Goodmama's

That's right. GoodMama's. If you've never heard of them, go to www.thegoodmama.com and you will see what I am talking about. Today's discussion is in a very roundabout way about clutter. It is rather more about collectivism. The act of having for having's sake. Bear with me, I will get to my point about the Goodmama's eventually. You need a little back story with this.

Goodmama's are cloth diapers. If you haven't heard, in recent years, cloth diapers have come "en vogue" in a way. Many improvements have been made in fabrics and fasteners used to make cloth diapers. They are no longer a flat piece of fabric pinned on and covered with rubber pants. Improvements have been made on the ol' toilet bowl swish as well. No more dunk and accidental flush anymore folks. Oh no, not in the slightest. There are now oodles of work-at-home-moms who craft diapers, often on custom orders. There are dozens of different styles. There are all-in-ones (AIO's) and pre-fitteds and fitteds and pockets. And that is just touching the surface. Oh it is enough to drive a person insane with all the options! It is frighteningly addictive at the same time. Ask me how I know.

Now I am not a cloth diaper fanatic in the slightest compared to some mothers I know. I use cloth, and I love it. I have a very basic "stash" as you will as I have mainly flats that I secure with a snappi and cover with a sandwiched PUL cover, or fold and use in a pocket style cover. I have cheapo gerber I-wanna-be-a-prefold-when-I-grow-up diapers that I use as doublers for at night or extended car rides, etc. when I need extra absorbancy. I cloth diaper mostly for financial reasons. At least that is why I started. Upon the birth of my fourth child, I thought I didn't want to do it anymore, and started to look around for a place to sell some of my stash. When I bought some AIO's awhile ago, I bought them on the pretense that I would be able to recoup some of my money by selling them on Ebay. Ebay now has a policy that prohibits the selling of used diapers. They have a point on one hand, but I would say thousands, nay maybe tens of thousands of mama's disagree. Ebay was for a long time the place to expand your stash, get a used dipe to see if the fit worked for your child before plopping down a couple hundred on a complete system of brand new dipes, etc. Then Ebay stopped all that. Mama's found different places to carry on. Most cloth diaperers do it to save money, or the environment or the just plain ol' these diapers are toooo cute to pass up excuse. (YES! I have heard and seen this reasoning! And I'm starting to buy into it myself.....) To get to my point, forums for cloth diapering began to explode in the FSOT (For Sale Or Trade) end of things. Now granted, there are a few forums that have been around for quite some time and were well established before Ebay came out with their policy. What I'm saying is that the cloth diaper industry was not quashed by this action. It just got bigger.

So I went to Ebay looking to sell my cloth, found out I couldn't. Found a forum that I could. But it required me to post 100 times before I could post anything for sale. Oh my. I thought I'd never make it to that 100 posts, but I did. And I never posted anything for sale. I was hooked! I found people of like mindedness that had an appreciation for the same things in life as myself. I found a support system that encouraged me to continue on in my cloth diapering endeavors. Nay, I had a changed heart about the very items I was looking to sell! I was feeling the love again! And then I spent more money on some better diapers. And I got myself a diaper sprayer. And I love it! I use cloth now because I LIKE to, not because I must, because I do not want to spend precious grocery money on paper diapers. No no. I like cloth diapers. And I swear my baby does too.

So this brings us to the Goodmama's. Goodmama's are diapers of exceptional quality. They are made of organic fabrics that have been raised and milled on US soil, put together by women who are compensated fairly. These diapers are not made in a foreign land by cheapo exported fabric. The price tag reflects this dedication to quality and fairness. For ONE diaper, that is a fitted diaper (it still needs a cover to be waterproof mind you) the retail value is $35. One diaper. Now these diapers are a one-size deal, so for the most part, they will fit a baby from 10-35+ lbs. For those of you unfamiliar with baby sizes, well that just means you can use the diapers from about 2-3 weeks old until potty training. (For the most part. Unless you have ginormous kids like mine who hit 50 lbs before potty training, but we'll save that for another day....) So really, the diapers can be justified in this aspect. If you like a fitted diaper, this is the only size you will need. Otherwise, you buy the newborn, then the kid gets too big, so you buy the smalls. Then you sell the newborn dipes and then you have to buy mediums, because the kid grew again, etc etc, you get the picture...You end up buying 4 different stashes to accomodate one child. Well, you can hang on to them for the next kid and that helps with keeping costs down as well but then if you get girl dipes and have a boy next, usually daddy ain't to happy about seeing his junior football player running around in a flowery printed butt. Anyways, Goodmama's can be justified in a way if they last as they say they do. The other issue though is that the typical child needs AT LEAST 12 dipes. 24 is a more accurate count and 36 is a good generous figure with a three day wash routine. (Easiest on Mummy.) So you take that $35 and multiply times, let's say 24. That's $840. That's just the diapers. You still need size appropriate covers and accessories like wet bags and the diaper sprayer and doublers for night time, etc. You get the point. Lotsa money. That's retail. Now here's the part that is absolutely mind boggling to me.

