January 4, 2024

Deciding When to Have Kids – and How Many?

If you give your girlfriend a ring, she’s going to ask for a wedding. When you give her a wedding, she’s probably going to ask for a home. When you move into the home, you’ll both see an empty room. Seeing the empty room will remind you about having a baby…

[Record scratch]

Wait a minute – you’ve heard this before. That’s because when you and your spouse knew you wanted to spend your lives together, it was probably a foregone conclusion that you’d welcome kids along the way. The only question became when and how many?

Of course, no one can answer those questions but you and your spouse, but here are some factors to consider when deciding to have kids.

Space

If your digs are tight, you need to think about how an addition will make things even tighter. Remember, it’s not just the extra person (however tiny they may be – initially), but all the trappings of babyhood: bassinets, cribs, playpens, changing tables, swings, dressers, etc. You also must be prepared for anything, like – surprise – the possibility of more than one baby.

Finances

You can’t put a price tag on a human life, but you certainly can on diapers, wipes, formula, clothes and baby furniture. No, it’s not cheap having a baby, but neither is anything else in life, so it’s all about priorities. Be sure to consider what your budget can handle, because you don’t need extra strife when undertaking something new.

Jobs

You also need to consider your work situation. Some employers aren’t so family-friendly and may not make it easy for both mom and dad to transition into this new lifestyle. Be ready for anything career-wise, even if that means that one of you suddenly decides to quit work and stay home with the baby. It could also mean transitioning into a remote gig for one of you. If none of that is an option, figure out how much childcare will cost for you to keep your current job.

Ages

Having a baby at age 25 is a lot different than having one at 45 no matter whether you’re male or female. The challenges are different for each gender, but proper consideration remains important for each. You’ll also need to discuss how many kids you hope to have, and by when. Planning for future additions is a lot like planning your financial future – it takes a lot of thoughtful joint discussion.

Lifestyles

This category offers a lot of intangibles that could sway you in either direction. Are you so active in a hobby or passion that it could prevent you from raising a child as it deserves? Do you have a solid support network nearby? Are you planning a major career change or dramatic move across the country? Consider all those factors that influence how you function in life.

Viewpoints

If one of you is ready and the other isn’t, that’s going to take some heartfelt and meaningful conversation. It’s not like you’ll be able to resolve your difference of opinion overnight. But remember, you got into this relationship for a reason, you’re committed, and you can work this out. Something this important deserves a lot of loving empathy, as well as give-and-take.

Of course, there’s another factor not examined here – and that’s your heart. You know you love each other, and you want that love to grow even more. So, you could stop thinking about it, over-analyzing it and just get on with it.

Then one day when you have a baby, you’ll lay her down for a nap. While she’s sleeping, you’ll look around your home and realize there’s an empty room. And chances are if you have an empty room…

February 13, 2018

Is NUK failing dads?

If you’ve ever brought a child into the world, chances are you’ve used NUK products. Whether it’s bottles, teethers or tableware, NUK is easy to be found in the childcare world.

Yet for a company that’s been around for almost 60 years, NUK doesn’t appear to be listening to its customer base.

That’s because its marketing team has positioned its business as one of the more dad exclusionary companies around. On its website – nuk-usa.com – you’ll find repeated instances of an unrepresentative approach:

A trademarked “You’ve Got This” slogan which offers wonderful parental assurance, but only for mom. Observe its one-sided slogan description: “Congratulations, mom! You just did the amazing and brought a beautiful baby into the world.” Wording like this ignores the indisputable fact that dad also just did the amazing and brought a beautiful baby into the world.
There you can also view a brief, inspirational video that expands on the “You’ve Got This” notion by not only repeatedly speaking to mom in name, but forgets to include even one moment of footage of a father in action.
NUK employs use of the exclusionary hashtag #NUKMoms.
It offers the “More for Moms Rewards Program.” And just in case you missed the program’s logo on the front page, there’s a box on the bottom right corner of nearly every page offering “Exclusive Savings Just for Mom.”

Interestingly, if not predictable, you won’t find a single image of a dad anywhere on its site, nor on social media. That’s where unquestionable irony sinks in. There are numerous cute faces of male babies and young boys used to sell NUK products. But then consider how those same faces will be ignored by the very company they represent once they become fathers later in life.

Its Twitter feed reinforces the notion that moms are its intended audience by insisting, “With some patience, creativity and expertly engineered products from NUK®, you can tackle this mom thing.”

Imagine you’re a dad and reading, “…you can tackle this mom thing.”

If there were any further doubt as to whom it wants as customers, NUK seals the deal on its About Us page by declaring, “And we listen to the real world experts – moms just like you – to meet and exceed your needs.”

Dad knows what he’s doing every bit as mom. In today’s online shopping world where customers are sometimes only known by credit card numbers, it’s time that NUK takes a moment to embrace the other parent who knows a thing or two about nurturing.

May 15, 2015

Plum Organics shows why every parent should buy Plum Organics

Marketing is, in a way, a lot like baseball.

One good at-bat can erase a bad one, and in the world of marketing, companies get plenty of turns at the plate. Those at-bats can come in the form of television advertising, display ads, billboards, radio ads, promotions, Internet, social media, and on and on.

In our view from the dadmarketing dugout, we’d like to say “we’ve seen it all,” but we all know that’s not true.

