Making the Cloth Commitment

When I first started using cloth diapers when my daughter was 8 weeks old, I thought I would have hard time sticking with it.  I thought I might be tempted to wimp out from time to time and use disposables.  After all, I had raised my oldest on nothing but disposable diapers and had been using disposables on my younger son for nearly two years.  My habits were firmly set.  And anyone who knows me, knows that I have a hard time breaking habits.  Especially when breaking those habits might mean more work for me.

A common excuse I hear when talking to people about cloth diapers is “I don’t have time!”  I say excuse, because it’s just that.  And it also is mildly insulting because does this mean I do nothing but sit around and eat bon bons all day long?  I have oodles of time so that must be why I use cloth diapers.  Whatever.   I would ask then how it is that I know so many women who work full time and yet also cloth diaper their children.  Are they not busy?  The only conclusion to be drawn is that: cloth diapers don’t take a lot of time.  They don’t!  They don’t even add a lot of chaos to the routine.  It’s hard to swallow because it goes against everything we’ve pretty much been raised to believe about cloth diapering.  In all honesty (and I do consider myself to be something of an expert on the issue since I have spent a good deal of time using both disposables AND cloth), cloth diapering does not add time or frustration to diapering.  Not. At. All.  Diaper changes don’t have to take any longer unless you want them to.  Diaper laundry is as simple as dumping a load in the machine and turning it on.  That takes, what, two minutes?  Some people don’t even fold diapers as they come out of the wash.  They’ll simply put the laundry basket full of clean diapers near their changing station and grab from there.  Me, I’m a little disturbed and I actually don’t mind folding diapers and getting them ready to stack neatly on the changing table.  It’s therapeutic and something I do while watching television.  Gee, much like how people fold regular laundry while watching TV.

Another excuse is from women who work and send their children to day care.  I can understand the hesitation here.  But MANY day cares DO allow cloth diapers these days!  A general rule of thumb with day care centers is you bring your own wetbag and the diapers needed.  Generally, the bigger centers dont’ care to fiddle with fitteds or prefolds and wool, so this is where you use pockets and all in ones.   The day care provider tosses the soiled diaper, yes poop and all, in the wet bag.  You deal with it when you get home.  And it’s not all that bad.  If the diaper has been rolled up, it can be easy to dump solids in the wet bag or spray them off without getting too messy in the meantime.  Some day care centers do not allow cloth for “health reasons”, this is true.  So it pays to do a little research.  I know a gal who provides day care out of her home, and she cloth diapers her own children.  Not only that, but she cloth diapers her day care children as well!  Regardless if the parents use cloth or not!   She has extra diapers in her stash to account for numbers and from her account, doesn’t bother in the least.  And think of how many less diapers going into the landfills that is!   This woman deserves a medal.

It’s always easy to find excuses not to cloth diaper.  But at the end of the day, it comes down to motivation.  If you want to, you make it work.  If you don’t, then you don’t.  Simple enough.   That said, I do respect people’s choices and decisions for their families.  And at the same time, hope the same courtesy to be extended towards me.  If I don’t assume you’re an earth-hating person, then don’t assume that my diapers are “gross”, okay?  Deal!