Saturday 21 August 2010

Freecycle - Innocence Recalled

"WANTED: Cloth Nappies
Hi,
Our baby is due in two weeks and we are planning to use cloth nappies - I believe we will need quite a lot! We have bought some but not yet enough.
So if anyone has any that they don't need - we would be happy to take them off your hands.
Thanks!"

I remember 'planning to use cloth nappies'. I too had some vague idea that I would 'need quite a lot'. Reading this request makes me feel the way I did at pantomimes in my childhood - "Look behind you, look behind you," I want to shout, 'you have no idea what's coming at you in a couple of weeks. The very word 'planning' will be swept from your mind."

If I didn't dislike the usage so much, I think I'd have to say "Oh, bless."

8 comments:

  1. 3 dozen should suffice

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  2. That's what I was going to say - we were always told to buy three dozen. Mine did me through three kids, and then got cut up for dusters etc. Also, I saw someone was advertising 'organic baby wipes' the other day. Mine were completely organic - cut up old towels with a zigzag edge run around to stop fraying. You can get 15-20 out of an old bath towel. And LOL (heh!) at the idea of planning anything except survival.

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  3. Nurse and M-H: I cannot remember how many I had (nappies that is, not children), you are both so efficient. Actually, I've forgotten practically every detail of the whole experience (while retaining a blurry sense that it was all pretty good). For instance, when I look at a toddler, I have no idea if they are nine months or four years old, whereas once I could remember what mine looked like at different ages and compare and contrast. As to organic baby wipes, I am not sure if mine were ever certifiably organic babies, but does one really need wipes anyway? Can't you just hold them upside down in the shower? (yes, I really have forgotten everything).

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  4. I thought everybody just sat the baby in the bath all day and hosed them down once in a while when they started smelling.

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  5. Too funny zmkc. I too wouldn't have a clue how many I had. I do remember though that I was given a few new swish shaped ones (look like cloth disposable). I kept a couple of those for - well, because I'm a libarian archivist and couldn't help myself. Meanwhile, I'm nervous about the day I become a grandmother. I adore/d my children but I'm not universally maternal wanting to give up my time for little ones when I could be, say, reading! (That said, grandchildren will be lovely when they come!)

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  6. Kevin - the trouble with that is they have a tendency to fall over and drown, hence the upside down shower strategy, as far as I remember
    Whispering - have you read Helen Garner on grandmotherhood? (In the essay collection Feel of Steel, I think)

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  7. I envisage our intrepid advert placer's "quite a lot" becoming to mean one for every time the sprog goes to the toilet. Having neither kids myself nor memory of my nappies, I feel unable to comment further.

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  8. Nappy memory - a whole new branch of psychology ripe for exploration.

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