5 Tip Friday - How to get your significant other to agree to cloth diaper

In the spirit of the article earlier this week about how my husband got on board with the flats and handwashing challenge, I thought it would be helpful to write some tips for those of you who want to cloth diaper, but perhaps your other half doesn't want to. OR, if you know someone who is in this situation, perhaps you could pass this article on to them and share some tips of your own.

I hope you like this new 5 Tip Friday Series. If there are some tips topics (say that ten times fast) you want featured or if you want to write a 5-tip article, let me know!

Hubby: "You know why the Sharks lost tonight, right? JD wasn't wearing his Sharks diaper."

1. Bring it up casually. Don’t think that the person will make a decision then and there. Just plant the seed, list why you want to do it, and let those thoughts incubate for a while.



2. Find out why he/she is resistant. Perhaps the person might benefit from seeing the Ick and Eek of Cloth Diapering article and video for some extra assurance on concerns such as price, grossness, laundering, etc. In my very last discussion I had with hubbs to attempt to persuade him that cloth diapering isn’t gross, I introduced him to the concept of flushable liners and sprayers. This was enough to do him in (or it was that I had worn that guy out).

3. Crunch the numbers - this seems to be one of the most successful ways to get the sweetie on board. But when you do this, be realistic. Get as accurate prices as possible, that way if he/she comes back with, “Well have you considered laundry costs?” you have an estimate right there. Don’t forget to factor in if you have more children after this, as that is where you will see a tremendous amount of savings. There is an article here based on one Mama’s estimates that you could use to get a sense of what to consider when figuring out the costs, but I encourage you to look up estimates yourself. For example, I am sure you can score some deals using coupons, but we usually forgot and would buy a box of Costco diapers that were .17 cents per diaper. So when I crunched the numbers, that was my estimate--and you will have yours!

4. I hate to say this, but offer to do cloth diaper duty for a little while. Leave a small stash of disposables there (if you feel comfortable doing so), that way if he/she wants to change a diaper (ha! who wants to change a diaper - OK, fine I do, because I love my cute diapers) , there is an option he/she feels comfortable with. But for the most part, you do diaper duty. Who would want to turn THAT down? I did this and after a while, my husband saw how similar cloth diapers were to disposables (especially all-in-ones) and he had no problem getting on board. I always do the diaper laundry and that is fine with me. But, I will say, when I had baby #2 the hubbs asked me how to wash the diapers so he could help. So you never know!

5. Last but not least, respect his/her concerns. For example, at first my husband was grossed out by buying used diapers, so I bought new. If your significant other feels strongly uncomfortable about some part of cloth diapering, remember that it is his/her child too. Perhaps you could work out some kind of compromise.

Oh, and if all else fails, try my method.....just don’t stop talking about it until you get your way ;)

Let me know your thoughts. For those of you who had to do some coaxing, what worked?

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