Do family that very occasionally watch LO refuse cloth?

jw87

I'm asking not because my family has flat out refused, but my Mother has mentioned several times I should have just a few disposables around for babysitters or just to "go out"... I don't think she realizes wet bags exist and in-less we plan on an over-night trip, we're doing this hardcore.  Other people have said the same thing, "Oh you'll still need disposables."

We're lucky if either of our parents watch our current son for one day a month.  So, the idea of buying disposables for their comfort really isn't something I want to do.

Was your family open to the idea?  I think they will do it for us, but they probably won't be thrilled.  

lageorgiapaperie

We still keep disposables on hand

We actually haven't had anyone watch DS since we started CDing. But if we did, I think I would put him in disposables. Not b/c they're totally against CDing but I'd hate for them to not put it on right and have him leak everywhere.

Sorry, I know I'm no help! 

punkrockabye

As of now there is nobody who will be watching the baby and there's no family around, but if someone refused to use cloth, they wouldn't be watching our baby. I just think as parents we get to make the decisions, so if someone wants to offer to watch the baby, they'll offer with the assumption that they'll be expected to follow what we do.

MsOCT

I'm certainly not going to pay to supply anyone with disposables. We have some from well intentioned diaper cakes, but I'm really just waiting to donate them. I've had no need for sposies, and we've road tripped, and had SIL babysit.

MouseInLux

My mum is the only person who watches DD long enough to need to change her diaper. She has no issue with any of our diapers (she used flats with us) but I have grovia AI2s while I make sure she can get to easily as they are so close to disposables. 

 

noryang

I see both sides. Babysitters you pay need to get on board. It is their JOB to respect your wish as a parent. But family that is helping you out...horse of a different color. What about splitting the difference with a disposable insert and cover. The disposable inserts come in handy from time to time and because they are one size - will last until potty learning.

leapgirl8

If someone wants to watch the babies for free so I can do something fun or get something done, I'm happy to buy disposables if they prefer them. I pick my battles (especially when someone is doing me a favor), and that wouldn't be one of them. 

MsCatra

Only my mom and stepmom have watched DD.  My mom is on board with the cloth, and my stepmom goes with the flow, so we haven't had any issues.  Initially we were using prefolds and covers and they both learned the jelly roll fold, lol.  Now I make sure to pack up the pockets that we have (we're in the process of transitioning from the PFs to pockets) for them to make it easier.  My mom did some cloth with me and she loves these newfangled pocket things .  I don't ask them to remove the insert before putting everything into the wet bag.  I just put on some gloves and do it myself when we get home.

namara5532

My mother said the same thing about disposables.  She swore up and down that if DS stayed with her that he was going into disposables.  However, after he was born, she was curious about CDs and watched me use them.  She even insisted on doing a load of diaper laundry for us while we were there.  When I left him with MIL and SIL, we left them disposables.  But they grabbed for the pocket diapers first because they were cute and just as easy to put on.

I suggest giving your parents the chance to see CDs in action.  It won't hurt to provide disposables just in case they feel uncomfortable using them when you're not there.  You may be surprised though how quickly they may warm up to CDs.

kacelle

Nobody has ever refused, even if they weren't too keen on the idea to start with.  We exclusively CD, and buying disposables for sitters/family was never an option.

PamR2012

My parents all thought that cloth of today was the cloth of days past with lots of fabric to fold and pins to stick themselves or the baby.  Once they saw the diapers in action they we on board and started asking me questions.  I guess my point is try to educate, most ppl just seem unaware.  

skibunny59

PamR2012:

My parents all thought that cloth of today was the cloth of days past with lots of fabric to fold and pins to stick themselves or the baby.  Once they saw the diapers in action they we on board and started asking me questions.  I guess my point is try to educate, most ppl just seem unaware.  

