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.

Working full time, staying at home, and everything in between

Personally, I think Gen X and Gen Y moms have a unique set of factors influencing their decisions to work or stay at home with their kids. Many of our grandmothers didn't work, but many of our mothers did--not just because they had to to make ends meet, but because they wanted to. Women weren't limited to being teachers or secretaries anymore; they could be whatever they wanted, so they did, and boy have we kicked ass out there.

But the sagging economy and the modern societal expectation that women should work outside of the home have made it difficult for many women who want to stay at home with their children to do so.

Now, don't get me wrong--I wouldn't go back in time and reverse the women's movement that fueled said ass kicking. I'd be pretty pissed if I was expected to stay at home to stitch samplers and make preserves. Women fought to be equals in the workforce, and now we are (for the most part, anyway). The problem is that as we have taken on more responsibility in the workplace, our home responsibilities haven't decreased, and there just isn't enough time or energy for all of it.

What to do with all that poo: The trilogy

Now that I've been at this cloth diapering thing for almost 15 months, I've had a chance to give various products a good wringing through the washer, so to speak. I haven't tried them once or twice--I've really put them to the test with everything from "Did he really drink three cups of water today?" pees to "He just ate an entire pear!" poops. We've been through all four seasons and have grown from newborn to 18 month clothes, so we have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't.

An unfocused post about everything I've read in the last two days

I'm not even PMS-ing, but I have spent far too much time crying between last night and this morning. Last night, I read this article from the June issue of Real Simple about Ann Lee Hussey's mission to immunize children in third-world countries from preventable diseases such as polio. Hussey's own struggles as a polio victim pulled at my heart strings, but I didn't start bawling until I read about Uma, a polio victim in Nigeria who had to crawl around on all fours to get around.

Fee-lings, nothing more than fee-eelings

The random and frequent crying spells stopped three weeks after my son was born, but as a human governed by the endocrine system, the mama feelings never stop. One thing I learned after 10 years in weekly therapy (thanks Mom!) is that they are all valid and natural, even the ones that make you feel like a horrible human being.

Here, I provide a little tour of some of the feelings I’ve experienced over the past few months (defining the term 'feelings' broadly):