If you ever want to witness an entire room recoil in synchronized horror, just casually tell people how parents used to deal with cloth diapers. No exaggeration — I’ve done it. The looks on their faces? Legendary. My friends swear I’m making it up, and honestly, I don’t blame them. It sounds less like a parenting moment and more like a scene from a wilderness survival course.
But here’s the truth: before disposable diapers, warm wipes, scent-locking diaper pails, and “baby-care innovation,” our parents were out here raising kids on what can only be described as parenting expert mode.
I grew up thinking cloth diapers were normal — the kind you pinned on with those sharp little safety pins that looked like sewing weapons. My mom could diaper a baby with the speed and precision of someone defusing a bomb. But the diapers didn’t leave the biggest impression on me.
The process did. The routine. The ritual. The act that modern parents would record, upload, and immediately go viral for — but probably only after fainting.
Because before there were wipes with organic aloe, my mom’s method was simple:
She rinsed cloth diapers in the toilet.
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