We live next door to a bubble, full of people who don’t know that we live next door.

This is why it surprises me when suburban moms who don’t live in Montbridge do pretentious things…like create gift registries for their soon-to-be-5-year-old daughters.

“What?!” another parent gasps. “You mean she can’t be bothered to return unwanted gifts to Target like the rest of us?!” I giggle the kind of ugly, snarky giggle that escapes from my dark place inside. “I think that custom china patterns aren’t returnable,” I reply.

All snideness aside, I can’t actually come up with an intelligent criticism of this practice. And while I feel that providing a wish list linked to Amazon.com on your daughter’s fifth birthday party invitation is presumptuous and over precious, it’s also quite practical and efficient.

And the truth is this: I have one too. It’s on Pinterest: a wish board. I would never direct my friends toward it, but I usually point my mother in that direction when she asks me what I want for my birthday or other gifting holidays. (Inevitably, she tells me that Pinterest is too complicated and I end up sending her URLs via e-mail.) The board is there as a repository for the stuff I want but would never buy…for myself; the results of daydreaming and imagining a life without money woes. Who doesn’t want a Pasotti luxury umbrella?

Ergo, is it really wrong that Victoria and her mother spent time daydreaming and imagining their lives without money woes too? I mean, who doesn’t want a new wardrobe for Endless Curls Barbie?

I need to let my head catch up with my emotions. While I will likely never send a gift registry link with any of Carly’s birthday party invitations, I’m glad someone else has saved me the time and angst of shopping for a very particular Victoria.

Click. Click. Click.

Done.