Family Cloth It Is, Then

I use cloth wipes on my kid sometimes.  Especially when we're at home.  It's actually easier, because she doesn't have any fascination with playing with the cloth ones.  I wash them, put them away under the bathroom sink. and they are handy for bathtime.  Or for use as, you know, cloth wipes.

TMI alert.  Leave now if you're sensitive.

I also use the cloth wipes as "family cloth".  Which is code for cloth toilet paper.  It helps my environmental sensitivities, and is GREAT when I forget to buy toilet paper.

So, in case you hadn't picked up on it, we're potty training around these parts.  Also, she's in the mimic-y stage where she does everything that I do.  So she knows that the cloth wipes are under the sink.  She knows how to wipe with them.  She knows that they go in the wet bag when you are done.

But then I hesitated.  They use toilet paper at daycare.  They will use toilet paper at school.  Other families and households use toilet paper.  Should I maybe use paper and teach her to flush it?  Otherwise, will she always look for a wet bag ... and not always find one?

So I started teaching her about toilet paper.  Then I had another concern.  If I use cloth and she uses paper, and she flushes her paper, will she acccidentally flush a cloth wipe?  So should I start using paper too?

So I buy toilet paper.  I start only using cloth in 'my' bathroom, at night, when she's asleep.  Don't want to confuse her.  Don't want to do something different than daycare, than other families.

--

About a month ago I started noticing that it smelled like poop in my basement.  Only on occasion.  Only when I would go down to do laundry would I notice it.  I thought maybe it was diapers. 

Last Wednesday I noticed that some clothes on the basement floor were wet.  Really wet.  Sopping, soaking wet.  Over the next couple of days my dad and I troubleshooted by flushing and draining different toilets and sinks.  His theory: I have roots in the sewer line.

By Sunday water was no longer just coming up through the sewer drain, it was standing and not going back down.  I halted all Sunday chores, including diaper laundry, dishes, and the kid and I planned to bathe and sleep at my parents.

Luckily they called a local plumbing company just to see if they would honor their special offer on the weekends.  The answer was yes.  A few hours later, I have a quote for replacing a sewer pipe that has several root balls growing into it.

And instructions not to flush any paper down the toilet.

Back to cloth wipes it is, then.