Category: Babywearing

This post is about pandas and racecars. Panda, being the name of the racecar, and also the name of one of our favorite wraps (not a coincidence). It crossed my mind recently that there are a lot of parallels between autocross and baby wearing. And then I realized it would be tough to find a topic that is more “Street Mommafied” than comparing autocross with babywearing.

I honestly don’t know what’s more addictive, autocross or baby wearing (although by “baby wearing” I mean buying stuff for baby wearing). The following sentences have actually come out of my mouth:

1. “I’m not going to autocross.”

2. “I’m not going to put money into my car just for autocross.”

3. “I’m not going to buy a car just for autocross.”

4. “I’m not going to spend that much on a wrap.”

5. “I’m not going to spend that much AGAIN on a wrap.”

6. “I’ll sell this wrap.” (No, have not yet sold any wraps.)

My first year of autocross I did maybe 2 or 3 events, and the NER rookie school. My second year of autocross, I think I went to  SEVEN national events, plus almost all of the locals for 2 clubs. When my friend told me to let her know if I was interested in baby wearing, I thought to myself, “I have a Bjorn, I’m good.” But things have escalated since then. Now that I am love with wrapping and Tulas, I am even thinking of becoming an educator for one of the local baby wearing groups.

The first time I watched an autocross, and the first time I saw someone do a back carry, my response was the same. “That looks complicated.” At this point, I can navigate an autocross course pretty well, just maybe not as fast as some other drivers. I can also get the baby pretty secure in some fairly advanced back carries, just maybe not as fast as some other wrappers. The process was the same. Understand the basics, watch lots of video, get help from instructors, and practice, practice, practice. For both autocross and baby wearing, I have been approached to be an instructor, and that’s just flattering.

I won’t be surprised if my kid says “DSP” or “SSC” before he says “ABC.” Both the autocross and baby wearing worlds have their own languages filled with acronyms. My family runs with SCCA, and have competed in SM, SSM, XP, DSP, DS, STU, and I don’t even know what else. I’ve also spent lots of PPD on JoJ, JKC, JKO, SN and an SSC.

Autocross and baby wearing foster a strong sense of community, both online and in real life. If you have a question, you can post online, and will have an answer (or more) within minutes. The ties are even stronger when you belong to a specific brand – for me that would be MINI and Oscha. I’ve been at countless autocross events where people are always willing to help out. I remember a time when Panda (the racecar) was broken, and the announcer said, “G-fab needs a welder!” and within minutes, there were multiple welders and generators on hand. I’ve heard of stories where a mama left a wrap on a subway or train, and the other mamas helped track it down to return it to its owner. And another one where a mama visiting from another country left her wrap at an airport and needed one for the rest of her trip in the US. So a bunch of mamas offered to lend or sell her a wrap.

For some autocross events, there is a limited capacity and a huge number of drivers wanting to participate. When registration opens, hundreds of drivers will be furiously clicking refresh until registration begins. The high level of anxiety does not subside until you get to the confirmation page, and maybe not even until you receive the email that your credit card has been charged. Then you will see your Facebook thread fill up with posts of who got in and who didn’t, and when, and lots of other chatter. In the babywearing world, a manufacturer will announce the release of a carrier or wrap for a specific date and time. I have no idea how many people might be trying for a carrier or wrap at a time, but I know the emotions are the same. Anxiety until you check out and relief when you get a confirmation email. After a wrap is released, there are even threads of the timestamps that your order went through, in addition to the posts of who was successful and who wasn’t. In both worlds, you might be lucky to have a buddy who will register/score for you incase you have other commitments you can’t get out of or can’t be at a computer and you don’t trust mobile devices. I think I am 1 for 3 in competitive autocross registration (although I got in off of the waitlist for the other 2), and I am 1 for 3 in competitive carrier buying. I was able to score a limited release wrap, Starry Night Daisy, from Oscha. I do have prior experience though, I once bought a pair of brand new Christian Louboutins  deeply discounted through an online sample sale.

The BST market is not unique to autocross and babywearing, but I think it is funny that I have been encouraged to sell car parts to fund baby carriers. In the swap groups, mamas might offer fancy cloth diapers, diaper bags, or other baby-related items to trade for wraps or carriers. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t find a babywearing mama looking for Koni Sport shocks for a MINI Cooper, so I had to straddle the 2 worlds to get this transaction done. The babywearing market seems to have an advantage over the motorsport market, in that you can reasonably expect to get back what you paid, or even profit, from selling a used carrier or wrap. Of course, this might happen in the motorsport world, but in my personal experience, it is the exception to the rule.

If you asked autocrossers and babywearers what they spend in a year, you’d get a very wide range of responses. There are autocrossers who drive their daily drivers at local events on whatever tires came on the car. There are autocrossers who have dedicated racecars that are trailered from New England to Nebraska, sometimes twice a year! And then there are plenty in between. There are babywearers who have just one carrier, and there are babywearers with stacks and stacks of wraps and might spend over $2000 on a single carrier. And then there are plenty in between. I explained this to my husband, and mentioned that I wasn’t surprised that I was drawn to a brand that wasn’t the cheapest (but it isn’t the most expensive, either). He asked if it was like the “Corvette” of baby wraps, but I think Oscha is more like a 3 series BMW. And I might dream of owning a custom handwoven, the Ferrari of baby wraps.

In both worlds, there are things that are really unique as well as things that are mass produced. A person could spend hours (and days? months?) online hunting for a unicorn. I was lucky when I found an R56 MINI Cooper S JCW with an upgraded rear bar, Quicksilver exhaust, and double-adjustable shocks already installed. I searched for weeks before I finally found Okinami Noosa and bought it before someone else did.

So what’s different?

The thing that is the most strikingly different is the gender balance (or lack thereof). Autocross is mostly men, and babywearing is mostly women. I think it would be just fantabulous if more women joined the autocross world, and more men joined the babywearing world. I really want to encourage both of these things, so please reach out to me if you are a woman wanting to autocross or a man wanting to babywear!