Diaper Free in NYC

Call me old fashioned if you wish, but the newest trend in chichi parenting, going commando doesn't send me. Being cutting edge, the New York Times reports on this environmentally conscious attempt to pretend that all things most modern must be whatever makes no sense whatsoever.  Elimination communication as it is called, clearly sends a message to me...stay away.  

This is not to say my children have never been sans diaper, but this was usually due to one of three occasions. 

1) the diaper bag in the car, in the closet, and the spare one that we lost and later found are all out of supplies and I haven't made it to the store and am praying the kiddo's kidneys hold until I can get my 11 year old to sprint into the CVS with a credit card and a mission.

2) The child has mastered the art of taking off the diaper but not told anyone yet. 

3) The baby in question just finished taking a bath and is charging away from me at light speed to celebrate the glory of being au natural, to the cheers and amusement of all other siblings who watch me scramble after said kid with a towel in hand.  

Note that the sister of the woman profiled insisted on marking the bowls used for catching fecal matter, so that they would not make it back to the kitchen.  Given that it is an outsider demanding X mark the spot, how secure would you feel eating cereal with said company in their domicile?  Or anything else for that matter. 

The article indicates that yeah, they aren't purists. The adults in the picture recognize that there is an unsanitary element that comes with this decision, so they don't do this when they go out to restaurants (thank you for that), as though this concession to the rest of the world proves the reasonableness of their "lifestyle."  However these folks do arrange play dates within the  diaper free parenting community to ensure their children may scat and pee without the fear of anything other than smug approval at the unconventional nature of their like minded parenting.  

This is taking the "Chef don't judge YOLO" mentality to a creepy level...not to mention icky. 
 
One final note, we used to call children who don't wear diapers something other than communicating their elimination, we used to call them....potty trained.