It’s the last day of the flats challenge, and I survived. He peed, I washed, I conquered.
If you’re just “tuning in;” I’m participating in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. All this week I’ll be using flats and handwashing them. Learn more about the challenge.
Prior to the challenge, I wondered if I’d really do this. It wasn’t as bad when I was counting down the days until it’s over, but every single day? Actually…yeah. At this point, I would hand was flats before I bought disposables. No, it’s maybe not the ideal situation, but it’s possible. I’m kind of surprised by that since I had major anxiety in the time leading up to doing this for a single week!
I know it would be harder with a child who was eating solid foods, with more than one child in diapers, for a full time working mom, a single mom…it would be hard when mom (or baby) wasn’t feeling well. But knowing you can diaper your baby for next to nothing, not having to put your child’s health at risk by reusing disposables, or leaving them on too long, skipping bills, scrimping at the grocery store, or asking family for help would be worth it for me.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but if it were diapers vs. food, I’d consider disposable diapers a luxury, and if I were going to spend $10 on a luxury, I can think of way better things than diapers. I know that even my hand washing situation was cushy, with a utility sink right off my kitchen. It would be much harder if I had to wash in my only bath tub, getting the diapers out & disinfecting the tub so my kids or I could bathe. I also didn’t have any of the life stress that accompanies dire financial situations (like wondering what you can feed your kids for breakfast.)
My thoughts have been all over the place this week, but I am really grateful that we have all we do, and I’m remembering that every time a blister (from wringing diapers) on my hand hurts!
Are you participating? Link up your post! If you’re not participating, read the other bloggers’ posts.
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
We did it Maria!!
I just wanted to add in, since this post seems to waver between ‘if I didn’t have the money, I’d buy food instead of disposable diapers’ and ‘but I don’t really know what it’s like’, that many moms who are struggling financially to make ends meets are using daycares that will not accept anything but disposable diapers. So, if they’re trying to finish school and get more hours at work.. they don’t really have a choice at all 🙂
Certainly if I had to provide diapers for daycare, I would, but every flat you use in place of a disposable is money saved. If you only needed a few disposables a day, it would also be much easier to find bargains on them. I’ve found them as cheap at 8 cents/diaper for name brands.