The weekend before I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I travelled with a play to a town an hour and a half away. During one of our breaks, the small cast and crew went shopping, and the director wanted to stop by a specialty baby store to pick something up for a friend. It was there that I was first introduced to the Bumbo.

When I finished laughing at the name of the seat and checked it out, I thought it was pretty neat. It’s so soft! And look! It’s all molded to fit the baby perfectly! And it looks so cool! Like it’s made out of Mars clay (if Mars clay came in pink and aquamarine)!

When I found out we were expecting, I added a Bumbo to the list of Things We Absolutely Need. We loved it and thought it was the neatest thing to use to sit my daughter in front of the TV and subject her to football and Baby Einstein videos (and play, and eat, and stuff that doesn’t involve TV, of course). But, after a couple months my daughter learned to arch her back and started to flip out of it all the time. The Bumbo was small and convenient to take along with us when we went out, but all too quickly it became a game of keeping her in the thing. The tray didn’t stay on and it just became annoying. It was easier to just sit her on the floor to play.

We got rid of the Bumbo with all our other baby things when we decided that two kids was enough. And then we got pregnant again. (Be ye not so stupid as to get rid of baby items before you’re for sure done.) The thing is, though, I didn’t find myself wanting to replace the sold-too-soon Bumbo. I just… didn’t want it. I have many friends who swear by the Bumbo and say it’s a must-have, but every time I passed the Bumbos in the store when I was pregnant, I was just kind of… meh.

Did you use a Bumbo with your baby? Did you love it? Hate it? Did you have an item that you found a necessity with one baby and unnecessary with the next?

Jen Wilson is a married mother of three super-awesome children—two girls and a boy—who range in age from 0-10. She enjoys photography, organizing, reading, TV, and sarcasm. She drinks her coffee black and dreams of one day owning a dishwasher. You can also find her on her blog, Hey Mrs. Wilson, where she has been writing about life in Saskatchewan since 2004.