This!   

pixy_stix

Not once she got here, no. MIL has become a proponent of cloth and talks it up whenever she can.

vtwd40

My parents are coming to watch DD for 2 days this week while I have a workshop. I'm going to offer them their choice. I have pockets that we will use for daycare and that they could use (we normally use prefolds and covers), but we also have a bunch of disposables from a diaper cake. I'm pretty sure they'll use cloth because my mom used cloth on one of her co-worker's kids and she was excited to get the practice.

I'll offer the same when my MIL watches her in a few weeks, but only because I have all of these disposables. I'm not really planning on going and buying disposables later on down the line just for babysitting.

I also have road tripped with cloth and things were fine. And, I really HATE disposables now

tjkdlhb

My sister was pretty grossed out by the idea of cloth... She babysat last week for a couple of hours and I put both cloth and sposies in the diaper bag.  When I came back, LO was in the cloth!  YAY!  Both my  mom and MIL have asked to learn how the CDs work... but last week, MIL offered to change but only if she could use a sposie... (I think she has this idea about "using up" the few left from her nephew) I didn't push it because she lets me wash in her machine when we are there.  My mom says she'll use what we do, and really pre-stuffed pockets are no different than disposables in terms of ease of use.

tokenhoser

We use aplix pockets. This is the same amount of effort for random sitters as disposables, as I'll deal with the dirties when we get home. Both grandmas (and a few other people) have figured them out no problem.

She's probably envisioning flats and pins and plastic pants.

tina924

I think if you just show them how to use the diapers it's fine. Both my mom and MIL have no problem with the cloth once I showed them how I change his diaper. I even offered a few sposies, but they both said they'd like to try out the cloth! They've been using flips and pockets with great success. I just prestuff all the flips and the pockets are always prestuffed and they have no problem. I think my mom is amazed by how far CD have come since she was changing her lil sisters diapers.

jennyann28

We haven't left LO with anyone yet, but won't be buying disposables when we do. I see it as totally wasteful when we have perfectly good diapers to use already. The type of diapers you use are a parenting choice, and nobody gets to make parenting choices for DD except DH and I.

hispenguin

My youngest sister used to watch DD for a few hours every week for us. She was grossed out with cloth so we always had a few sposies on her change pad for her to use. We also have a sitter that we use maybe twice a month. She doesn't like cloth, so she uses the sposies too.

I've realized that there are people that are just don't like cloth, or aren't comfortable with it. I'm not going to push them to do something that is out of their comfort zone if it's just a few hours a month.

LittleApple

leapgirl8:

If someone wants to watch the babies for free so I can do something fun or get something done, I'm happy to buy disposables if they prefer them. I pick my battles (especially when someone is doing me a favor), and that wouldn't be one of them. 

EXACTLY.  If my parents or in-laws are watching my kid for free, I will happily supply sposies.  If I was paying someone, well then I would expect them to use the cloth, if they were comfortable.

hisbeautyalways

My child won't be in sposies, end of story.

I told my mom it wasn't an option, but she didn't have to watch my son if she didn't want to. But, she wants to. Funny thing is, she was already changing my niece into prefolds, so why not put an AIO or pocket onto my son? Made no sense to me why she even broached the idea of buying disposables.

But, I only "use" my mom as a babysitter because SHE wants to babysit. I'm not begging her to.

Any other babysitter will be provided with their choice of easy cloth diapers as well. I don't get the "not comfortable changing CDs" thing. Makes no sense.

MrsGreen620

Before DD wash born, my mom thought she would buy sposies to keep at her house and would say things like "our house, our rules, we can use them if we want to."  She has since realized that "my baby, my rules" trumps everything.  My LO has never had a disposable diaper - and not to say 100% that there is no reason that we might use sposies, but "I don't want to" is not a valid excuse.  So she now understands, and doesn't mind at all, that part of spending time with our little girl includes cloth diapers.  It's a package deal

ETA: I do have a collection of aplix pocket diapers, prestuffed, so it is as easy as possible for CD newbs. 

erniebufflo

My stepmom was super excited about the cloth diapers, and has been known to brag about us CDing to her friends. She loves her grandbabies and she loves how much better CDs are for their bums and the environment.

