Lately I've been thinking about you. Yes, that's right. YOU. All of you cloth-diapering moms who who have "liked" Thirsties on
Facebook and have often commented on my blogs. Ok, ok, I know I am not being PC and I really should be asking "Are you are crunchy cloth-diapering parent?" I don't want to leave dads out, but since I am pretty sure most of you are indeed moms, I'll take the risk. Now, when I ask if you are a crunchy mom, I don't mean "Do you wear long skirts, layered-tanks tops, have unshaven legs and wear Birkenstocks?" (But if you do, that's cool!) What I am really wondering is this: Are cloth-diapering families more likely to recycle, to garden, to eat organic and local, to walk or ride bikes instead of driving? Are they more likely to compost and garden, to make home-made baby food, to co-sleep, to breastfeed, to wear their babies? Or are cloth-diapering moms just as diverse as disposable-diapering families? So what I'd like is this--I'd love to hear how you compare to the stereo-typical Crunchy Cloth-Diapering Mom and if you are the polar opposite, I want to hear that too! There is no judgement here--we all have parent and diapering in common--but it's fun to hear our differences once in a while too. I'll go first.
- Well, first of all, I do shave my legs--though many a time, I've gotten out of the shower and discovered that I shaved the same leg twice because I was interrupted by a child. No one ever interrupts my husband while he is shaving. Hmmmmm.....strange.
- I don't own Birkenstocks but I used to in college...now I wear flip flops all summer and my Dansko clogs all winter (I think those are kind of crunchy).
- I rarely wear make-up because I never go anywhere very exciting and I certainly don't have an extra five minutes in the morning to put any on--but honestly, I probably should. These days I am lucky if I leave the house with a bra on.
- I am an avid recycler. I cringe when I see plastic or glass in the trash. It weighs too heavily on my conscience. In fact, we were recently out of state and went to a game a huge sports arena. I was horrified by the fact that every single bottle, can and cup was thrown in the trash. Boulder is big on recycling and it's become a bit of an obsession with me.
- We do have a small garden, we do NOT compost (I am not crunchy enough to tolerate the sugar ants it attracted even though I had in a sealed container!).
- I have co-slept with all three of my children for varying amounts of time. Cooper is finally in his own room which is wonderful because I couldn't stand the crooked neck from nursing all night any longer!
- My husband does ride his bike to work when he can, but I have to admit, I am all about the car these days. I just can't get anywhere with all three any other way.
- I do NOT make my own baby food. Again, it's the time thing--or at least that's my excuse--but I have nursed all three for a minimum of 16 months.
- We eat organic and local when we can--but it is pricey and I have to take that into account.
Well I consider myself a little bit of crunchy. I think I do the things i do because of things I do that are not crunchy. We recycle and it also drives me insane to see things that can be recycled in the trash. I cloth diaper, but I have only done this with my youngest of 5 kids. Cost was the main reason for that and heck they are so cute! I breastfeed and work as a Lactation consultant. I also shave when I remember and I work out of the house so I do wear make up, but not on weekends. I do not make my own baby food, too lazy, but I do refuse to buy Gerber baby food. I co-sleep and am curretnly with my youngest, but I have to admit I wouldn’t have a problem if he chose to sleep all night in his crib.
I drive a gas guzzler of an SUV so I feel this offsets some of it right?
Sorta crunchy maybe? Aside from cding: breadtfeeding, cosleeping, eating local and organic, recycling and gardening.
I think I’m half crunchy. My family thinks I’m nutso-crunchy; my crunchy neighbors in my very progressive neighborhood surely would not consider me crunchy at all.
I tried to co-sleep, but my child did not choose that for himself. He never slept through the night, or very well at all, until at 5 weeks my husband said “Can we please try putting him in his crib?” From then on he’s been sleeping like a champ (he’s 17 months now).
I buy organic when I can and it’s easy but I’m not militant about it, except with making sure any dairy that goes into Jojo is rBST free.
I rarely shave my legs but would if I ever showed them (fat ankles) and I rarely wear makeup because, as above, I rarely go anyplace interesting. But I do wear makeup when I’m getting “dressed up” to go out.
We only cloth diaper. No disposables, ever. I’m just not interested in putting that on my kid. Plus his cloth is just so dang cute. We use cloth wipes sometimes, but often just find disposable wipes easier because one cloth wipe doesn’t seem to be enough with big messes.
We tried a garden last year. It didn’t go well. I would like to try again.
We recycle EVERYTHING. Like you, I just feel too guilty when I do not. Again, like you, it pains me to go elsewhere and see recycling in trash cans.
I have the beginnings of a compost pile right now in my kitchen. I plan to take it out to the back corner later today!
I wouldn’t think of myself as crunchy…more less cheap and thrifty. We cloth diaper. We recycle mostly, except our state doesn’t recycle glass, which bothers me, mainly because we have always burned our remaining trash. So with that we compost, because it makes the trash burn easier. I line dry all our clothes if it isn’t raining. I have chaco sandles that I wear, have a good size garden that feeds us through the winter. We don’t co sleep, but do babywear. We try to eat organic and local, but sometimes it’s too expensive. I have ten baby chicks and will be getting eggs later this summer. I do not plan to buy babyfood and plan to breastfeed at least year or as long as I can. I do shave regularly and wear a little makeup, mainly because my husband says he likes it when I do. I do drive my car whenever I need to go out, and hate to work out. I stay home and to make up for my income I try to be a good steward and save wherever I can, that is my motivation.
I am 3/4’s crunchy maybe. I am still breastfeeding my 13 month old. I did baby led weaning so sort of making my own baby food. I would like to eat more organic and locally bought in the future, but right now it is more expensive (and no local grocery store that is conducive to this.) I cloth diaper 95% of the time (ammonia issues at night right now) and use cloth wipes 50% of the time.
I recycle some things (no convenient recycling center) but work takes plastic and aluminum so I recycle those. I have a vegetable garden and some fruit trees and if my husband would ever help me plan on getting my compost pile going. (We fenced in an area but then he piled tons of debris, rocks, etc so now I have no where to put the compost.) I did own a pair of Birks when I was in college. Now it is flip flops.
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