I recently read that with inflation rising like a hot air balloon, many young families are being squeezed tremendously in buying diapers. I did a little research, and a throw-away diaper today costs about 50 cents each – give or take. Babies go through lots of diapers, maybe 8 or 10 a day. That’s $5 a day or $150 a month. Twins would set you back $300 a month. Wow!
Boomers, however, didn’t have worry about throw away diapers. We bough cotton diapers and washed them and hung them out to dry on the clothesline.
As a boy, well I remember wanting to use the toilet and there was a dirty diaper in there, soaking. I was told not to pee on the diaper, but to remove it from the commode, pee, then put it back. I had three younger siblings and got used to it.
Then, in 1968, Nancy and I really got into the diaper business when Angelin was born. She was a pooping machine, but fortunately, my parents had given us the gift of a Diaper Service. A man came by a couple times a week, picked up our dirty diapers and replaced them with a stack of soft, clean ones.
Nancy was able to multitask. She could change a diaper with one hand and iron a shirt with the other. She also could secure them so that they were as snug as a bug in a rug. I was not as gifted. I did manage to learn how to position the diaper, wrap it to the front, but I wasn’t so hot at the pinning part. After I changed her diapers, Angelin would make three or four waddles across the living room rug and the diaper would fall off. I got better, though, but never could do it with one hand.
I think by the time Laura was born, some 14 years later, we were also using Pampers, throw away diapers. They were much easier to use and to change, and they weren’t terribly expensive at the time, but it never seemed right to put plastic on a baby’s bottom instead of a nice soft cotton.
If I ever have to do the Depends thing, I want ‘em in all cotton.