For every mainstay like Jif Peanut Butter – who can’t seem to make any hitting adjustments despite facing different pitchers (customers) which it used to encounter decades ago – we find new players and new attitudes infusing the marketing game.

Those fresh approaches to the game are called game changers, and our latest marketing discovery (right) could be the best magazine advertisement of all-time, but at the risk of hyperbole, let’s at least declare it a solid walk-off homer for the ages.

Let us reintroduce you to Plum Organics, a company who competes in the Baby Division.

For most teams in this group, marketers commonly like to play defense, or at least conservatively at best, by only dialoguing with moms in its messaging. Rather than taking new, inventive approaches to the game, these teams recoil, shy away and almost shrink when it comes to the plausible notion that dads raise children in today’s world. Most of these teams would rather play the game the same way it has always been played, and stick to a formula that it believes is safe.

We wrote about Plum Organics back in January and it wasn’t all favorable. But today, after we encountered its latest magazine display ad, we found it has unveiled a renewed swing with an energetic approach that finally matches its overall fashionable style.

Concerning its website, plumorganics.com, you’ll note that we penned: “Based on its website, the company actually seems fairly admirable. We love its charitable efforts, admire its refreshingly generous use of dads in photos, and dig the story of how Neil Grimmer founded the company.”

In our general assessment of marketing to dads, we’re not looking for total dad inclusion to the point of mom exclusion – only equality in parenting to where no one is left out. Neither gender should be discriminated against. Both parents count.

Plum Organics’s latest ad, where a dad is prominently featured, pulls off a clear message that dads unequivocally are parents, too. Take note that another parent, presumably mom, is also featured in the background holding a child. But in this ad it’s dad who takes the spotlight, and it works. Wonderfully.

In fact, we love everything about this advertising masterpiece: its layout, its font selection, its soft feel, its simplicity, its captivating photo upon which nearly any dad can relate. We embrace it all.

The continuity continues on its website (it always has), as well as robust use of the ever-nifty, super-solid #ParentingUnfiltered hashtag. Why couldn’t Similac use such an inclusionary hashtag? Why can’t Amazon Mom consider a unified name? Why can’t Jif step up to the plate with a new attitude?

Here’s to the marketers of Plum Organics, whose sweet swing instantly put it among the very elite of Major League Marketing, ensuring optimum business operations where it counts, making it attractive to buyers of all shapes and sizes – and genders.

December 11, 2014

With great power comes great responsibility

I realize the Internet has blurred some of the rules of journalism, but the media still has a certain amount of duty and accountability.

After what I saw online today, People magazine clearly feels none of it.

Polish dad Bartosz Fórmanski YouTubed a charming video of him placing fake facial hair on his baby, and titled it, “What happens when my wife leaves me alone with our baby.” Although his YouTube name is “Perfect Daddy,” the video simply looks like a dad having fun with his baby. Nothing more.

People magazine wrote about the video on its website, yet interpreted it by making dads out to be the negligent, undependable, butt-of-jokes parent with the irresponsible title, “Here’s Why You Don’t Leave Dad Alone with the Baby.”

People doesn’t appear to have interviewed Bartosz, but decides anyway to make assumptions merely from his headline alone.

It could be that Bartosz is just a funny guy. Perhaps he’s a perpetual practical jokester. Or, maybe it’s just a dad having harmless fun.

But People would rather take the lazy approach and use tired comic relief by reshaping the unknown meaning Bartosz’s YouTube title, making dad out to be the sorry excuse for a parent. Yep, here’s another example of why we can’t leave dads with kids. Clearly, dads aren’t serious parents like mom! They’re only assistants as best!

Why did People have to turn innocent fun into reckless headline writing?

I guess when it gets right down to it, it really doesn’t know, uh, people.

May 19, 2014

The Grinch who stole Father’s Day

No matter how long we live, we all have this same statistic in common: we got to spend (roughly) nine months being held exclusively by our mothers. Life expectancy aside, and speaking solely in general terms, mothers will have always had at least nine more months than fathers to hold their children.

During pregnancy, of course, fathers have the chance to touch the belly, but there’s a barrier in the way. Fathers can experience a baby kick, but the sensation for the mother and child are one and the same. Fathers can talk and sing to the infant inside the mother’s womb, but babies not only hear the mother’s voice – they feel it.

I once heard a woman tell the story how their child died upon birth. She asked the nurses to let the dad, not her, be the first to hold their child, because he naturally never got to during the pregnancy. Besides, it was the first, only, and last time he would embrace their child all in the same instance.

Mothers have the exclusive, honored gift of carrying children. That’s special. That creates a bond with every child that doesn’t make it more superior than with a father, just unique.

And it should be treated with uniqueness, even in marketing.

However, Johnson & Johnson’s latest ad artlessly exudes and radiates exclusion. It doesn’t take a deep thinker to see that dads, plain and simple, are crudely left out of this marketing message. What’s more, the advertisement is ironically straight out of the June 2014 Parents magazine, which includes a special reading section specifically for dads, timed knowingly for Father’s Day.

That’s some holiday present from Johnson & Johnson, huh dads? A sucker punch below the belt, followed by a kick in the teeth, finished off with salt in the wounds.

I expected more from this company so synonymous with baby care. No head-to-toe wash around is going to clean up this mess.