Diaper Free?

I’m officially ripping off my friend Princezz O’Phun’s blog topics. Her blog on this was short and sweet, mine as per my usual style, a bit drawn out.

Ever hear of the diaper free baby movement? Like Princezz, I find this idea just plain weird and a bit gross. Over the last 3-4 months, I have seen at least 5 separate news profiles on this. Nightline, The Sunday Morning Show on CBS and at least 3 other Odd News/Human Interest profile spots appeared on news shows. Now, these profiles range in their entertainment and news angles, “Aren’t these ladies crazy? Silly women, probably lazy.” or “My God, the poor babies. This must be terrible for their health.” Or one of my favorites a pundit fearing for the overall mental stability of babies subjected to this. Of course all the practitioners they interview are stay-at-home Moms that seem to fall into 2 distinct categories. Many Moms’ are new arrivals from the career race and seem to be desperately trying to find meaning in the Mommy thing. This gives them a weird level of Mommy street cred, like they are the forgers of a new path. The other Mommy faction seems to be more hippy influenced in their child rearing. Diapers liberate their children from man made bonds AND it helps the environment so their loving Mommy rep is still ok.

A movement predicated on taking the semi-conscious still growing babies and forcing them to pee on the toilet, some especially made for little baby butts, seems absolutely bat-shit crazy to me. Cloth diapers are just as environmentally friendly, so you can stop the save the Earth spiel, I don’t buy it. Hell, I’ll probably be buying the evil polluting diapers when I have a kids….FG does not relish the idea of handling poop on a cloth diaper. Also, the amount of time spent hovering over the child or setting them on the potty to see if they need to pee…BABIES ARE NOT ABLE TO TELL YOU THIS!!! One mother on the news said she can tell from cooing noises when her little bundle needs to tinkle. Don’t all babies freaking coo all the live long day? I am not prepared to be a baby whisperer just so I can rush my child to the potty when it can’t even hold it's head up by it's own power. And don’t even get me started on the whole Baby Whisperer phenomena, which seems to feed into this diaper free thing. CRAZY!

Babies are supposed to be incontinent, crying, laughing, eating, adorable, poop machines…it’s what they do…it’s why we have them! Why change a perfectly functional baby to adult growth pattern...why rush the potty? I just don't get it, which is probably a good thing for any kids I have. Less potty trauma.