My 3am Values

One of the less spectacular discoveries I've made as a father is that at 3am, almost everything is negotiable if the reward is sleep. Every possession, every dream, every deeply held belief-- they're all on the chopping block. If I cut off my right arm I can sleep for another hour, you say? That's doable, lets discuss. I would steal, I would burn, I would happily sack and pillage entire villages in exchange for just a few more minutes of blessed sleep.
 
And so it was around 3am, I believe, as I stood, blurry-eyed, exhausted, half-naked, and plunging the overflowing toilet, that I started to question my decision to use environmentally friendly, disposable gDiapers. What about climate change, you ask? A vast left-wing conspiracy, I say, as the dirty water lapped over the top of the toilet rim and splashed on my bare feet. 

Let me start at the beginning: Reedu and I are both aware that thousands of tons of soiled diapers lie in land fills across the country. These diapers take a long time to decompose. Which means, basically, that a long time after I'm gone, my kid's crappy diaper will still be here. Which is not good. So Reedu and I found gDiapers, and breathed a sigh of relief. gDiapers use disposable inserts inside of a reusable, outer shell. Once soiled, the inserts are torn in half, dropped in the toilet and flushed away to some happy, earth-friendly after life. At least that's what they're supposed to do. Unfortunately, the problem with gDiapers, in my experience, is that about 30% of the time they don't flush.

Fast forward to 3am. My feet are wet. My arms are tired. My toilet is clogged. And my old, Hungarian superintendent will want to know why the hell I tried to flush a diaper down the toilet when I call him in the morning-- 'ze diepahs ah not for ze toilet'!

I know there are other options. We could use cloth diapers, or buy Seventh Generation biodegradable diapers. And we probably will try something else. But, alas, gDiapers, we had such high hopes for thee.