My mother was supposed to be a stay at home mom.  That was my parent’s arrangement.

My mother made friends with the other military wives on base, where we lived.  She and her best friend, Vicky, were much ahead of their time.  She wanted to do more for her family. She wanted to look out for her kids, going against societal pressures.  She and Vicky joined the La Leche League, they led their own group.  My brother is not circumcised.  We wore organic cloth diapers.  We didn’t have strollers, she carried us around in slings close to her chest.  We coslept.  She gave birth at home, with an underground midwife.  We weren’t vaccinated.  She homeschooled all four of her kids for a number of years.  She was really, really fucking committed to this raising kids thing.

She would go on to start her own cloth diaper business.  It started out as a mail-order business.  She took out ads in Mothering Magazine.  She opened a small store front, in Maine, in a teeny tiny little town.  She employed a few women, Part Time, as business picked up.  She sold wooden toys, books, cotton kids clothes, and of course her handmade cloth diapers.  It only lasted a few years and she sold the business, along with her diaper designs.

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