Guest post by Cara Delzer– CEO of Moxxly. Launching this summer, the Moxxly Flow is revolutionizing the breast pump experience by creating a discreet pump system which fits under your clothing allowing you to pump anywhere 🙌
I have seen dozens of highly curated lists of baby must-haves in my day. I went to business school; my MBA mom friends can optimize the shit out of baby preparedness in a single sheet of Excel. But here's what everyone misses: you don't need a diaper bag. You just need a Tote Savvy.
Handbags are such a thing in today's society. For better or for worse (probably the latter), our bags send signals of our personality and style to the world. My beloved giant of a bag (shout out to Cuyana) signals my turtle-like proclivity for carrying a household's worth of supplies on my back. The hand-tied adjusted shoulder strap signals my DIY scrappiness and aching back. The gorgeous pebbled navy fits my classic style and hides all the drips of coffee that slosh on the bag during my commute. I absolutely didn't want to give up this gorgeous bag when my baby arrived because, forgive me, but I'm not really into black vinyl bags with that scream MOM ALERT!
And yet, leaving the house with a new human requires so many (really, so many!) contingency plan items that must be well-organized and immediately searchable. Trust me: when you're about to board a flight while holding a screaming baby whose poop has escaped directly onto your arm, you have to be able to find the wipes in 1.7 seconds flat or the whole operation (and your tenuous grasp on sanity) falls apart.
I love my Tote Savvy because it allows me to claw back my sense of personhood and individual style when I'm on the go with my kiddos. Motherhood -- as wonderful and life-affirming as it is -- can sometimes feel so commonplace by design... as if giving birth is the passageway into a new persona that, of course, should now automatically like anything that was "designed for mom." While I'm still breastfeeding, I already have to forego a lot of favorite dresses, lingerie, second glasses of wine, etc. so I'm really glad to keep my gorgeous handbag. It's a small win, but I'll take what I can get these days.
Tote Savvy enables me to signal to the world that I'm still the same hoarding, coffee-guzzling, classics-loving lady that I used to be before the baby arrived. No one has to know that I'm also packing 3 diapers and a rectal thermometer at all times.
With Tote Savvy, maybe this handbag thing isn't so bad of a trend after all.
Author:
Cara Delzer– CEO of Moxxly