Man said disposable nappies should be banned

[rainbowtoenails]

He was a friend of a friend so I bit my lip but I found it quite patronising for a man to be lecturing women on this. He has dcs but I dont think he's changed that many nappies. Easy, then for him to say disposables should be illegal. I tried reusables but it didnt work out for various reasons. I felt guilty about using disposables but they were very liberating. Im no fan of P&G but I think banning them would be a real step back for womens liberation.

blackcurrants I have a friend in NYC with pretty much the same story as yours. Planned to cloth diaper, bought the bambinex, couldn't manage with the lugging. You're not her are you?!

Actually, she had 10 flights and a lift but tbh, I would feel exactly the same unspder the circumstances

jenny in these situations there is no such thing as outsiders objectivity as you cannot understand the impact until you live it yourself. I agree with Deb that all child rearing duties/choices are feminist issues as overwhelmingly (note not always) it is women who have to deal with it.

I feel much the same about bf. I am an ardent advocate for breastfeeding. I work hard (voluntarily) to provide support for local mums who want to breastfeed to succeed and to help them make it as easy and enjoyable as it should be. However, I am the first to recognise that without the right support bf is can be very difficult and had I been in pain and been undemined by HCPs (as I see frequently) I would have ff.

Of course there is; no, you can't fully understand the impact, but you can empathise and you are most definitely entitled to hold an opinion. If I spent three years doing a thesis on the subject and interviewed hundreds of parents, would you still say there was no value in what I had to say on the subject? However, I don't think the environmental case against disposables is clear-cut and, by and large, I think people should do what is most practical and let science find the way forward. In my experience very few people are prepared to invest much time or money on long term environmental solutions unless forced to do so. In this case making disposables illegal would clearly be idiocy. Black market nappies - can you imagine?

No, if you spent three years doing a thesis on the subject of parents opinions of course you would be entitled to an opinion based on research. some bloke who's changed a handful of nappies or someone with good social support who cannot empathise does not.

So where's the line in the sand RealMBJ? I just don't agree that we can automatically dismiss people from debates on the basis of their experiences - or lack thereof. To look at it the other way, Wellington (I think) once commented that the most experienced campaigner under his command was a donkey - he wouldn't go to it for advice, however.

Corporations have to put profit first as that's their obligation to shareholders. I agree, therefore, that the onus for improvement lies with environmental regulation.

Since it's obvious that experienced nappy-changers don't agree on this topic, I don't see how an inexperienced person ought to be told not to comment. Whatever that person said, s/he would be agreeing with one of the experienced opinions, so what's the value of experience?

[Philosophy mode off.]

And once again, there seems to be an attempt to blame manufacturers and not consumers. More environmentally friendly nappies would cost more--given a choice, would people pay the extra? Should they be forced to? I suppose I'm saying that it's consumers as well as producers who should be held accountable.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, that doesn't necessarily make it a valid one.

Ain't that the truth MBJ! But it's usually shallow or misdirected logic that leads to a lack of validity. Of course, we all know people who have very strong opinons without possessing any experience, knowledge or reasoning

Hospitals here wont allow cloth. dd was in terries for the first 3 years but everytime she went in we had to buy disposables. And she was in a lot!

Yy jenny, we all do

Nope. Well, sort of . DH will happily change as many dirty or wet nappies as he can when he is home but he won't put them in the wash.

I dunno, the fact that I don't have to get out of bed before 8 am (well I do but I go back between 6:30 and 8) makes up for the not putting the nappies on a wash

DH changes 95% of dds nappies...

if it is the case that women who are keenest are the ones whose dhs don't help it might just be that they're more likely to be SAHMs with husbands who work long hours but bring in enough money for them to have leisure to spend on washing nappies.

it is interesting how these things become part of people's identity though. I saw a forum once where women were putting whether their babies were 'co-sleeping, breastfed, cloth-bummed' in their signatures. While I applaud all the above it was somewhat nauseating to see it repeated after every single post.