This Dad Doesn't Have Much To Complain About

There is a lamp in my house that I hate.  I don't hate this lamp because it is ugly, in fact, I actually think it is rather stylish.  I don't hate this lamp because it isn't bright enough.  It is actually perfect for the room that it is in.  So, you ask, why do I hate this lamp?  The first reason I hate this lamp is because it has a switch on the cord and not near the bulb.  Why do manufacturers still think that cord switches are a good idea? This brings me to the second reason I hate this lamp.  Because the lamp sits on top of an open shelving unit, the cord hangs down behind the shelving where I have to reach my ginormous hands through what seems like a hundred fragile knickknacks just to reach the switch.  

What should be a simple turn of a switch is now suddenly a real-life game of Operation where the switch is the funny bone and the curios are the electrocuting sides of death that I must avoid. I can't win.  I wasn't blessed with the tweezer-like arms that are necessary to be successful at this game.  My wife just laughs at me as she turns off the light and makes the comment, "Oh, I'll get that for you. I know how much you hate it."  To  which I can only reply, "Look, I don't have much to complain about in my life right now.  I stay at home with a toddler all day.  My life isn't very complicated.  That lamp is all I have.  Don't take that from me!"

Sometimes I'm a drama queen.  Can you tell?  But it's true.  My life is great.  I have a great wife and a fantastic kiddo.  I have a happy marriage and a comfortable home. All it takes is one look at me to realize that I have never gone hungry.  What do I have to complain about?  The lamp is pretty much it.

That's why I choose to speak up when I find something irritating.  Take the Huggies campaign that I railed about last week.  Yes, it's just a commercial to some people, but to me, it's a big issue.  Was I surprised that a major corporation portrayed fathers in a negative light?  No.  Was I surprised that, when I asked them about it, all I got was a neatly written form email from their PR department?  No.  When I replied to that form email telling them how a form email is not the best way to respond to an upset customer, do you think I was surprised to not hear back from them?  No.  When you get down to it, the only thing that a corporation as large as Kimberly-Clark (the parent company of Huggies) sees when it looks at your baby is dollar signs.

I was asked by someone from Change.org if I wanted to start a petition to get Huggies to change their advertising.  I don't have enough faith to believe that a petition alone will make a company change their marketing strategy.  People not buying their product might, but probably not just a petition.  Judging by the response to their Facebook campaign, there are still a lot of people willing to buy their products, so I have little hope that much, if anything, will change.  I kind of hope that I am wrong about that last sentence.  In conclusion, I can only hope that I have done my part to spread the information to make people think twice when they are choosing which diapers to purchase.  

Finally, I just want to give a final message to the marketing folks at Kimberly-Clark by using an image that Chris over at DaddyDoctrines posted to Facebook.  This picture is genius.  It explains everything perfectly. Oh, and Chris did have enough faith to start a petition, so I want to support his efforts in any way that I can.  So, visit his page and sign up if you dislike this Huggies campaign.