As the good book says, "money is the root of all evil." Well I say, we can often substitute "pride" for "money." Just call me Tevye. As much as I hate pride and see it as one of the most off-putting characteristics, I am guilty of it (of course).
I'm prideful about my marriage. I'm prideful about my education. I'm prideful about some of the choices I've made in my adult life. Recently, I am most prideful about my decisions in parenting.
Enter: pride.
When we were planning to start our family and living off MisterKidd's IHOP income while I was in college, we began researching ways to spend less when raising children. Everyone knows the biggest expense is diapers. So our first introduction into this crunchy lifestyle was discovering modern cloth diapers.
"We can buy 20 diapers and wash them every day and it will SAVE US HOW MUCH MONEY?"
Newly married. Poor. Idealistic. We were sold.
40+ diapers, several stints in disposables, many wash routine troubles, and two babies later, we are still loving our fluffy bottoms and the money it keeps in our budget and out of Pampers' wallet.
We are ALL into this cloth diapering business, advocating (tactfully, of course) when we can and finding comraderie with others that choose cloth. However, it has been a bit of a learning curve with our extended families, who either used disposables exclusively or are more familiar with old school flats. And my try hard-ness makes me stubborn and defensive when it comes to decisions that I've made outside the norm.
I recently took a road trip with my parents (sans MisterKidd), the first one ever with my girls. Road tripping with two under two is no easy task no matter how much help you have, especially without my duck dynasty look alike, who knows our routines well. And I was determined to use cloth on the trip. I am comfortable using it. No, it's not a hindrance. Yes, we will have to stop more, but that's just how it is. I. Will. Not. Bend.
We were not even 45 minutes from home on our 9 hour drive when the first leak happened, as they often do in the car seat (hey, I never said cloth diapering was without it's struggles).
Brianna's Three Second Internal Monologue:
"Ugh. Why is this happening? I double stuffed the pocket. I used bamboo because it's extra absorbent. Now they willl continue to think cloth diapers suck. It's up to me to advocate for the entire cloth diapering community, and I've let them all down. I have so much to prove. But 9 hours of stopping every 45 minutes equals...way more than 9 hours. Plus we will have to stop so I can nurse Baby Sister. Ok, fine."
You see, my try hard family is also a super logical family. Seriously, if logical thinking were an Olympic sport, MisterKidd could fill the bathtub with gold medals.
It didn't make sense to stop that often, deal with the leaks that were bound to happen, and tbh, I didn't want to have to wash and care for my dipes on vacation.
I let go of some pride and got diapers that would be used once and then thrown in the trash. And it was so freeing. Not because I truly hate CD's or because I secretly wish we bought disposables regularly, but because I was making the best decision for my kiddos in that situation and letting go of my pride. Nobody wants wet pants for 9 hours straight.
A few days later (after an incident in which two different tables were rude to me at a restaurant for having a crying baby and breastfeeding said baby) my mom dropped this little nugget of wisdom:
"You don't have enough time to stand up to everybody. You are too busy raising kids."
That was it. I will stick this in my pocket for whenever I get fired up about breastfeeding and delayed cord clamping. Do I think these decisions are best for my children (and yours)? Yes. Is it the end of the world if you don't and I do? Not in the slightest. Do I have to personally school every rude old lady on why breastfeeding should be normalized? No. I just want to feed my kids, diaper their bottoms, and teach them to be adults in the world with me. Just like most everybody else.
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