If you went to Goodmama's site, there is a 99% chance that the were sold out of cloth diapers. Everything except the prefolds. All the fitteds are SOLD OUT. They cannot keep their store stocked. Why? Because. There are at least 4 forums that I know of that have threads going every single stinkin' day where women will 'stalk' the store and wait for things to be available. I'm not kidding you. Entire threads, pages long devoted to the speculation of when Suzanne (the owner and work-at-home-mom who runs this business out of her basement) will stock the store. And when she does stock up, it is sold out in a matter of minutes. Why? Because there are three types of communication. Telegraph, telephone and tell a woman. She's got the third down pat. Not through any fault of her own either. She sends out an email and kaboom, store all sold out.

The result of this fanatical shopping is that Goodmama's are in high demand. It's obvious that a LOT of mama's want them. Some want them because they have one, and they want more. Some want them because they want to know what all the hype is about, and since you can't go down to the corner store to check 'em out, you have to get one online. Another reason why? Limited Edition prints. Suzanne is a marketing genius. Well, that and she just plain ol' has great taste in fabrics and color combinations for snaps and serging. The woman can put together one heck of a diaper. But that's besides the point. Mama's want Goodmama's. So what happens? You have the "Haves" and the "Have Nots". There is another place where you can check out the Goodmama craze. Hyenacart.com. Hyena cart has a history all it's own which I am not going to get into, but it lives up to its name, that's all I"m gonna say. There is a special place on there called "Spot's Corner" where you can sell your used diapers. Used Goodmama's average about $40. That's $5 over retail. No joke. A diaper that has been peed in, probably pooped in and washed by some stranger is selling for OVER retail. That is for the 'plain jane' creamy colored with one color serged edge and snaps. Now the prints are a different story. She changes the prints often, and this creates a "need to have" frenzy. Mama's see a print they love and go bananas bidding for them. Just in the last few days, one diaper went for $310. No, I didn't add a zero. That is Three Hundred and Ten dollars. A diaper. And the bidder is for real. She has bought many overpriced diapers this week. I think her nursery must be insured in and of itself for about $10,000. She's got a lot of expensive diapers.

Now I get to my point. Back when Goodmama's where just hitting the scene, and were available, people were hesitant to put $35 on a diaper. They did anyway, and they fell in love and got more. Now that Goodmama's are all the rage, people are getting more than what they paid for a used diaper. At what point do you pay almost twice the retail value of an item, because it is available NOW and for no other reason? If you have a popular print of a Goodmama right now, you can get on average around $60 to $70 at auction. The "Haves" are really getting a bang for their buck. Heck, I think I would have a hard time hanging on to something if I knew I could get all that I paid for it and then some back, and got to use it besides! It's the "Have Nots" that tug at my heartstrings here. What would make a person so desparate to have such a luxury? They truly are luxuries, too. I can bet that not a single one of the high bidders can say that they cannot live without that diaper. Some may say, perhaps they just have a lot of money and like the diapers. This is true, but if you closely examine the situation, these diapers not only cost a lot of money, they take heaps of time to obtain. It took me about 4 hours on Monday to track one down and make the purchase. Was it worth my time? Not sure yet. It still has to come in the mail. On one site, a person was having a lottery to sell her one lonely Goodmama. She had a set price, but the "bidders" were supposed to write a short paragraph as to why THEY should get the diaper. Many people were patting her on the back, oh what a generous person! She sold the diaper for what she bought it for, but really, not without humiliating a lot of people. "Tell me your sob story and I will see if it deserves my Goodmama". Oh please! Pathetic. Sick. Wrong. And people thought her so kind and generous. Ridiculous. Maybe the tone of the thread changed, but I could only handle 2 pages of that crap. I could give her a story or two, but who's to say it's true? And why does it matter? Perhaps she was trying to make a point that everyone should have a chance to have a Goodmama, like the people who have more than one should share. How warped is that thinking? Perhaps her intent truly was good hearted, but I do not think well thought out. Of course, the people that posted their tear jerkers are just as much to blame. Slobbering over a Goodmama enough to post to the entire world some story as to why their circumstances made them the most worthy to have that Brandy-New Goodmama at retail price with out stalking the site. It's just a diaper. Your kid will poop and pee no matter what you put on or don't put on his or her hind end. I wonder if the winner of that "Lottery" will turn around and sell the thing for twice as much as they got it. I'm just saying...ya know?

Now to my point. Collectivism. It really is an addiction. What else would drive a person to sit at a computer all day refreshing one website endlessly in hopes that they will get a diaper? At some point, these diapers are not going to be worth what they are today. They will eventually lose value. There is no possible way that the person who spent $310 will recoup their 'investment'. I can think of a lot of ways you can help a lot of people with $310. And the chances of it getting pooped on are pretty slim. Collectivism drives our economy though. Sadly, this intense desire to spend money on something, sometimes anything, is what makes the buck get passed. How long is this going to last? Consumerism and a curious creature. I have not the mind right now to explain as it is after midnight, but there was an interesting article this week that boiled down to the idea that the Chinese economy was not strong because too many people save their money. The U.S. economy only works when everybody spends. This idea sparked an interest in a connection between the concept that the clutter in our homes represents a "strong" economy. We have bought and paid for a supreme dollar. We are paying for it on a regular basis though. How many hours do you spend trying to eliminate clutter? You are paying for the strong economy with your time. Now the gas prices are going up, and people can't spend money on trinkets and doodads. The clutter is not accumulating so fast, and the economy slows. Is it possible to have a strong economy not based on frivolities? I guess we could justify the stuff that fills our homes in this way. I was just supporting a strong economy.