I still can’t believe this actually happened in our house—and that today’s parents would probably call CPS if they saw it.
Back before disposable diapers existed, we used cloth ones. When they were soiled, my mom did something that now sounds insane: she’d dunk the dirty diaper straight into the toilet, swish it around to rinse off the mess, wring it out with her bare hands, then drop it into a pail until laundry day.
No gloves. No special toilet attachment. Just a toilet bowl, determination, and a stronger stomach than I’ll ever have.
I told this story to friends recently and they looked at me like I grew up in the Stone Age. But for our parents and grandparents, this was Tuesday.
No Pampers, no wipes, no diaper genie—just grit, a washing machine, and a lot of bleach.
Today we complain if we run out of scented trash bags. They literally rinsed poop in the same toilet we all used and called it parenting.
Did your mom or grandma do the toilet-dunk too? Or something equally wild?
Drop your most shocking old-school parenting “hack” below. Like, share, and let’s give those tough generations the salute they deserve—they earned it, one rinsed diaper at a time.
