I’m not sure if it was nature or nurture. But I’m going to go with nurture to explain why I cloth diaper. This entry in Reminisce Week takes me WAAAAY back about twenty years (if you’re really good, you can figure out how old I am!).
Imagine this: 30-gallon garbage bags stacked with clean cotton prefolds. Drawers full of plastic pants and boxes of blue and pink headed safety pins. And behind me (a 13 year old girl), stands not one, but FOUR cribs. That’s right, my debut as a cloth diaper-er was at a tender age, and through “immersion” as I babysat for our neighbor’s quadruplets. Their mother cloth diapered exclusively, well before Bum Genius, FuzziBunz or all the other fun diapers we know and love came on the scene!
Since this was pretty much my first babysitting gig, for me, cloth diapering just seemed “normal,” although I’m pretty sure the late 80’s had to have been the height of disposable diapers’ heyday what with the “power women” and need for convenience (and saving the world hadn’t become a popular mantra quite yet). Still, there were some moms who were going natural, eating organic,…and cloth diapering!
So there I was, lifting one child after another (after another, after another) onto the changing table to double diaper them using (gasp!) PINS! I never stuck a single one of them, thanks to the careful training of their mom, who showed me how to guard the baby’s skin with my fingers so the pin would stick me if it popped loose before I was done pinning. I became quite adept.
And so…although I never babysat for another mom who cloth diapered, due to the incredible number of hours that I babysat for this family, years later, when it came time to have my own children, I already had in my mind that I would be a cloth diapering mama! I had NO idea that cloth diapering was such a craze online, and have happily joined this “fluffy” crowd of cloth diapering moms in my quest for the perfect fit, absorbency, and of course, fun colors and patterns for my little one. The moral of the story is (I guess): train these kids young to understand that cloth diapering is fun, easy, and most of all cost-effective and reduces waste!
How did you become a cloth diapering mom? Did you have prior experiences with CD-ing? Are you the only one who cloth diapers, or do you have a group of friends who CD?
Julie.
Love, love, love all things old-fashioned!
I’d say you’re in your late 30’s, early 40’s?
Nonetheless, I used to babysit back in the day as well… more than twenty years ago (LOL), and cloth diapers with rubber pants and diaper pins were the standard. Babysat for one particular family with 5 kids, 3 in diapers (cloth), and used to change the youngest 3 kids assembly-line style.
I’d lay all 3 down side-by-side, with all 3 wearing only rubber pants, and change-time would begin.
Ahhh… the memories.
That is a good story Julie! I'm not sure why I started cloth with my 3rd. Probably just the same ole boring reason to save money and be crunchier 🙂
That is a good story Julie! I'm not sure why I started cloth with my 3rd. Probably just the same ole boring reason to save money and be crunchier 🙂
WOW! What a woman to have as an example! And you must have been some amazing babysitter, too!I was never exposed to cloth diapering and as a result my first one was never cloth diapered. When we were expecting our second I was about to start grad school and we were looking for cost saving measures. I mentioned this on my blog and two very sweet readers gave me some of their old diapers and covers. They were very old school but I started there. My hubby suggested I see if there was something a little simpler and neater than flats and prefolds, and indeed there was. Now we have two other friends who cloth diaper about half time. We, however, don't own a single disposable. Our daughter would get a horrible rash every time a disposable came her way – even the chlorine free. And then reading about the health concerns with disposables, we are sickened that we exposed our first born to that. Luckily, we did elimination communication with him and he was out of diapers by 18 months.Still, we are a rare breed in the mom circles I am a part of. I get mixed reactions ranging from admiration for my "dedication" or rolling eyes that I'm some kind of environmentalist or "ecomama". Sometimes I also get curiosity. Someday, I hope cloth will once again be the norm and not the exception.
WOW! What a woman to have as an example! And you must have been some amazing babysitter, too!I was never exposed to cloth diapering and as a result my first one was never cloth diapered. When we were expecting our second I was about to start grad school and we were looking for cost saving measures. I mentioned this on my blog and two very sweet readers gave me some of their old diapers and covers. They were very old school but I started there. My hubby suggested I see if there was something a little simpler and neater than flats and prefolds, and indeed there was. Now we have two other friends who cloth diaper about half time. We, however, don't own a single disposable. Our daughter would get a horrible rash every time a disposable came her way – even the chlorine free. And then reading about the health concerns with disposables, we are sickened that we exposed our first born to that. Luckily, we did elimination communication with him and he was out of diapers by 18 months.Still, we are a rare breed in the mom circles I am a part of. I get mixed reactions ranging from admiration for my "dedication" or rolling eyes that I'm some kind of environmentalist or "ecomama". Sometimes I also get curiosity. Someday, I hope cloth will once again be the norm and not the exception.