Why I Don't Cloth Diaper

I am a perfect candidate to cloth diaper my kids:

1. I care about the environment. I know that disposable diapers are made out of plastic, which is derived from petroleum. Petroleum = fossil fuel= climate change. 
2. I know these diapers end up in landfills where they contribute to the generation and release of methane (a greenhouse gas). 
3. I know we use up at least one big box of diapers every month, and that's a lot of trash. Especially during the one year that I had two kids in diapers.

Yet, I still don't use cloth diapers. Why?

Cloth diapers are cute, but sorry, they are not a good fit for this Mama.

By the time my son was a little over one year old, I knew a lot of moms who cloth diapered and loved it. They assured me it's not so bad. I could like it too. Ok, I thought. I felt like it was kind of late to start with my son, but I was pregnant with my daughter and thought maybe with her I would give it a try. I did a little research that suggested maybe waiting until my daughter went through the first few months of her life made sense, because by then she wouldn't soil diapers at such a rapid rate. Around the same time I found an awesome diaper service in Burlington. Maybe I could cloth diaper both kids afterall. I did a little research and got totally overwhelmed by the thought of having to order inserts, and then I would still have to get diaper covers. Then of course the diaper covers have to be replaced as the child grows. The diaper service would deliver clean inserts, pick up the dirty ones, and do all the washing for me. But the service was even more expensive than my monthly boxes of diapers. And then there was the fact that this business would be driving all over the county delivering diapers, generating extra CO2 emissions to come to me every week.

What if I bought some cloth diapers and did the washing myself? Well, cloth diapers are expensive. I don't know how the cost compares to disposable diaper use exactly, though I have heard that it doesn't offer much savings unless you use those same cloth diapers on more than one of your children. Regardless, the upfront cost of cloth diapers is daunting. For me, it's less painful to buy a month's supply of disposables than it is to spend hundreds of dollars all at once. Then, changing disposable diapers is bad enough, I didn't really want to get even closer in handling my child's feces. Then the thought of putting soiled diapers in my own washing machine wasn't very appealing either despite the special soaps. Plus, I would be doing a lot more loads of laundry in hot water, (we are a mostly cold water household), which would drive up our fuel oil bill.

Then, I saw some diapers for sale, second hand from some mom friends. Maybe this is what could finally get me to go cloth! But then the whole topic started again with type of insert, type of covers, sizes, how absorbent the diapers still were despite being used, etc. I ran for the hills. I'm sorry, but I like to spend 10 seconds picking a box of diapers off a grocery store shelf once a month and be done.

When it comes to having a lighter impact on the earth we all have different passions and priorities. Clearly, cloth diapering is a passion for lots of moms out there, but, despite being educated on the subject, it is not my passion and never will be. Maybe if I had met the right pro-cloth diapering people before my son was born I would have felt different and cloth diapering could have made more sense. At this point, I see the light at the end of the diaper tunnel. I just hope my daughter will potty train by age 2 like my niece and lots of other girls we know, and not hold out until age 3 like my son, nephew, and lots of little boys we know. Here's hoping!