At Robot Bunnies, we believe in the power and magic of blankies. We don’t say that frivolously. It’s the belief our company is built on and we’ve got the experience to back it up.
At some point, most of us have encountered a child with a profound and deeply gratifying attachment to a baby blanket. The mere site of, let alone interaction with, the beloved blanket produces feelings of security, comfort, constancy and love. I am Robot Bunnies’ Founder & CEO and I can attest to this firsthand. As a kid, I was a classic, blankie-toting thumb sucker. To this day, I still have my baby blanket (aka Woobie) and sleep with it nightly. I pack it for overnight trips and have a primal habit of running my fingertips along its contours in a way that comforts and makes me feel safe.
Not surprisingly, my son, Simon, was a blankie kid too. For years, he went nowhere without Big and/or “Ittle” Blankie. I credit those blankets with allowing us all to get out of the house, to enjoy moments of peace and to get some desperately needed sleep. Now, at age 9, he no longer rolls with blankets but remains devoted to an enormous collection of stuffed bunnies, key players of which he would still bring with him absolutely everywhere if he could. (For purposes of this writing, stuffed animals and blankies are interchangeable. File all under the heading: lovey’s.)
In my younger years, while working in the fashion and beauty industries in New York City, I generally kept my Woobie on the DL. Pets, boyfriends and, ultimately, my husband were the only ones who knew my secret. I figured my habit was at best unusual, at worst downright freakish. Still, I occasionally found evidence that I was not alone. A rather chic woman at work once told me about her relationship to her baby blanket, which was delightfully familiar. She also horrified me with the tale of a hotel housekeeper thinking her blanket a rag and throwing it away, never to be seen again. I have since hid mine in hotel closets alongside my clothes while out of my room during the day.
In more recent years, I’ve noted other societally accepted (even lauded) adults copping to their ongoing affairs with one or more lovey’s. In T The New York Times Magazine, writer Max Genecov chronicled his inspired and unapologetic attachment to stuffed animals in Letter of Recommendation: Stuffed Animals. He also cited the shocking statistic, taken from US and British polls, that 40% of adults sleep holding some sort of lovey. (Just saying.)
In 2017, NPR interviewed their own editor, Alison MacAdam, for an episode of the Hidden Brain podcast series, entitled Creature Comforts: The Power of Touch and Affection in Our Lives. She described her 40-year attachment to Baba, a “soft, threadbare baby blanket” that she (now a mother) still sleeps with nightly. One of her colleagues noted, “When she told us about Baba we thought it was a little strange. Why would a successful, self-confident woman sleep with a blankie? But then, as we listened to her talk about it, we wondered if maybe it wasn't that strange at all. What's wrong with finding comfort in something soft and familiar?” Indeed.
Clearly, lovey’s hold some magical power for good in the world and I challenge you to find something negative or dangerous about them. Thus, I have happily found my true calling in producing and distributing these humble treasures.
Stay tuned for The Scientific Case For Lovey’s (yes, actual data) in my next blog post on 1/3019.
Leave a comment (all fields required)
Comments will be approved before showing up.
