There are some brands that have been so successful that their brand has become synonymous with the product itself. When I talk about doing the hoovering I’m not neccesarily using a Hoover brand vacuum cleaner. When American kids ask for a Band Aid I understand aren’t really fussy about what brand plaster they get for their cut. A Biro might be any type of pen.

There are also some people who insist on referring to many of their belongings by their brand name. It’s relatively common with people who’ve put a lot of money into something and want you to know – they aren’t parking their car, for example, they’re parking their Tesla.

I’ve noticed there are quite a few parents who do the same thing with baby gear. There is a huge, sometimes predatory, market for brand name baby stuff which preys on parents fears of having their baby go without something they need.

Several times I’ve had to look up what someone is talking about when they refer to a brand but mean a specific piece of baby kit. For example, you might put your baby in their Bjorn (bouncer chair), you could ask if you can take the Doona on a plane (pushchair) or you might comment on how much the baby loves their Skiphop (activity chair).

I think brand name people like feeling like they are in the metaphorical club. If you’ve got the brand name kit then you know that your baby isn’t going without right? Sometimes it seems like pride when people refer to regular items by their brand name. It can seem a bit exclusionary, talking about a baby bjorn as if it’s the only bouncer chair worth having, and at around $200 USD, there will be a lot of babies who aren’t luck enough to experience the luxury of a Bjorn. But overall it seems to suggest insecurity. There are a lot of worries when you’re a new parent. Getting baby kit with all the right brand names attached can feel like a kind of security. You know you’ve done the right thing by getting the right brand of bouncer, chair, food steamer, carrier, sleepsuit etc. But it’s an expensive kind of security and temporary since babies are renowned for outgrowing things in the blink of an eye.

I don’t think we are tempted to become “brand name” parents. We’ve got a few of the brand name baby kit – we got it second hand. It’s nice enough but not dramatically different from the lesser, inferior brand items we have. Most importantly, I don’t think the baby minds and his opinion is the only one that really counts. I also don’t think he’s going to let on when I don’t bother correcting another mum that his ‘Skiphop’ is actually a second hand (or possibly third or fourth hand) Fisherprice that we were given for free.