Wednesday, October 10, 2007

dumbest. parenting idea. ever.

The Today Show ran a story today on the practice of Elimination Communication where by insane earthy-crunchy moms don't put diapers on their kids. Rather, they wait for the child to give visual cues that they have to go, run their kids to the bathroom (or bowl or whatever) and give some sort of audio cue to their children to go.

Advocates say it's better for the environment and is in practice in other areas of the world where they can't afford diapers...yadda yadda yadda. But really, aren't their laundry bills through the roof? What are they using to clean the inevitable accidents that occur? And, furthermore, don't these parents not have anything better to do than look for every grunt, grimace and scowl as a possible sign of having to go?

Last night, we let A have some bare-bottom time since she has a diaper-rash. The entire time she was pants-free, I was stressed that she was going to poop on her carpet, or even worse, me. I guess I'm just not mentally tough enough for this trend.

3 comments:

Deep in the Heart said...

I couldn't get over the images of these 2 month olds on their potties! I liked the pediatrician's point that while it may work, wouldn't you rather spend time reading, singing, interacting with your child, rather than sitting with them on the potty?

Steel Magnolia said...

I was thinking the same thing when I saw this story-DUMB and just plain weird. Do you know anyone in NOVA doing this?

Slacker Mama said...

I don't know of anyone who does this. But then again, I haven't talked to Melissa from New Mom's Group lately-- she's the only person I could picture doing this. And of course, we'd all be bad moms for not doing it, too!