Only in Italy

At this weekend's Italian-American baby shower, there was spiked punch, key lime cheesecake, cute games, and an advice session from those who have children and, well, those who were children. Like most showers, the presents were the serious point. In Italy, however, showers (either bridal or baby) are simply not a tradition. As a consequence, registries aren't really a 'thing' over here. The mother-to-be had registered at the European store Prenatal but I was one of the few people to actually purchase off the registry. Let me tell you why.

After work on Friday, I went to the Prenatal location nearest to my home. An employee asked for the family's name and, when I replied, shuffled through a pile of emails about two inches thick to find the message with this family's info. What kind of info? It was the name of the store they'd registered at. Because they registered at a different location of the same store, I had to call the other store to find out what was still available on the registry. I narrowed down the price point but, as you can imagine, it took awhile to go through all the items and match them up with the flimsy catalog at the desk.

After choosing some tub accessories (I like to pick the functional, boring stuff), I was disappointed to find out from the clerk at my store that the store doesn't even have half the items in stock. Back to the drawing board.... I finally settled on a giostrina mobile, a musical mobile of fuzzy (so soft!) monkeys since bedsheets were my only other option (I like boring but have the draw the line somewhere). So then, once the clerk at my store got the mobile, we had to call back the other store to give them the item number so they could cross it off the registry. I'd show you a picture but, naturally, the store does not have online shopping or internet catalog.

I'm hoping that my next baby shower will be for an American (online shopping and registries!) as I have now discovered why Italians tend to ignore the whole concept of a registry.