Rebecca of Main St. Diaries is experiencing diaper and poop overload.

I am so, so sick of diapers. Our baby Dawson is about 18 months (or something like that, I don't know. Once I had two, I just stopped keeping track) and Liam is just over 3 and I feel like all I do is change diapers and wipe butts. Tonight, I was rinsing out a diaper once again, and I just thought, I can't believe the amount of fecal matter I have to deal with around here.

We did cloth diapers for two years with Liam, then chlorine-free disposables, and while I've read all the arguments about disposables not being as bad for the environment as it seems like they would be, I just keep thinking about all those plastic diapers, piling up, millions of them, never biodegrading. Where do they go? They never, ever break down. They just sit in a landfill somewhere, accumulating, until we dump them into the sea, and become part of that huge 150 mile wide cloud of bits of plastic that's choking sea life. Recently, we found G-diapers (reusable cloth diaper covers with flushable liners) which I think are brilliant and are relatively easy to use, but it still means I'm spending a fair amount of time rinsing poop off of things.

Mostly, though, I am sick of seeing people on the toilet. We have been working on potty training my oldest son Liam and have gotten to this point where the bathroom door is always open because I read in a book somewhere that's what you should do to make the child feel like using the toilet is natural and normal. A few nights ago Liam and Tommy (my husband) were sitting on their respective toilets, with the doors open, and I was trying to clean the kitchen which is right next to the bathroom. This is the conversation that went on:

Digusting noise.
Tommy: "Oh my goodness. What was that noise?"
Liam: "That was just my bum making a silly sound."
Silence.
Liam: "Poop is coming!"
Tommy: "Hooray! Daddy's pooping too!"
More disgusting sounds.
Liam: "Does Mommy want to see my poop?"
Me: "NO!"
Liam: "Do you want to see my poop, Daddy?"
Tommy: "Sure. Do you want to see my poop?"
Me: "THAT IS ENOUGH!"
Bathroom door is forcibly shut.
Liam: "Is Mommy happy?"

Well. That's a question for the ages, isn't it?

A day or two later I was trying to get both of the boys out the door and to daycare, and I was putting sunscreen on Dawson (who is remarkably loud and was shrieking as if I was rubbing him with poison ivy) when I saw Liam headed out the door with his potty. I said, "What on God's green earth are you doing?" and he said, "I going outside to poop." I said, "No. NO! You may not poop outside. We go inside in this family." And Liam said, "But I like pooping outside. I can hear the birds."

Sometimes I think the best and worst thing about having children is that you often get what you ask for. Did I not want to raise a child who loves and respects nature? Did I not want to raise a kid who is comfortable with his own body? On the one hand, I'm thrilled that he wants to listen to songbirds. On the other hand, we live on Main Street in a small town and both of the children are total nudists to begin with. So I'm glad the boy likes the birds. I'm glad everyone in my house is comfortable with going to the bathroom. But the potty stays inside. It doesn't seem like too much to ask.

All that said, at least he took his potty with him.

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