00jennifer00

We used sposies with our first until 3mo before he pt'd.  I hated it, but I couldn't talk dh into cd until then.  We used cd with the rest, except for the first week for #2 because our cd's rubbed her cord stump and a week when we went camping and my parents flipped out at the idea of us using cloth on the road.  My mother cd'd us (because they "couldn't afford sposies") but she hated my use of cloth.  She was never impressed with my cloth use, and I refused to use sposies on my kids after we were finally free of it.  My number one reason for cd use is to get away from the chemicals of sposies, so I didn't want my kids in them at all.  I didn't beg my parents to babysit, and they already had enough problems following our rules, so I didn't blink at making them use cds.  We were going to have babysitters this weekend (first time in almost 3 years) and I was mulling over our options for it, but I was pretty sure that I was just going to show them how to do it (high school girls) and let them know that a mess wasn't a big deal.

Aurora_Borealis

Not with us. MIL used CDs with DH and BIL, so she is thrilled with the 'new' kinds of cloth diapers. My parents live far away, but when I visit I'll be bringing cloth. I'm sure they'll be fine with it. If not, my mom is more than welcome to buy sposies to use - I'm not going to be doing it, though.

CDs are part of DD's 'stuff'. For someone to refuse to use them would be like them refusing to dress her in the clothes I have for her or insisting that she play with toys other than the ones she already has. And that would be just plain weird and controlling.

stephmike52

We never had family refuse.  But depending on why you're CDing would change my response.  With DS1 I would've REFUSED to let anyone use disposables on him.  We couldn't even use disposable wipes with him.  He would get burn-like rashes anytime he was in a disposable or had a wipe used on him.  However, with DS2 he doesn't seem to have this problem, but I just don't want to have to buy a pack of disposables for someone to use a couple and then have the rest of the pack go to waste, so If someone else wanted to buy disposables to use when they watched him, then they can buy them.

emsrdh03

I guess I've never really given anyone a choice.  I just show them the diapers and explain how they go on (just like a disposable!) and where to put the dirties.  No one has ever balked at them.  Most are intrigued.  Since we use the same 3-4 family members/friends once they were shown once, it was never an issue again.

 I suppose if you left prefolds and a cover, I could see some confusion or resistance.  But a prestuffed velcro pocket diaper?  I will never understand why people claim they can't put them on.

jw87

Thanks for all your opinions

I guess, the idea of buying a whole pack (even just a small pack) seems so worthless for a whole three hours a month.  Super wasteful, and just plain silly. (Although we do have some that will last the first couple months if need be from our shower.) 

I think they will be pleasantly surprised when they see our diapers in action, and how easy it really is.  

My MIL actually bought LO cheap plastic pants at our shower, lol... I gave a huge smile and thanked her (she remembered! and was supportive!) although, I will be returning them to Walmart.  It was such a nice gesture though  She said, "They go over your diapers."  So sweet, lol.  I'm still shocked.  I think everyone at the shower was like WTH though, haha.  She will be so shocked when she actually sees what we'll be using. 

I think my Mother will be on board once she sees them, but I know sometimes people can really surprise you... like the plastic pants from MIL. 

GibsonGirl620

jennyann28:

We haven't left LO with anyone yet, but won't be buying disposables when we do. I see it as totally wasteful when we have perfectly good diapers to use already. The type of diapers you use are a parenting choice, and nobody gets to make parenting choices for DD except DH and I.

I agree. I don't mean to be stubborn for the sake of being stubborn, or ungrateful for any help, but... It IS a parenting choice. It would be like my mom saying she doesn't want to feed my LO finger foods, so she's going to give him pur?ed food instead. 

I give a little CD demo the first few times that anybody that watches him and they all have been very receptive. Frankly, if someone is that dumbfounded by putting on a pocket CD, I wouldn't feel very confident in his/her abilities to keep up with my LO.