04 June 2007

bein' green.

i've always been the one in my family who was what they called, "counter-culture." i went against the grain from a young age. independent. free-thinking (when i wasn't feeding myself destructive self-talk).

i listened to all the "alternative"music, dressed in clothing that was. . . outside the norm of the Gap and Express, i explored spirituality and thinking outside the church. and i got into "being green." at first it was hard for my mom to get used to--the idea of recycling was weird. and she worked for a plastics company, so she got all bent-outta-shape when my theatre group did an environmental piece in which we slammed plastic.

i hope that nowadays being "green" isn't seen as counter-culture or weird or out of the norm, but i'm sure in many places across the U.S., it is.

honestly, i have gotten lazy. i wish i were better at it. it took Al Gore's movie to put me over the edge. . . well, that and having a child. i want him to have a life where he and his kids can breathe the air outside and take hikes and see SNOW. so, i'm trying to do all the right things.

currently i'm struggling with the diaper debate. they say the cloth are more environmentally responsible. i'm sure they are, but i've read some info. from both sides. the cotton industry ain't so pretty. it takes water (energy) to wash them, etc. but the real debate goes on at home. hubby wanted nothing to do with them. and since i was calling a lot of the baby "shots." i said, ok. we'll do disposable. i feel guilty about this. AND about all the wipes we use, too. but the truth is, i don't like the cloth ones AT ALL. the boy i nanny for uses them. no likee. smelly, stinky, leaky and when they get to be toddlers i just don't wanna get that intimate with the poo, you know? i know that's a wimpy thing to say. but it's true. so, it's hard for me to argue with hubby, but i do. now that there's a new baby coming, can i keep plugging up landfills with diapers?

here's a great article on "green parenting." i found it helpful. maybe you will, too.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been totally going through the exact same thing. I was thinking earlier that this new baby would have cloth diapers. I did my little cloth diaper workshop to learn about all the different types. And now I'm having second thoughts. It seems overwhelming and just so expensive (in the beginning) if, for some reason, it doesn't work out. And the energy going into washing them...I just don't know.

Anonymous said...

Seriously, I don't think there is a right or wrong here. people traditionally do what their life necessitates, yet we live in a time/place with enormous opportunities and options. Is it worse to use disposable after you factor in the leaking factor with cloth diapers and how many clothes you are going to wash because of that, the added time you will spend doing the washing, and the frustration that goes into it when you are exhausted and just not wanting to do ANOTHER load of laundry? Somehow, the laundry with two kids becomes some exponential factorial equation instead of just a little more laundry!

Disposables keep babies much drier (less diaper rash), they are more convenient and easy to use, and they are kind of a wash (pardon the pun) when it comes to the environmental debate. Anyhow, sometimes I think all these choices make us much more susceptible to unnecessary guilt. We can all do what we can to add the green into our lives, but I also thing corporations are at the heart of the greening revolution. Imagine if Disney World recycled everything?! I digress. Choose what you want and let it be ok. Guilt-free moms are happier moms! ;-)

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

Girl, I'm telling you, gDiapers!!! It's a great compromise between the two. If I don't want to deal with icky poop, I just toss the BIODEGRADEABLE insert with said poop into the garbage. Or, if it's just pee or poop that is, ahem, solid, I dump and flush! And Corinne KNOWS already that people poop goes into the toilet.

There are a few situations where the liner needs to be washed of SOME poop, but nothing close to a cloth diaper and there aren't buckets of diapers soaking in my house. And there isn't the energy waste from washing the cloth diapers!

Look into it. Invest a LITTLE money and try it. If it isn't something you like, at least you tried and I'm sure you've spent money on stupider things!! (Starbucks, a shirt you wore once... )

Check out my blog and search gDiapers if you want my continuing reports on them. Or PeanutButterandJellyboats. She's the one that got me interested!