Crappy weather = Homemade finger paints

Now that the weather has gotten too cold to sit in the sand box for an hour at a time, 'tis the season to explore indoor activities that can keep my curious tot occupied for more than 10 minutes. He loves rifling through the paper recycling, crawling after the cats, and pulling all of his books off of the shelf, but sometimes he needs a novel activity.

Working full-time, staying at home, and everything in between: Part Deux

The New Mama Diaries continues its exploration of women's working statuses and how they feel behind the scenes. Today, we talk to a mama friend of mine, Teri, a stay-at-home mom who just moved to a new city to be closer to her husband's work. Although she loves that everything she needs is within a 10-minute drive, she struggles with feeling disconnected.

1.  What prompted your decision to work or stay at home?

I was let go from my job about two weeks before I got pregnant. I was looking for a job, but I didn’t get any call backs or interviews.  I started to show and I thought "No one will hire a pregnant lady who will need maternity leave in a few months." My unemployment would cover the bills for a while, but wouldn’t last forever. So, we decided that I would be a stay-at-home mom.

Cloth diapers versus disposable diapers: The scoop on the poop

I wanted to give my readers a solid answer to the question, “Which is better, cloth diapers or disposables?” Alas, after much research, I'm sorry to say, there is none. Like this presidential election, one choice does not outshine the other. Rather, you have to pick the lesser of the two evils: Do you want to use enough water to fill two Olympic size swimming pools or send nearly 5,000 diapers per child into the landfill? Tough decision, but some facts with a wee bit (see what I did there?) of experience might help steer deciding parents into the path that is right for them. When deciding which type of diaper to use, four factors usually come into play: environmental impact, health, personal effort, and cost. 

Environmental impact: Most people have the cloth versus disposable debate for ecological reasons, so let’s tackle that first. According to National Geographic’s Human Footprint project, it takes 715 pounds of plastics and 5.65 barrels of crude oil, and four trees to make one human’s lifetime supply of diapers (thanks, Saudi Arabia!). According to “The Poop on Eco-Friendly Diapers,” published by Wired, disposable diapers make up 3.4 tons of waste, or 2.1% of U.S. garbage. And they don’t biodegrade—at least very well, not even natural disposables. According to the Real Diaper Industry Association (yes, it really is a thing), it can take up to 500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose.