Breaking: I’m breaking up with cloth diapers

Dear Cloth Diapers,

It’s not you, it’s me. Really. Despite many warnings that ours would be a difficult relationship, I never found you all that hard to deal with until the end. We had a nice routine, you were always there for me, and I didn’t find you to be a burden at all. But somehow, here we are, two and a half years and thousands of changes later, and I have less energy for our relationship than I had before. What once seemed like no big deal, what fit fairly seamlessly in my life, feels like a burden. I neglect you and resent you and frankly, can’t even really stand to look at you anymore. I don’t know what has changed to make me feel this way about something I once thought was wonderful and easy, but it has. I’m sending you on to a new relationship with a friend. I hope she finds you easy and helpful and reliable as I once did.

Thanks for the memories,

Ernie

Yep, folks, I’m quitting cloth diapers. 

They were great for us for 2.5 years, saved us a bunch of money, and saved the planet from a heap of trash. I haven’t had problems with them, really, no leaks or rashes or anything. And really, I didn’t find the washing and stuffing all that difficult, until one day I suddenly did. Where for most of my cloth diapering days, I found it absolutely no big deal to stuff them while sitting on the couch in the evenings, suddenly days were going by while the unstuffed diapers sat in a hamper and I resented them every time I looked at them. Just the idea of dealing with them even one more time felt oppressive. I suddenly hated their guts.

And when I confessed all this to my tree-hugging husband, he was basically like, then why are you still doing it? Target brand disposables work just fine for us, and frankly, these kids will be potty trained soon, so why keep doing something that feels like such a burden?

And with that, I was free. I’m keeping some covers and Flip inserts, because I still have a heavy nighttime wetter who will totally pee through a supposed 12-hour overnight disposable and putting in an insert and cover are the only way to keep her from waking up with wet sheets, but all the rest of my stash will either be sold (a few pricey fitteds and a bunch of hemp inserts) or given to friends (most of my pockets aren’t really in shape I’d call sellable after 2.5 years of heavy use on twins).

I’m not sorry I chose cloth diapers. They were a great choice for us for most of our diapering days. If I had another baby (not happening because of my heart defect), I’d probably do it again. But I’m not sorry I’m stopping now, either.