If your great dream in life is to maintain an immaculate, perfectly organized home, parenthood may not be for you. Children are beloved little chaos goblins, and they have a tendency to rub off on their caregivers. Often, their messes can snowball and before we know it our entire house has exploded.
Hannah, who posts on TikTok as @nursehannahbh, is a mom to a toddler and a newborn and recently “enjoyed” solo parenting while her husband was on a trip. She decided to round up all the diapers that she’d changed in the past 24 hours. What ensued was a lot of diapers, even more criticism, and a TikTok trend she hadn’t expected.
“Let’s pick up all the dirty diapers I have lying around my house,” she begins. “I don’t own a diaper pail or a Diaper Genie … [diapers] just kind of get thrown around my house and then we just collect them in a bag at the end of the day and take them out to the dumpster.”
So she started going through the house… where she found 17 diapers that had accumulated everywhere from two in the upstairs hallway to four on the living room coffee table.
“No wonder my house friggin’ stinks right now,” she concludes.
The initial comments were… not feeling it.
“This is absolutely not relatable,” reads the most liked comment (almost 100,000 likes).
“I agree I’ve maybe left one accidentally If I’m on the run but this many is a crime,” replies another.
“You don’t need a Diaper Genie to throw away diapers,” reads the second most-liked comment (almost 98,000 likes). “Hope this helps!”
At least as many of the comments, however, were supportive. Other moms recognized themselves in this moment. More still simply acknowledged that motherhood (especially when you’ve got a toddler and a newborn) is tough and simply surviving the day can be enough to declare victory.
And then something interesting happened: “17 Diapers” became a kind of TikTok rallying cry for moms to share some of their toughest parenting moments. A series of new TikToks emerged, often presented as a wordless video overlaid with a caption.
“My 17 diapers was crying hysterically at my son’s 3 month wellness check when the pediatrician said ‘it takes a village,’” one response video reads. It goes on to explain that the pediatrician then took her baby, got her a blanket and encouraged her to sleep in the exam room, telling her “Today, I’m your village.”
“I didn’t have 17 diapers,” reads another, “But sometimes I would be in my car screaming to myself because I thought I was doing it all wrong.”
Hannah is heartened by the sense of camaraderie that’s emerged from these replies. In a follow-up video, she posted “Scrolling through everyone’s 17 diapers videos at 1 am is making me see that I’m not alone. 10k+ negative judgmental comments on one video and countless shaming videos doesn’t compare to the support I feel watching 17 diapers trend.”
