Mary Poppins Bags: Column From the Bearpit

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Mary Poppins Bags

I've just read an amusing article in the Melbourne Age newspaper about handbags. It's a reprint from the New York Times, so maybe some of you will have read it. It contains quotes like, 'This bag may be so small it barely holds a lipstick, but it's definitely the status bag', and 'The tote, by contrast, is usually more humble.' Of course I'm quoting out of context here, but I think you get the general idea.

I never was one for the bag so small that it could hold a streamlined lipstick. I have a pathological urge to carry a book with me at all times, sometimes two, just in case I get stranded somewhere without reading material. (Mind you, travelling with young children just fills me with a pathological fear of being stranded, period.) But until I had children, I didn't understand the true meaning of the Big Bag.

What did I need to carry in my carefree working days? Purse, housekeys, travelcard, Tampax, book or two, magazine or two, plus the six inches of detritus that always hangs around at the bottom of my bag. What did I need to carry when I left the house with a newborn baby? Purse, housekeys, nappy bag containing nappies/wipes/nappy sacks/two spare sets of clothes/several bibs/clothes for wiping up sick/pacifiers/things that squeaked/things that rattled/breastpads/maternity sanitary pads that individually could serve as ballast for the space shuttle… I think you can fill in the rest for yourselves. To say nothing of having to transport the baby - it's harder to carry a bag when you either have a lump attached to your front, or are pushing an ungainly pram that bears a strong resemblance to the more vindictive species of shopping trolley.

I'd been a backpack person for many years, I must admit. It was always hard to reconcile the demands of fashion and practicality until I found a beautiful Italian leather backpack, half-price in one of London's most expensive department stores. It served me well - it carried the pre-kid loads without too much complaint (though wasn't quite big enough to fit in two hardback bestsellers at once - fortunately I only buy paperbacks, though I borrow hardbacks from the library). With some streamlining (and the use of a separate nappy bag in the early days) I was able to continue with it after Tamsin's birth. But sadly the stitching kept coming undone (presumably the reason it was half-price). I had it repaired time and time again, but when I realized that I'd probably spent three times the original purchase price on repairs, I gave up. I bought a nasty black nylon daypack for Ł5 and shoveled all my stuff in there.

That was a couple of years ago and it's still going strong. It looks awful and some of my Australian friends now give me dirty looks when they see me carrying it. (The ones with no children, or grown-up children, and therefore no need to carry the junk around that still takes up space, even now Angus is nearly four). Last year I went though a time of searching the shops obsessively looking for the perfect handbag, but Graham kept pointing out that everything I fancied was too small, or too expensive (he had a point - the big ones I fancied the most were SOOOO expensive and men don't really come at that, do they!)

So I still use the black nylon backpack, with occasional use of a handmade tooled leather handbag that was bought from hippies in the depths of the Tasmanian countryside ten years ago (and looks it). At least my going out problem with bags has been solved (and by means other than the original one, of never going out anywhere). I rediscovered a gorgeous 1950s evening bag with glittery glass stones on it that I’d been given as a 21^st birthday present, and although the shoulder chain has fallen off it makes a sweet clutch bag for those occasions when you want to look dressy and you really do only want to carry your perfume and a hanky.

I think longingly of Mary Poppins' famous carpetbag. I actually considered buying a carpetbag at one stage. This firm in England made lovely bags out of Persian carpets, but they cost the earth and I couldn’t afford it at the time. But what I really want is a bag just like Mary Poppins. A bag that has everything you ever wanted in it that can be produced any time you need it. Imagine all the useful things that you need when you are lugging children around.

What would be on your list? Apart from the inevitable spare clothes, drinks, soft toys, etc? I think a thermos of one's favorite hot beverage; a heavily disguised flask of one's favorite stronger beverage!; a calm and patient disposition; a bottomless purse of money; enticing but healthy snacks that your children would gobble down without wanting something expensive and tooth-rotting; a mobile phone that didn't cause brain tumors and could contact anyone you needed to contact, the minute you needed to, whether or not they have a mobile too (a telepathic phone connection?); and a really good sense of humor.

Me - I'll just go and put a peanut butter sandwich in Angus's favorite Bananas in Pajamas lunchbox, and pack my black nylon backpack for tomorrow's trek into playgroup.

Judy Edmonds was born in England, grew up in Australia and is married to Graham Peters, a fifth-generation Australian. From 1990-1999 they lived in England - it was meant to be a two year working holiday but it took on a life of its own. They returned to Australia in May 1999, and are enjoying readjusting. Judy worked as an academic librarian until the birth of Tamsin in 1993, and since then has been a full-time mother to her and to Angus, born 1996. She is now embarking on a new career as a freelance journalist. Her writing can be found all over the Internet now, and she is the owner/editor of an Australian parenting EZine, Chloe & Jack.