I was sent this advertisement, and I think it’s a perfect representation of this insidious way that our culture devalues motherhood and caregiving. Let’s talk about it.
This ad is built around a comparison. On one side, a sleek device designed to provide continuous motion. On the other, a parent holding their baby, paired with a line about endlessly rocking until your wrists tap out. The message isn’t subtle. One option is framed as smart and helpful, while the other is framed as exhausting and unsustainable.
What that completely misses is what’s actually happening when a caregiver rocks a baby to sleep.
It seems people are still struggling to remember that babies are meant to be held. They are born with immature nervous systems and fully rely on their caregivers to help them regulate. When we rock, sway, or walk a baby to sleep, we’re providing safety, warmth, rhythm, and presence. Our bodies help organize their nervous systems in a way that goes far beyond motion alone.
This is where the ad really starts to feel gross to me. It reduces all of that down to inefficient labor. Holding a baby becomes something that wears you down instead of something that has meaning. Connection is reframed as a burden you should want to replace as soon as possible.
Yes, caregiving is exhausting. Our arms get tired, and our bodies feel it. That’s very real. But instead of acknowledging the intensity of that work with respect, the ad uses it as proof that the caregiver’s body is the problem. The solution isn’t support or rest or shared care. The solution is a machine that does it better.
That framing quietly devalues the role of the caregiver. It turns deeply relational work into something transactional, something to optimize away. The parent in the image isn’t shown as connected or nurturing. They’re anonymous, cropped, and stripped of any warmth. It’s not a relationship. It’s just a body doing work until it breaks.
Look, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using baby gear or devices. Parents deserve help and rest. Sometimes, tools like this can be supportive, and they can make a huge difference in surviving early parenthood.
But support is not the same thing as replacement.
A device can provide motion, but it cannot provide presence. It cannot respond to a baby’s cues, offer comfort through touch, or regulate through relationship. When marketing blurs that distinction, it sends the message that caregiving itself is the thing we should be trying to escape.
Rocking your baby to sleep is not a bad habit. It’s not a waste of time, and it’s certainly not something you do because you don’t know better. It’s one of the ways babies experience safety and regulation, and it matters, even when it’s hard.
So when an ad frames that kind of care as the inferior option, it creates shame. Shame for being tired. Shame for needing your body to do what it was always going to need to do. Shame for not outsourcing connection quickly enough.
And that’s why this image sticks with me. It’s not only selling a product, but it’s also selling a story about care that turns connection into a problem and treats the caregiver as the weak link.
If this ad made you feel uncomfortable too, I don’t think that’s an overreaction. I think it’s a pretty understandable response to a message that quietly devalues one of the most human parts of early parenting.
If you are feeling overwhelmed and need more guidance, my Infant Sleep Foundations eCourse and Toddler Sleep Foundations eCourse offer gentle, responsive sleep support to help you meet your baby’s needs and get the rest you need too. Alternatively, if you feel you need more 1:1 support, schedule a call with Jenn for holistic and responsive sleep support that feels good.
