Friday was like any other day. I woke up, checked my emails and played around with Monkey before starting diaper laundry. I have a very strict routine, prewash (cold), wash (hot), then another wash cycle at the end to make sure all the soap is out of the diapers. I was in the middle of the prewash when I noticed my washer making a weird sound. I went to investigate and of course, I hated what I found. My washer was broken! What the heck was I going to do with a broken washer full of dripping wet, dirty diapers. So after chatting online with some fellow cloth diapering moms, I decided I would attempt to wash them in the bathtub by hand. It sounded easy enough anyway. It took me roughly 2.5 hours to complete my wash routine by hand. It was the most exhausting and painful process I have had to deal with. Honestly, I would rather have given birth again before washing that many diapers by hand again!
Some moms actually hand wash their diapers every time they need cleaned. I couldn't imagine spending hours every time my diapers needed washed and all the effort that goes into it. I know, I know. That makes me sound lazy, but I'd like to see you try to wash days worth of dirty diapers in a bathtub and getting up to nurse a sleeping 15 month old back to sleep. It's not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. I enjoy having the ease of my washer to complete my strict routine so I may then finish the rest of my house work. Using the washer gives me time to do other things while each of the cycles are running. This means I get everything I need to get done in a timely manner so I can spend more time with Chester.
So, while I was hunched over the bathtub, swishing the diapers around then wringing them each out individually after each "cycle" I got to thinking. I am not a "do it all" kind of mom, and I'm okay with that. I don't want to be anyway! What this means is; I don't want to make my own shampoo, laundry detergent, or cloth diaper detergent. I don't want to spend more time (besides the blogging I do during nap and bed time) out of my day to try to do it all. I would rather spend that time with Chester, reading books to him or watching him explore things around him and learn his boundaries. This does not mean that I don't care about the environment, or that I'm not "green" enough. Slowly we are becoming a greener family and will eventually be to the point I'm comfortable with. I don't have to prove anything to anyone. I don't want every single thing being a competition. "Oh, I knitted Suzie this hat." "Yeah, well I picked the cotton myself to make this shirt for Timmy." It's annoying to see those kinds of parents "one up" each other all the time. I like to do what make myself and my family happy. This means you won't see me trying to make everything homemade or from scratch all the time. Yes, sometimes I like to buy ready to make cookies because I don't always want to spend so much time baking from scratch. This just makes me human.
I read a blog post by another blogger one day that talked about the use of the internet and smartphones and about how you will be sure to miss out on your child's childhood if you weren't careful enough. I thought it was an excellent post that I'm sure plenty of people could take something away from. I think that goes for the television as well. Sure, Chester loves to watch Brobee, Toodee, Plex, Muno an Foofa dance around while singing about picking up their trash, but what he really wants is me. He wants all of my attention focused on him. He wants my patience and understanding when he gets frustrated. So while I managed to turn two blog posts into one, my point here was that Chester doesn't care if I knitted his hat by hand or just went out to buy it from the store. All he wants is me to give him all the attention he deserves and I make sure to do just that. So while I'm not a do it all kind of mom, I sure as hell am mom enough.
