Dear Greenhorn Valley View friends, this is a difficult article for me to write because it involves talking about addiction.
And making it even more difficult, the person addicted is my wife. But I think it’s necessary to give you some background information first… My dear wife Elaine spent her career spanning several decades as a Pediatric Nurse. Along the way she spent many years in hospitals providing the various services nurses provide. She knew she wanted to be a nurse from an early age, and that she wanted to specialize in the care of newborns and their mothers. To this day, if a baby comes within a hundred yards of Elaine her sensors go off and it won’t be long until the babies in her arms. I realize this is not unique to Elaine; I’ve noticed many other women share this propensity.
Anyway, after Elaine retired, we moved to Colorado Springs; part of the reason is that our daughter lives with her husband in Parker, and they were planning to start a family. Leaving Connecticut wasn’t an easy decision – we also have twin boys back East, one in Boston, the other in Philly. Moving so far from them was hard.
Well, sure enough our daughter had a son in September of 2021, and then a daughter in April of this year. And like all new grandparents we are thrilled by this extraordinary blessing from God. However, there was an underbelly to this blessing (so to speak); it was having grandchildren in our lives that triggered my wife’s addiction. She is addicted to buying clothes for young children, and it’s sad to have to watch the grip of this addiction grow and tighten on such a sweet and compassionate person.
Her attraction to baby clothes isn’t new. Elaine has always brought home “cute” baby clothes; she’s stored them “in case” someone we knew (friend, friend-of-friend, neighbor, friend-of-neighbor, someone at church, someone down the street, someone the person down the street knew of…) had a baby.
I always thought this was a little unusual, but nothing to worry about. After all, Elaine liked babies, and she liked to support new mothers – so I was never really worried it would get out of hand. I was soooo wrong.
Elaine has now begun hanging out in Facebook Neighborhood looking for yard sales with used newborn and young children’s clothing. She frequents ‘Once Upon a Child’, more and more frequently. And a few days ago, she saw an ad by a mother of twin girls selling a mountain of baby girl clothes in sizes our granddaughter is growing into.
Her first comment: she might go tomorrow. Ten minutes later: would I drive her over now?
When we came back with about 40 pounds of baby clothes that she bought for $30 I knew she, and I, were in trouble. I realized two things: 1) I’m an enabler.
And 2) It’s time for an intervention.
Dear reader, does anyone out there know of a psychiatrist that specializes in Baby Clothing Consumer Addiction? Is there a BCCA support group somewhere close? Is there a support group to help husbands whose wives are BCC addicts? I’m getting scared we may have to buy a house with more storage space…
Paul Trapp grew up in Houston, spent over four decades in New England where he and Elaine raised their three children, and retired to Colorado Springs in 2018. Paul spent most of his career working in corporate America as an IT training manager for several companies in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He is also a singer/songwriter and has put a number of his songs on his website, www.ptrapp.com, where you can also find his memoir, “Life Changing Decisions”.