The April 2011 Reader's Digest has an article on inventors and their inventions. One featured invention is a combination of a baby onesie and a dust mop. Dress your baby in this outfit, let them crawl around the floor, and cleaning takes care of itself.
Not only has the product been wildly popular with parents, it's also inspired a significant increase in applications to adoption agencies. There's been more demand than supply of adoptable babies for many years, but this new wave of applications is swamping adoption agency staffs across the nation.
We should always be wary of causality claims based on statistical association, but this one looks real. Once the Kolt Agency in Chicago noticed the increase in applications they added a survey to their adoption applications asking the applicants about their motivation to pursue adoption.
Although the entire data set has not been released yet, the response from Biff and Betty Hathaway certainly supports a causal link between baby clothing/dust mops and adoption interest: "We never wanted kids because pregnancy seemed like a hassle and we thought babies would mess up our house. But with these new baby dust mops, having a couple of kids around could actually make our house cleaner. If they won't let us adopt, maybe we'll just volunteer to babysit for some of our friends."
This idea is very intriguing to me. I have not heard of these new "multi-purpose" onesies before. This also makes me chuckle because when I was a little girl my mom would always make a friendly joke when I laid on the floor, "Make sure you dust while you're laying there". It's ironic to think that someone actually proceeded to invent a onesie with a dust mop attached. I honestly can't say if I like or dislike the idea of these new onesies. First of all, even though there is a strong causal link between baby clothing/dust mops and adoption interest, who's to say that this is the ultimate reason. These new onesie definitely spark interest in the idea of adoption but there are many other factors that take precedent in the adoption process. I mean if the only reason a couple decides to adopt a child is to help them keep their house tidy, then personally I wouldn't let them adopt because their priorities/reasons aren't all there. I think it would be interesting to see the entire data set of the application responses to compare what other potential adoptive parents have said regarding their motive to pursue adoption.
ReplyDeleteTravis Horan says:
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of anything like this before. I find it very interesting to actually have baby clothes that can mop the floor as well. How would somebody even think of doing this? I find this very odd but also interesting. I do think this is an excellent product to maybe purchase in a store? I just dont think it would actually spark up couples wanting to adopt. I agree with what Chrstina said, if the only reason why people want to adopt is for the new clothes with the mop then I wouldnt let them even adopt. People who want to adopt should want the baby to start a family and things like that. I found it interesting to see how it sparked applications in adoption agencies. Last, I again agree with Chrstina about actually see a full data set. I think seeing an entire set would help determine any strong correlation between the onesie with the mop compared to the adoption agencies.
This shows how crazy people really are. I really want to see the full data set for this because I feel like there cannot be a connection of people wanting to adopt just because of these onesies. If this is the main reason that people want to adopt then they do not deserve a child and should learn how to pick up a mop. Even with a baby wearing one of these suits they would not do a "significant" amount of cleaning, but then again if they are that lazy and only want to adopt a kid for this maybe it is significant for them. Overall I find this intriguing, but I sincerely hope that it is not true.
ReplyDeleteI find this article to be hilarious. The thought that more people are going to want to adopt children because now babies can wear onesies and clean the house as they crawl around is comical. I feel that the onesie is irrelevant data to the idea that more people are going to want to be parents and have children now. There are so many other factors that go into having a child and being a parent that babies being able to clean the house as the crawl around is the least of people's worries. Great article though and I got a good laugh out of reading it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Jesse is saying. This article was comical to read. There are definitely many other reasonings as to why a parent will want to have a child. As the child gets older, the parents are more wanting the children to clean not as a baby. Therefore, let me start by saying the idea is ridiculous. There might be a association between the onsies and the babies, but there are tons of other underlying factors as to why a parent would would want to adopt. It is definitely a lot cheaper to higher a maid than to adopt a baby to clean the house.
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