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.
I call myself pretty crunchy, particularly for my area and my family and friends. I just had my first child but have been raising my 3 1/2 year old nephew since he was 10 months old. We did not cloth diaper with him because of that being a weird custody situation with his bioparents, but we are cloth diapering my son pretty much all the time (we did use disposables until meconium was gone and he will probably be in them for daycare). I also line dry my diapers most of the time, mostly for sun bleaching. Nephew was formula fed as I was unable to breast feed a child not mine and my sister was not doing it, but my son is exclusively breastfed and I am planning to EBF until he’s at least 6 months and continue to breast feed for at least the first year, though I’m willing to go longer if it’s mutually agreeable. I will be going back to work so we’ll see (he’s 7 weeks old…). I babywear (wraps are a godsend right now). I try to buy organic as much as is practical but cost is a HUGE factor, as well as try to stick to grass fed and finished, humanely slaughtered meats. I also try to buy local as much as possible, including having a weekly CSA share. I also use cloth menstrual pads and the diva cup. My family owns one car that is mostly used by my husband as I work convient to the bus line and the daycare is 4 blocks from my house (and on the way to the bus line). I would love to have a veggie garden but we moved into our house last July and I had a baby 7 weeks ago so I haven’t had the opportunity to put one in or tend one yet. I do have a small container garden going currently, though, and LOVE it. I do shave but I do not use shampoo and my hair care consists of baking soda and apple cider vinegar (look up no poo hair care, love it) and use Dr. Bronner’s for just about everything. I do shave and do not, nor have i ever, owned birkenstocks. I think they’re ugly. I do have a thing for long wrap skirts and dresses, however, and handkerchief head scarves. I tend to wear either worn out running shoes (I’m a distance runner) or flip flops as standard wear. I think that’s it!
I’m mostly not a crunchy mom. With my first I used disposables, baby food in a jar (which he never ate), pushed him in a bucket car seat stroller and really never gave much thought to anything about it. With my second, I had no intention of doing anything different. The crunchiest thing I did was BF. But then, someone introduced me to a sling. I loved it and so did he! He didn’t eat same as the first. I got mad, found an avocado in the house and the child lapped it up like it was the best thing ever. Slowly I started making his food. It really just made sense. I didn’t have to buy anything extra really. I just modified things that we were already eating. Then came cloth diapers. All I can say is I love them!!! Today I made my first batch of wipe solution for cloth wipes using at the table. I’m not quite brave enough to try them on poo yet. But ask me next week, who knows.
- Cosleep, babywear, planning to make baby food
- Birkenstocks are too expensive when a $10 flip-flops will do the job
- Used to recycle before LO came along
- Public transportation most of the time
- No garden to compost for
- No makeup, not even for weddings. Oops
- Nothing really to shave that grows on legs
… somewhere between crunchy and lazy, I guess?
I don’t consider myself to be very crunchy at all – I am just about to start out with cloth diapers on my little one (due any minute now!). Doing research on CD has opened my eyes to all sorts of “crunchy” lifestyle choices that I hadn’t really thought about before. I think I’m starting to make small changes that are better for the environment and my family and I’m definitely more aware of my wasteful tendencies and making changes to fix that. I will continue to shave at least every other day and wear make-up though; that just makes me feel human :)
I recycle, cloth diaper, make my own baby food, have a small garden, and reuse as much as possible. That said, I bottle feed, Ferberize, shave, drive, and wear make up. I’d say I’m 50-50.
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