One flagrant difference I’ve noticed since becoming a mom (of a baby at least), is how friendly people are to me now.

Suddenly I know everyone in my neighborhood. Suddenly, strangers talk to us in stores and on the street. Suddenly, I’m chuckling with the check-out lady over my baby’s funny babbles.

Since having a baby, my faith in humanity is partially restored.

Aw, people are friendly! Aw, people love babies!

Of course this palpable difference has me thinking… this is how it oughta be all the time, baby or no baby.

Right?

Now, this all started when I was pregnant (visibly, so the last month or so)…

I remember mentioning to my husband how delightful it was to have strangers making kind and friendly comments to me. I was lapping it up!

He responded, half jokingly, that it was scratching my itch for “significance.”

*smirk*

Indeed.

But, don’t we all want to feel significant? According to Tony Robbins’ six human needs, we absolutely do. And, I’ll add, we all deserve to feel significant. Since creating a human, I’m in awe of the magic of the human experience, and, like, reproduction.

Just like, whoa. HOW does that happen? It’s SO significant. Every human being is significant.

Anyway, all I’m saying is that I’ve been really enjoying the positive interpersonal effects of having an adorable baby. Voilà.

Now onto the actual topic of today’s post/video.

A few months ago, I shared my minimalist newborn essentials with you. First-time-mom-newbornland can be such a slippery slope for stuff, and suddenly you’ve amassed copious amounts of baby thingamabobs and “must-have” parenting paraphernalia. My point with sharing my minimalist newborn essentials was this: You may not need all the stuff they say you do. 

To further illustrate this idea, today I’m sharing some big go-tos that many parents use, that my husband and I have deemed either unnecessary or not aligned with our parenting style and philosophies.

So here are eight things that we don’t use, and we’re certainly not worse for the wear.

So there you have it, friends. I hope you found this little foray into minimalist momming fun and informative. Please let me know in the comments below if there’s anything that you don’t/didn’t use with your kids that errrryone else does/did.

And here’s hoping you too can get glimpses of friendly humanity, whether you’re baby-toting or not. And if you’re the type of person who takes the time to say lovely things to strangers, God bless you.