Why Disposable Diapers Are Meant To Be Disposed Of

So, you'd think that getting our office equipment zapped by a random bolt of weather generated electricity would be enough to fulfill our mechanical drama quota for the week. But dear friends, you would be mistaken. In addition to losing our modem and printer, I almost lost the washing machine.

We recently bought a new (used) high efficiency washer and dryer from friends of ours that were moving. I still haven't figured out how to use all the buttons and gizmos on these super sized laundry beasts, but I like them. They're big, and pretty and quiet. Plus I can stuff an entire king sized comforter in the washer without having to worry about the machine doing some demon-possessed version of the Hippy-Hippy Shake in my laundry room.

Well, after the lightening strike and my ensuing banishment from the internet, I had plenty of time to catch up on housework. One night as Jack was getting ready for bed said, "Mommy, my underwear is gone." Which translates to, "Dear Mother, I seem to be out of clean undergarments. Would you please launder them for me?" So after getting him tucked in, I brought his laundry downstairs and tossed it in my monster size washing machine.

Then, when the big machine buzzed, I popped open the door and found...something that definitely doesn't belong in a washing machine. There was this strange squishy gel stuff all over the machine and all over the clothes. Thinking perhaps I had committed the High Efficiency Felony of using regular laundry soap instead of the special HE stuff, I rinsed out the "put detergent here" cup and ran the wash again.

And no joy. The strange, translucent squishy stuff is still there. So Major Dad and I pull out all the clothes in an attempt to find the source of the problem. And what do we discover? A nighttime pull-up that had gone through the wash and spit it's special super absorbent gel filling all over the washing machine. Lovely. And guess what's really, really hard to clean out of a washing machine...the super absorbent squishy gel they stuff inside of pull-ups.

It's not that I don't appreciate Jack being a big boy and putting his clothes in the laundry hamper by himself, but I've been finding pull-ups in some mighty odd places. Of course after picking tiny bits of wet and squishy diaper goo out of every nook and cranny in the washing machine, I won't be nearly as upset about the next pull-up I find in the bookcase.

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