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Thursday, May 29, 2014

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How to Be an Advocate – Without Being Pushy

As someone who loves cloth diapers, being an advocate for them is very important to me. Sometimes when we advocate, we accidentally make others feel like our choice is the only right choice. And that’s NOT how you win someone over. How do you share your love of cloth without being pushy? Here a few ways that are less “in your face” and more, “Hey, want to see this cool thing I got for the baby?”

  • Appeal to the cuteness factor.  You know it’s true; we moms LOVE to talk about all things cute.  We buy cute clothes, toys, and baby gear.  Have you seen all the designs disposable diaper companies come out with seasonally?  Even they know that cloth has something they don’t – pretty prints and colors.  Show your friends your cutest fluff pictures.  Better yet, pop those pretties on the baby and let the exclamations of, “How cute!” ensue.
  • One word – money!  Babies can be expensive and appealing to the economical side of a parent is an easy way to convince them that cloth diapers are worth a try.  Just a casual mention of, “I haven’t had to buy diapers since before we had the baby,” can spark interest. 
  • Health, but in a casual way.  If another parent ask me what I use for diaper rash cream, I’ll first tell them that we switched to cloth when my oldest was fifteen months and that he has rarely had a rash since then.  I’ll explain that the breathability of the cloth diapers really helps prevent his rashes.  And then I’ll share with them what brand of cloth safe cream I use.  I like to show them one of the creams with various scents as this isn’t something offered in most mainstream creams you’ll buy.
  • Demonstration.  I’m not telling you to set up a local class or anything super involved.  Just use your cloth as you do public diaper changes.  This is probably the one big way I’ve gotten strangers to ask me about cloth diapers.  I’m not doing anything out of the ordinary, but almost every single time someone will stop and say, “What a cute diaper,” and I’ll tell them that it’s cloth and how much I love them.  Once I was changing both of my children back to back and it was funny because we actually had a little audience right there in the restroom.  I hadn’t said or done anything unusual, but people were intrigued when they saw the diapers and started asking questions.  No one was even remotely negative, just genuinely interested in something they weren’t familiar with – modern cloth.
  • Play dates.  It is inevitable – someone will forget a diaper at a play date at some point.  You could save a diaper style that doesn’t work for you just for this occasion and pass the cloth diaper onto the diaper less babe if the parent is okay with it.  Just show them how it works and it might just be enough to get them interested in cloth.
  • Advocacy gear.  T-shirts, key chains, car window clings…they’re all a great way to spread the love without being pushy.
So, how do you advocate for modern cloth?

Bio: About Ashley: Ashley is a stay at home mom with two young boys. She blogs about life with young children and her adventures with them including sewing, cloth diapers, and every day parenting at: MabeWithLove.WordPress.com.


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1 comment:

Unknown said...

My son is 2 and my husband and I are trying for baby 2 now. I will warn you I am an over planner to the max... so as we are trying I'm researching ways to save money when we have 2 kids, me work working full-time and going to school at night. I started looking into cloth. To be honest I wanted to CD my son but really didnt have any support or fully understand the benefits. This time around I showed my husband the potential cost savings and he was on board. My family and friends.... they are split. Some are very intrigued and others are grossed out or think I'm crazy. I'm determined to do it this next time around. To try it out and get my husband, family and friends a little more comfortable with it i've decided to use cloth training pants for my son while potty training and purchased a few used AIO to try out at night. I am so excited to try this out and stop wasting my money and being environmentally unfriendly with disposable diapers and pull ups. How did you deal with the nay sayers when you wanted/started cloth diapering? How do you deal with them now?