paper -> cloth
Dec. 5th, 2006 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutOver the years, I've been slowly reversing the cloth -> paper trend: paper napkins to cloth napkins I think was the first step. Then paper towels were eliminated in favor of cloth towels and a sponge. Much later, "sanitary" napkins got replaced with luna pads. And most recently, I've subbed cloth hankies for kleenex.
Now, I thought it was weird when I realized people thought of paper diapers as "normal" diapers, and weren't sure what to call a cloth diaper. I have suddenly noticed that _no one_ suggests a hankie for a kid's running nose. _Everyone_ said hankie when they were handing over a tissue when I was a kid. Does anyone else remember this, or is this further evidence that I grew up in a time warp?
In any event, this last cold convinced me that hankies are, in fact, easier than tissue. At least as long as we're cloth diapering. Today, however, I finally figured out why people don't like cloth diapers, and why they think paper diapers are so much easier: it really grosses people out when they have to get the poop off a cloth diaper. I thought it was pretty nasty the first two times I had to do it. By the fourth time, it was absolutely normal. The kid has to do something really outrageous (like twist in a way that smears shit all over my shirt -- which could happen just as easily with a paper diaper given these particular circumstances) to annoy me at this point.
I know I've been saying all along that this is an artifact of detachment culture, a part of our apparatus for denying our animal nature. I think I might be right. See, _this_ is why you don't use the ew-gross-don't-touch-that approach to socializing the little beasties. They internalize it, and then can't get over it. Better off setting the boundary with a hip check and a sharply verbalized No! Don't touch that! No internal revulsion to recover from later, just a healthy respect for Mama.
Now, I thought it was weird when I realized people thought of paper diapers as "normal" diapers, and weren't sure what to call a cloth diaper. I have suddenly noticed that _no one_ suggests a hankie for a kid's running nose. _Everyone_ said hankie when they were handing over a tissue when I was a kid. Does anyone else remember this, or is this further evidence that I grew up in a time warp?
In any event, this last cold convinced me that hankies are, in fact, easier than tissue. At least as long as we're cloth diapering. Today, however, I finally figured out why people don't like cloth diapers, and why they think paper diapers are so much easier: it really grosses people out when they have to get the poop off a cloth diaper. I thought it was pretty nasty the first two times I had to do it. By the fourth time, it was absolutely normal. The kid has to do something really outrageous (like twist in a way that smears shit all over my shirt -- which could happen just as easily with a paper diaper given these particular circumstances) to annoy me at this point.
I know I've been saying all along that this is an artifact of detachment culture, a part of our apparatus for denying our animal nature. I think I might be right. See, _this_ is why you don't use the ew-gross-don't-touch-that approach to socializing the little beasties. They internalize it, and then can't get over it. Better off setting the boundary with a hip check and a sharply verbalized No! Don't touch that! No internal revulsion to recover from later, just a healthy respect for Mama.
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Date: 2006-12-06 05:26 am (UTC)