Does Your Baby Care What Color the Diaper Bag Is?

Because of my desire to acquire as little stuff as possible, I had not considered a diaper bag an essential piece of baby gear. (Essential being defined as contributing to the health, safety and welfare of the child.) Well, at least something marketed specifically as a diaper bag. Wouldn't the unused messenger bag sitting on a shelf in the garage suffice? After talking to friends who actually have kids, I reconsidered and decided that a proper diaper bag, with its baby-related features, like pockets for bottles and a built-in changing pad, is worth buying if you've got the money, because it just makes life with a baby that much easier.

Since I was leery about the quality of a bag found at a big box store, (another piece of advice I received: you will carry that thing everywhere and want something that wipes down easily and will last) but hadn't been directed to anything else but high-priced bags you'd find in a boutique, I was surprised to learn that Land's End carries diaper bags. And they got good reviews from the Baby Bargains book for their durability and price.

When I approached the customer service counter to ask if they had any diaper bags in stock for me to look at, I was caught off guard by the first question out of the saleswoman's mouth, "Boy or girl?" The question was not asked out of personal curiosity, but rather, because they did have some in the stock room and she wanted to know which ones to fetch for me.

I wanted to snap, "Does it matter?!" but managed to squeak out a pleasant-sounding, "We don't know." "We're not into the boy/girl 'colors'" came out a little more sarcastically, especially with my use of air quotes. I've grudgingly accepted that many people in this country want to dress their girls in pink-frilly dresses and their boys in blue overalls, and that there's sadly no in-between. But diaper bags? Does the baby really care what color the diaper bag is? The baby will not be carrying it. Mom will. And hopefully dad will. Which lead me to conclude, "I just want something my husband will carry."

That was a recommendation from a dad himself. Go for something gender neutral, he advised, so your husband will want to carry the bag. Gender neutral in the baby world is easier said than done.

Despite the feminine-designed diaper canvas cotton totes modeled after the well-known Land's End totes the saleswoman brought out to me, (the cotton canvas was going to fail the wipe test and the design was going to even more miserably fail the "Will my husband be caught dead with this slung over his shoulder?" test) the rest of the company's diaper bags came in a choice of bold colors mixed with black. They even had one in a backpack style, similar to one we'd seen a dad carrying just a few days before. It's user-friendly and looks tough enough for the task. The final test will be whether it's dad-approved.