It's really all about the diapers...

For the record, I love cloth diapers! Let's just get that out in the open right now. I love everything about them. They are cute. They are easy. They are economical. They are environmentally-responsible. They are reduce rashes. They aide in earlier potty-training. And, did I mention how cute they are! Who doesn't love those seeing a sweet baby with a fluffy, soft cloth diaper on their bottom covered in ruffles, cheetah, flowers, plaid or rockets or just plain and simple solid colors?

If you are familiar with the MMG story, you may already know I discovered modern cloth diapers more than four years ago. I had spent 16 (yes, sixteen, that's not a type-O) weeks on bedrest while pregnant with my oldest child, Levi Bentley. Armed with a few books and movies, a few dozen skeins of yarn, and a laptop computer, I passed the long days reading and researching how to be a responsible parent, how to raise a kind, intelligent, responsible child, and how to ensure we left him/her (nope, we didn't know the gender on either of our children) with a safe, healthy, beautiful world.

Exclusively using cloth diapers was one of many parenting choices that resulted.

And from the moment the first cheetah print, super soft minkee diaper arrived in the mail from WildflowerDiapers.com, a lifelong love affair was born.

We can chat sometime over ice tea (nope, I've never had a cup of coffee in my life) about the "pros" and "cons" of cloth diapers vs disposable diapers. I'm happy to listen to your point of view, if you'll listen to mine. We can compare trips the grocery store vs doing laundry, water use vs landfill space, cotton crops vs oil consumption. But I'll admit to you in advance, there is nothing anyone can say that could convince me that single use, throwaway diapers are "better" - better for my baby, better for my pocketbook, or better for the planet. That belief is cemented into my soul, and is as much a part of who I am as the color of my eyes.

So, I set out on a quest three and a half years ago to show other modern mommies just how fabulous cloth diapers could be. Along the way, I've picked up a seven person team of fellow cloth diapering mamas who felt the same way. Every week, we bring our babies dressed in their cute reusable diapers to work with us with one goal in mind: Putting more babies in real cloth diapers.

At the ABC Expo tradeshow in Las Vegas last year, I was chatting with one of the major cloth diaper manufacturers. They had just finished speaking with another major diaper company to get their brand of cloth diapers into the other diaper company's retail store.

What?!?

At first glance, I thought perhaps he'd had a few too many Vegas cocktails. Then he enlightened me with his noble, altruistic point of view. "The other cloth diaper companies aren't my competitors," he explained. "The disposable diaper companies are my competition." I won't bore you with the business details that ensued, but his point was so profound, it stopped me dead in my tracks.

So the next time your fluffy package arrives in the mail a few days later than you expected because the WAHM had a sick baby and couldn't get to the post office, or you arrive a your favorite local cloth diaper store only to find that the magenta diaper you wanted to buy was out of stock, I hope you'll remember his words before you jump online and start posting negative reviews about the hundreds of (usually mom-owned) retail and manufacturing companies that are doing their best to change the world, one cloth diaper at a time.