is it abuse, or is the new way just abdicating responsibility?

Amazon Prime is convenient, fast, and a bit pricey. Aliexpress is also convenient, but much slower and really cheap. They are very complimentary services.  Use Amazon for things you need immediately and want name brand stuff, and use Aliexpress for things you can live without for a month or two, and don’t care that it’s a no-name brand.

I got some cloth diapers for my baby shower once.   It wasn’t on my registry and I was going to use disposable diapers so I was curious why my friend got me some.  It turned out that that friend was the only one who was already a mother and it became the most practical baby gift I ever got!  Cloth diapers are absorbent, low maintenance, easy to clean and will whip up and baby messes that arise.  Use it as an impromptu bib, whip drool off his chin,  as improvised blanket, etc.   And when you are done, just dump them in the washer and dryer and then come out as good as new.   Since then, I always give a couple of packs away at baby showers.  Needless to say (but I will say it), don’t mix the one meant for the bottom with the ones meant to do everything else.  Lol.

Years ago, the Diaper Genie was all the rage and when I was pregnant with my first child, I thought I would need one desperately.  In hindsight, it’s a big fat NO!  Let’s do the math.  A Diaper Genie costs $30 and refills are needed roughly once a month at a cost of about $8.  So let’s say your child becomes totally toilet trained by 3 years old, then that over $300 + tax that you are spending which could go towards her college fund.

But having said that, that is not why I stopped using my Diaper Genie about a couple of months.  Trust me, it stills REEKS every time you open it up to put in a fresh diaper and the smell lingers in the room.  Moreover, It’s a real daunting and stinky task when it’s time to empty out the Genie into a large garbage bag.  In the end, it was so much easier to dump the poop into the toilet (wouldn’t you rather have poop flushed away then sitting in a big plastic container for days on end), place all the diapers into a plastic bag or a disposable bag, tie a big knot at the end of the day and put it in the garbage in the garage or the outdoor garbage bin.

We were fortunate that our neighborhood considers disposable diapers as compostable so we would just put the diapers (with the poop down the toilet) into a compost bag (from Costco at about 10 cents each), tie a knot and then put them in our green bin outside.

Hindsight is 20-20.  I had lots and lots of baby products when my children were babies.  I thought they were going to make my life or my baby’s life easier.  Well, the vast majority in hindsight were not needed especially the ones that I registered for for my baby shower.  However, I got a few items from friends who were already mothers that I found indispensable and essential.  This purpose of this forum is for parents to help other parents evaluate whether they need all those costly and bulky items in our lives.

So let’s get blogging!