic numbers to our site from Google. Also, what’s fun is, every once in a while our jewelry will pop up randomly in shows. For example, last week someone spotted it on Days of Our Lives. I guess there was a fussy baby in one scene and in the next scene, the baby is playing with our necklace. It’s not product placement driven by us but it works out great.

So where are you sold and do you have staff?

We are sold in over 27 countries and we have international distributors in 6 regions. We work with a fulfillment center that is a small family business as well. For a long time we worked right out of Amy’s basement here in Montgomery County but we just couldn’t handle the volume after a while. Now we have a few customer service reps, an accountant and then me and Amy.

What parting advice do you have for any women out there who are thinking of launching a new business or feel like they are sitting on a great new idea?

  1. Doing your research is so important. You don’t want to find out that it can’t be done or that it’s already been done.
  2. Be realistic. It takes a long time to get where we are. We started this in 2001-2002.
  3. Me and Amy are a good balance for each other. It’s a lot of work and we have to remind one another that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. It really takes longer than you think it’s going too.
  4. You need to have a vision and want to end up there. I sketched Teething Bling with my daughter’s Crayola pencil, so it really started from scratch.
  5. And finally, don’t lose sight when it feels overwhelming. It’s important to really savor the moment and appreciate it.

That’s great advice, thank you Kendra. Hopefully if there are women out there inspired to start something new, this will help them get going.

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Celebrities, DC Moms Expert Series, DC Parenting Blogger, Moms/Entrepreneurs, Motherhood, Washington Mommy Blogger
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