Parenting WTF #3: Cake Smash
If I was king of the world for a day, I would make “cake smashes” a capital offense.
If you don’t know what a cake smash is, I think the above photo is self explanatory (note: I googled “cake smash” and just took the first photo that came up, so message me if that’s your child, haha). Basically, you bake a cake, put a bunch of frosting on it, strip the baby down to her diapers, and let her go to town.
I don’t know when cake smashes went viral, but apparently every new age parent knows about this and it’s become a “right of passage” when babies turn one nowadays. I’m pretty sure social media is to blame for this. While many may argue that the power of social media has enabled significant positive change on the world, it has also exposed humanity’s less desirable qualities such as selfishness and materialism. Note that I don’t believe social media has created any of these qualities (we are already endowed with them), it’s just made them much easier to notice. Selfie sticks are a prime example.
But I digress…
I find the very idea of a cake smash repulsive because first of all, I think most parents are driven to do it for no other reason than FOMO (they see others do it, so they want to do it as well). They may say they are doing it to give the baby joy — and there’s probably some truth in it — but almost any distraction gives babies happiness. Don’t believe me? Jingle some car keys in front of them and watch them go nuts. And sure, they can look cute doing it, but let’s be honest, you’re really doing it for yourself. Second of all, it strikes me as a prime example of first world material excess. Maybe it’s because I’ve been to India many times and notice the abject poverty every time I am there, but things like this do bother me on some personal level.
Please spare me the “holier than thou” counter arguments. I’m not more altruistic than any of you, though I do believe I’m fairly self aware. If you work hard, you should definitely get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. But I do think we should at least be mindful of the difference between enjoying within reason and excess. I’ll let each of you determine where to draw that line.
The reason why I bring this topic up today is because Maya’s 1st birthday is next week. My wife has expressed a desire to do a cake smash while I, of course, have expressed the complete opposite. As a compromise, we agreed that we’ll let Maya do it with a very small cake (like a cupcake) instead of a full-sized baked good (bonus points if you know from where I referenced “baked good”).
If you want to do a cake smash, by all means go ahead. Who am I to stop you? I just ask that you take a moment to pause and be mindful….and maybe do it with a smaller cake instead?
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