My cousin has a new documentary The Contents of Her Purse. Allison over at Petit Elephant has a weekly post showcasing the what her readers are carrying around on an arm, clutching in a hand, or hanging from a shoulder. There’s even a Flickr group dedicated to photos of the stuff people lug around.
Whether you call it a purse, a pocketbook, bag, carry-all, or satchel whatever you’ve got in it, is distinctive and representative of your life. If you think about it, every bag you own has its own history of where you got it or why. Did you know almost all of my bags are purchased by my husband? Totally true. We discovered many years ago he has a penchant for picking out unique purses in addition to supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Who knew?!
When I see parents of babies schlepping huge the diaper bags around, I know what they’ve got inside. EVERYTHING. As the kids get older, we carry less with us physically, but probably more than make up for it with emotional baggage we fear our kids will cart around with them. FOREVER.
But it really takes far more than we ever think it would to screw up parenting. Sure we all have our moments where we wish we knew something we didn’t, or had hoped we reacted differently than we did, but overall building resiliency is what matters. How we bounce back from bad times and shoulder, carry or clutch whatever comes our way matters in this world.
Have you ever had “purse panic?” or “Wallet worry?” You quickly twist around in your chair at the restaurant looking for the strap of your bag, or you pat your pockets all over the place until you realize your trifold travelled from your back pocket to your inner jacket front? Parenting is a lot like that, we might think for a moment all is lost, have a momentary freak out and then something reminds us to take a breath and slow down. That something could be the binky you find at the bottom of your bag magically making the crying stop or finding a flash drive to save your work on a business trip. In our own way, we’re all a modern day Mary (Larry?) Poppins with our own bag of tricks, whether literal or symbolic.
So, tell me:
1. Name an item you always put in your bag.
2. What is the most useless thing you’ve ever had in your bag?
3. Do you have a favorite bag? (It can be one you own or one on your wish list)
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I always have lip gloss, can’t travel without it.
There’s nothing random in my purse, it all has great purpose!
1. I always have Ice Breaker mints…a slight obsession.
2. receipts…I tend to throw any receipt into the bottom of my bag.
3. I love them all, for different reasons.
LoveFeast Table recently posted..Great Grapes Wine- Arts and Food Festival
Hahaha… nice article.
I actually have a “man-purse” (so my wife likes to call it). It’s actually a MiniMate cooler by Igloo. I found it fit CDs perfectly and I started using it to carry them back and forth to work. Then I added some medications that I needed to take during the work day. A small first aid kit, envelope for coupons, nail clipper and USB flash drive later and I have an official “man-purse.”
1. Always have CDs in the man-purse. Not music CDs but utility CDs for fixing PCs.
2. The most useless thing would be expired coupons. I put coupons in my man-purse and they never leave.
3. Favorite bag… the MiniMate by Igloo. (I do also have a soft sided 6-pack size cooler thats become haven for portable hard drives, a USB adpater kit and a mini-screwdriver kit).
Allison, I usually have no fewer than three lip-related items. I keep forgetting I already put something in my bag, and inevitably add another.
LoveFeast- The receipts seem to multiply in there like bunnies, don’t they?
Adam- I’m now looking at the Mini-Mate in a whole different light! I can relate to the coupon conundrum as I have never been organized to use them. I am always in awe of those who are.
I have actually been able to parry down everything in my purse to a few items: wallet, pda (with hands free bluetooth for driving), make-up bad with mirror, lipstick and the occassional tampon, and pill box for that oft needed advil, my pen set, sungalsses and keys. Everything has a purpose.
My favorite dream (never gonna happen)purse would be a deep red hermes birkin bag. However I do not suffer as I am a handbaganista and change my bags frequently.
Oh btw, really fun post.
Elise recently posted..Charlatans- Autism and the Reality of What Helps
I always have my iPad in my purse..never know when you might need to read, watch a show or check email.
Useless? Half the stuff is probably useless. But you never know when you might need it and I’m prepared.
I don’t really have a favorite bag. I get bored with my purse real quickly and change often.
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