We've progressed in society; it's now perfectly acceptable that our children take a back seat to how we feel our personal desires and sense of self are being met.

Perhaps I'm naive. I wasn't born with a silver spoon dangling from my lips, and I was never used by my folks as a living display of their brilliant fashion sense.

Which is why I don't get some of the ridiculously overpriced and completely unnecessary products at the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas. I appreciate free enterprise and the great innovations that spring from folks trying to make their way, but come on.

The most egregious of these was a new company that designs fashionable baby blankets, ostensibly to show friends and passers-by how hip and trendy Mommy is. Balloons and bunnies and teddy bears lost out to garish, sparkling paisley print. Soft cotton, the bedrock of swaddling since before the manger, has given way to silk brocade.

And you can engender a budding lack of self-esteem in your baby for a mere $180.

The company's site states the blankets were created with "today's fashion-conscious mother and baby" in mind and appeal to "moms who only want the best for their stylish babies."

Fashion-conscious babies. Thank God Maddie missed out on that stage.