Our power went out last night just as I was about to put Cubby in his bassinet. Thankful that I had already changed him for the last time and that he was ready to go to sleep, I put him to bed, hoping the power would be back on before the 2 a.m. changing and feeding. Because I can think of a lot of things worse than trying to change a diaper by flashlight, but it still wouldn't be very much fun. Especially if any, um, "accidents" were to occur in the midst of the change.
It did come back on before 2 a.m., so I didn't have to mess around with a flashlight. But it really made me reflect on how much of a pain in the ass all these things must have been before electricity. And not just changing diapers by candlelight or whatever (think of the danger of fire around a flailing baby, for instance--NOT COOL). And even when my mother-in-law had kids, there was no such thing as nursing apparel that made it easier to feed the kid without flashing the world.
And the LAUNDRY. OH MY GOD. The amount of laundry associated with babies if cloth diapers are in use, as they are for us and were for everyone before the 1980s, is bad enough. To have to handwash it all would be a staggeringly awful task.
The good old days? No thanks. I'll take the bad new days if it means I don't have to handwash two dozen shitty diapers every other day.
The end.
7 comments:
AGREED!
I remember my mother letting the dirty diapers soak in the toilet. She was thrilled when disposable diapers appeared! (unfortunately for her, she was done by then) I also remember we were all potty trained by 18 months. Try doing that today. Odd the things that I can remember as you talk about life today.
mmm hmm. just imagine - my grandmother was born and raised in the mountains of WV. 10 kids that mostly didn't go beyond 3rd grade cuz they had to help at home. no electric, no running water, no corner store.
And my own mother - who at the age of 24 had 4 children, me - age 4, sis - age 3 and twin boys just born.
can you EVEN imagine?? I can't. wowie. we are blessed :)
We were potty trained early as well since we were cloth diapered.
We lived in Colombia growing up and my mom said a lot of times we just ran around without clothes on to make things easier since we didn't always have elctric or a washing machine/dryer. She said we started potty training as soon as we could sit up.
I've been thinking about the cloth v. disposable debate...not sure which one I side with...
I can't imagine washing diapers by hand on a washboard, but I'm sure it was done! Our ancestors were feisty and amazing women.
I actually don't think the laundry was quite as impossible as it looks at first glance. Electric washing machines were an early invention. True, they weren't automatic, since one had to put the clothes through separate wash and rinse cycles and then through a wringer, but they worked. Prior to that, there were, I believe, drums that one could rotate. And prior to that women (always women, and probably frequently underpaid immigrant labor) used metal plunger-shaped affairs to agitate the clothes. The washboards were used, too, of course, but probably more for stubborn stains than for everyday things. It was heavy work, but women were clever enough and strong enough to get it done. One thing is a constant: drying cloth diapers in the sun is super! They whiten by the moment and feel and smell truly clean.
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