Who Are YOU?

Let me preface this post with a disclaimer. I am not in this to make any enemies, offend anyone, or tick anyone off. Sorry. I'm just sayin'....

So, it's been a while, as you can see. Perhaps the Beatles said it best: "Oh blah dee, oh blah dah, life goes on, rah! La, la, la, la, life goes on." (Such an erudite bunch of young chaps they were...)

Do not let my lack of posts fool you, though. I have been here. Lurking in the shadows of others' blogs. I've been reading...and even, at times, commenting. (Feel free to "ooooh" and "aaaaah" at will.)

Tonight, for instance, I read this post. The title must have struck my interest, because this is not a blog I've regularly read. It did turn out to be a thought-provoking post. Particularly, towards the end.

"...I've been with my husband for ten years. I work full time from a home office. (Yes, I've upgraded from the couch.) I have two sons. One kid is three, the other is almost ten months-old. I cloth diaper the little one...."

Now, Ms. Blogger, let me reiterate that I do not mean to offend you in anyway. This is really nothing personal; yours just happened to be the blog that I read tonight. Forgive me for making you my guinea pig, and thank you for playing along. But, I find it quite interesting that you chose to include the fact that you cloth diaper your child in a paragraph describing who you are. This really spoke to me because I've noticed you are, by far, NOT the only mother on the blogosphere that seems to feel this is behavior is a part of their identity in some way. In fact, I have visited blogs (probably many) in which the author finds that this detail of their life is so important it merits inclusion in their mini-bio on their sidebar!

I hope the blogosphere as a whole will forgive me when I say, as honestly and candidly as I can, that I just don't get that, folks. Not the cloth diapering part...the broadcasting it to the world part.

I, as you know (if you've visited before) am the mother of two young drama queens. I nursed my daughters and made a lot of my own baby food (especially with Big Girl). No, I did not choose to use cloth diapers...but, is it really that big of a deal? My mother used cloth diapers for her three children, myself included. (And, yes, they did have disposable diapers then. This was a choice she made.) My question is, since when does the type of diaper you use make such an impact on your identity?

Really?

Would you find it equally as important when defining WHO YOU ARE to include that you use low flow shower heads? Or low watt bulbs? Or, perhaps you use a wash cloth to wipe your child's bum instead of disposable wipes???

I ask you, mothers of the blogosphere, what's up with this? What will you say when your children are potty trained? Will this status line fall to the wayside, or simply revert to past tense? ("Hello. My name is Jenny. I used to cloth diaper my baby.")