You DON'T NEED All That Stuff To Have A Baby | Rosalie Roberts Snyder

Alex Clark (0:00)

Have women been propagandized to think they have to buy a bunch of stuff in order to be a good mom? You had a baby without a crib, a monitor, disposable diapers, baby food, a sound machine, plastic toys.

Rosalie Roberts Snyder (0:11)

The baby industry is taking advantage of first time moms that have never done it before.

Alex Clark (0:16)

You chose organic cotton inserts and wool covers instead of disposable diapers.

Rosalie Roberts Snyder (0:22)

Cloth diapering is so easy. The only difference is you're doing laundry every three days. But when you become a mom, you do laundry every three days anyways. My baby never gets diaper rashes, so I definitely attribute that to cloth diapers.

Alex Clark (1:00)

Women are told that a good mother anticipates every possible danger, and conveniently, there is always another product promising to eliminate it. A monitor for the fear that your baby will stop breathing, a container to make sure they are never bored, a specialized food because apparently babies cannot eat food unless it comes pulverized in an expensive little pouch. The message is rarely just buy this cute thing, right? It is if you really love your baby, you'll buy this cute thing. And that makes pregnant women and new mothers incredibly profitable customers. Today's guest believes that women have been propagandized about how much stuff they really need to become good mothers. And she's got the receipts. Rosalie Snyder had her daughter without a crib, baby monitor, pacifier, swaddles, sound machine, plastic toys, disposable diapers or commercial baby food. And yes, this was all by choice. Rosalie is the creator of World Changer Co, an ethical shopping guide that helps consumers find brands that care about people, health and the planet. She is known as Sustainably Rosalie on Instagram, where she shares her conscious lifestyle and approach to motherhood. She's also the host of the Christian Environmentalist Podcast. Watch this episode on the Real Alex Clark YouTube channel or Culture Apothecary on Spotify. Leave that five-star review. We really try to get unique and interesting guests like Rosalie on the show, and this really helps us out when you do that. Please welcome Sustainably Rosalie to Culture Apothecary.

You had a baby without a crib, a monitor, disposable diapers, baby food, sound machine, plastic toys.

This was all by choice.

Rosalie Roberts Snyder (2:33)

Yes, all by choice. Some of these items I had ready to go, I asked for them on my registry, and I was told I would need them by the moms around me in my community and I never use them. Then some of them I knew I didn't want to buy because I heard they were toxic or not good for development.

Alex Clark (2:51)

I wanted to have you on the show because you made this viral reel which was so clever. You did the little Netflix documentary trend and you're like, oh, me sitting down for my Netflix documentary about telling moms, you don't have to buy all of this stuff to have a baby. What percentage of the modern baby aisle do you believe is solving a real problem? And then what percentage is selling parents a problem they didn't know they had?

Rosalie Roberts Snyder (3:14)

Oh, gosh. I feel like 99 percent. Because when I started thinking about making that silly little reel, I was going to start with three or four items that most moms say they need. And I didn't use.

I realized the list kept going on and on. And I thought, man, I don't even buy baby food. I don't even buy wipes. I use cloth wipes. There's so many things that I didn't use. So I feel like if I went in the baby aisle, which I never really did because I don't shop at big box stores, but I don't think I would even get anything. I mean, everything's plastic in the aisle, I feel. So I don't have kids yet.

Alex Clark (3:51)

I have aspirations. I always have to clarify this because people are like, you don't know because you haven't had kids. I have goals. I have things I would like to do, knowing that some things could change. But I have several friends who have raised kids and not done traditional baby wipes. This is always shocking to people because I love this idea. I totally understand. I'm like, I don't want to do baby wipes either. Explain to people how you clean your baby without baby wipes.

Rosalie Roberts Snyder (4:16)

Yeah. I think it's funny. People see me use my cloth wipes, which I'm kind of psycho. I made them myself. You do not have to do that. You can totally just buy cloth wipes online. They're organic cotton. They're not that expensive. But I didn't make mine. I made a cute little dispenser.