Ode to Cloth Diapers

Cloth Diapers
When Michael was born, I believed I had to be the best mother there ever was. I am a perfectionist by nature and add that to being a Holy Ghost filled girl who felt she had to be perfect in everything, well, it was a disaster waiting to happen.
I had an odd sense of duty to God, not wrong, just odd. I took the Bible literally when it said that woman would bear children in pain. I had all three boys totally natural, no pain medicine.
Then, to make things really hard on me, I decided to use cloth diapers and plastic pants, instead of Pampers. I was on a crusade to be the best ever and to prove that I was some sort of Super Mom.
I had to wash them and rinse them at least 2 times to make sure all the detergent got out of them. Then, since we didn’t have a dryer, I had to hang them up outside on the clothesline to dry. I think I must have been the only human being on the planet in 1983 to be using cloth diapers!!
Oh, the mess, the dirty diapers, the constant washing and drying. I look back now and I wonder what in the world was I thinking of. Of course, I did the best I could, but I could have saved myself some horrible pressure if I’d only given it a break.
I just couldn’t bear the thought of you having a wet diaper next to your skin and I knew the cloth diaper would get wet fast and I could be sure to change you as soon as you wet it or pooped in it. I guess I’d seen too many other mom’s leave wet Pampers on their child and they got diaper rash and by George, that wasn’t gonna happen to you. When you did get diaper rash, I felt like I had failed you in some ungodly way. I know, I know, weird, huh? Anyway, you survived and I survived and somehow by the grace of God we made it through your childhood okay and hopefully not too scarred.