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Thursday, February 9, 2012

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A Father's Infatuation

I enjoy the many benefits of cloth diapering, but my husband is the one who is truly addicted. He tells me he loves them about as frequently as he tells me he loves me (which is quite often). A couple of friends at church got us started on cloth diapers and it cracks me up to see him having cloth diaper talks with these ladies at church. His reasons for loving cloth diapers are numerous.

As the sole provider for our family of 5, he is constantly trying to think of ways to save money. Each time we try a new cloth diapering product, he calculates how much we’re saving by using it. He knew I would be changing most of the diapers, so to help keep me motivated on those really difficult days, he told me I should get a jar to put near the changing table and put a quarter inside each time I change a diaper. I can spend the money however I choose, which will of course be more cloth diaper supplies. We have two children in cloth diapers—one being a newborn—so my jar is filling up fast!

As a father, he says he feels comfortable taking our kids out in public places or to friends’ houses and changing their cloth diapers the same way we did with disposables. Having a small wet bag and disposable liners makes things so easy. And that’s another plus for him. We have all of the gear that makes cloth diapering easy, not just inexpensive.

When we first received our cloth diapers, I wanted to be methodical and do everything correctly. I wanted to sit down and read all the material I could find about the new way of cloth diapering, since it seemed so different from the cloth diapers my mother used. I only wanted to be prepared. But my husband just said, “I don’t think it’s as complex as you are making it out to be.” With that he slapped a new cloth diaper on our 2 year old son (even before washing it, I’m afraid), and took him to church. My mouth hung wide open as he did so. (I have to mention he was even flying solo that day, since I was staying home with our newborn daughter still!) With visions of a leaky, stinky mess, I tried to convince him to at least take extra clothes for our son. He didn’t, and when he came home and I asked how it went, he casually said, “Everything was just fine.” That was the end of the conversation and we’ve been cloth diapering ever since.

Once a friend of my husband’s pointed out to him that my husband is putting a lot less diapers in the garbage, his addiction deepened. Why? Because he’s a staunch supporter of keeping the environment healthy and garbage out of landfills? Not really. He does care about the environment, but mostly he is happy about less garbage because taking the trash out is usually his chore at our house. Less diapers in the diaper pail equals less trips to the garbage can outside!

Jennifer Peine is a stay-at-home mom to two boys ages 4 and 2 and a sweet little newborn daughter. She enjoys reading, researching parenting topics, and making her house into a home for her family.

4 comments:

Katie said...

I love that your husband is so into this! I love reading stories about dads being really into ANY part of their child's regular care and upbringing. :)

Kenner said...

I LOVE the "quarter in a jar for every diaper change" idea! BRILLIANT! (And FUN! Fluffy money!) Yay for your hubby being so supportive ;) (And wouldn't you just LOVE to see people's jaws drop online when you say that he just threw the diaper on and left the house? What, no fancy prepping with specialty detergent and line drying??? HAHAHAHA! Sometimes simple really is better!)

Sandi said...

Jen! I was so surprised to see your face pop up on an article in my Facebook feed! Glad the cloth diapers are working so well for you and Sean!

Anonymous said...

hello, jennifer

how lucky you are for having such caring husband :) i've bought some cloth diapers for my upcoming daughter (two months to go) but beause its quite expensive, my husband said that he would not care wearing it to our daughter. he's been a great husband and father (we had two kids) but do you have any suggestion in dealing with such attitude?

thank you.