In or out

Today we met Amanda and AJ at the playground at Addison and Lincoln. That might not mean much to you out-of-towners, but that is a train and bus ride away. Since Sean works downtown sometimes, we resorted to public trans, which is not something I have done with both kids until now. Obviously, Gillian should get good and use to the train and bus since that is the way of urban life...I have taken it to work nearly every day of the past 8 years. It is a bit of a challenge to haul a stroller, even a Metro Lite, up two flights of stairs with a baby strapped to your chest, so we headed to the station south of here because it has an elevator. Then the train took 15 minutes to arrive (non rush hour delays). An uneventful ride, and Gillian was good...no, she was great. She must subconsciously know about my prior entry whining about her behavior and want to prove me wrong. Anyway, we looked out the window and saw the buildings and I showed her my favorite tree, and she flirted with people on the train. The downside was the 20 minute wait for the bus outside the train station, but Gillian was wonderfully patient. Addie slept. It was a quick trip down Addison, and we went to the playground in Yuppiland (Roscoe Village) packed with Bob strollers and Starbucks-adorned Mamas and stylishly clothed toddler. Besides ours I saw four other Baby Bjorn carriers and started to wonder...."am I a yuppie too??!?" I mean, I have a ghetto Graco stroller and my kid wears Old Navy and consignment shop duds (and I had a Dunkin Donuts coffee), a couple notches down on all accounts, but there I was. There were plenty of baby bumps besides Amanda's too.

Are we yuppies? Roscoe Village is rife with jet setting 20-30 somethings who have young families and live in overpriced houses (think close to a million dollars). Amanda says her block party conversations revealed only one other woman who had a job outside the home, and most of the husbands were lawyers or finance guys. I like to think of myself as a pretty frugal person on most levels and I'm not impressed with name brands, but I like what I like, and I often like things like the Baby Bjorn or Ergo carriers. I buy organic meat, yogurt, eggs, and milk for Gillian, and really like farmers markets where I can get fresh organic produce (is it so wrong to not want my 8 year old wearing bras and having a period because of all the growth hormones??!). I do yoga and read the news. I don't like my kid to put non-wholegrain stuff in her precious mouth. I pureed organic veggies for Gillian when she first started eating solids because I thought Gerber Baby food was death in a jar (before I discovered that Earth's Best was also organic and less time consuming to feed her). Addie even has some organic cotton pajamas (from a consignment shop, but still). I get my hair cut and colored at a salon (usually, though it looks pretty rough at the moment). I even like to go to Sam's and get a few bottles of wine every now and then because they have a better selection and better prices than the grocery (Binny's is buying Sam's!! Oh, the lament-prices already went up!).

I mean, the grounding things are that we live in a condo, we only have a part time nanny, I have terrible fashion sense, and I clip coupons. Aside from my taste for the well-made in life, I don't like WASTING money. I mean, one year I tracked my coupon savings (saved every grocery receipt) and it was $1560. That's a lot of money that didn't take much to make (I have pretty recently discovered that Target groceries, while limited, are usually about 40% less than the grocery store, so I get as much there as I can). I don't care if my sweater is Last Season if it saves me 75% off the original price. I almost never buy things at full price, except shoes for Gillian. But even that has changed. I bought a lot of 6 pairs off Ebay that were gently used-$50 for 2 pairs of Stride Rites (1 pair was a cute set of boots), 2 pairs of Saucony tennis shoes, a pair of Primigi mary janes, and a pair of dress shoes. They are fine, and I am benefitting from the fact that the kid who wore them wore them hardly at all.

Somewhere along the way, I decided that kids don't NEED new things. Poor Addie. When Gillian was born I would have no sooner put her in a used carseat or high chair than moving to the North Pole, but things have changed. Kids are hard on things and they depreciate quickly. No reason to spend that money when I can benefit from someone else spending it. Like Addie's new playmat I got from Craigslist for $15 (originally $79.99), which works just fine and is nice and clean. I'd like to tell you I do these things because it is greener to buy used, and my environmental conscience is the driving factor. Really, it's mostly because I feel like paying full price is getting scammed, and I hate getting cheated.

So, what is the vernacular for a cheap yuppie? Chuppie? Yugle? Grown up?