At breakfast when Annabelle and I are munching cereal or bagels, I usually scan e-mails and learn what’s new with friends and tidbits here and there from various list-serves I belong to.  Yesterday and today I picked up two great tips from the newsletter Ideal Bite.

The first tip I underlined two times in my memory is about produce codes at the supermarket and what they mean.  Direct from the figurative lips of Ideal Bite:

So, I checked our produce, which we usually buy at Giant and Whole Foods.  Everything was either conventionally grown and organic.  For Annabelle’s sake, at the very least, we buy organic.

The second neat tip that delighted me was a task of simple activism.  Again, I was munching my breakfast, and while doing so, I completed the following: fill out comments cards at the following retailers requesting more shelf space for green products.  Again, the following is taken directly from my Ideal Bite newsletter.

 Find card. Fill out card. Submit card. Voilà! Or contact retailers online:

• Bed Bath & Beyond
• Costco
• Home Depot
• Kmart
• Office Depot
• Petsmart
• Target
• Toys R Us
• Wal-Mart

So far Target responded with the most personal e-mail, using quotation marks around my use of the term “green” (not sure what that was supposed to mean), but the representative for Target did direct me to Target’s web-site for protecting the environment.

Other retailers who have responded with generic letters include Home Depot and Walmart.  We’ll see who else gets back to me . . .

I must say that I love easy activism.  With a baby in tow, miracles made easy are like a gift from heaven to me.  I just wish that I could do more for the environment.  Several months ago I corresponded with our weed and water protection groups in Reston but because I would need to bring my dd with me, my offers to help out were turned down.  But, and I say this time and time again, she is only young once and for such a short time. Maybe  I should organize another trash pick up date with some friends.  Ah, see, that’s what I love about idealists . . . gets the wheels turning.

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Today I hoped to post about my reflections on Attachment Parenting, my struggles with and faith in it, and whether or not A.P. can be associated with environmentalism. Basically, I wanted to answer this question: “Is Attachment Parenting, and variations of A.P., a greener way to raise children (versus Ferberizing and mainstreaming)?”

To see what ideas on the topic were already out there, I googled Attachment Parenting and environmentalism. This is one response/reaction I came across. The writer of this entry, Kelly Mills, seems to be on the attack when it comes to Attachment Parenting–at the least, she is highly skeptical of and lacks trust in the ideals behind A.P. Mills claims that co-sleeping, baby wearing and breast feeding have “nothing” to do with environmentalism. To be fair, I understand Mills’ argument about the connection (lack of) between A.P. and environmentalism–how is “crying it out” bad for the environment? How does Mother Earth benefit from parents carrying their babies on their bodies?

From my experiences with raising Annabelle, I started parenting like a freshman starts high school. I had no frickin’ clue what the requirements were except that a lack of sleep was a factor and having babies was supposed to be expensive. Then I had a hospital birth, with a mid-wife, an induction, a close call with an emergency c-section, and an epidural. Afterwards I watched how the hospital nurses handled my baby (some good, some handling her like she was a sack of potatoes). Eventually these experiences inspired me to do some research on my new job as mother and I came across reading materials by Dr. Sears and other A.P. thinkers.

Back to the issue: why is Attachment Parenting associative with environmentalism? For starters, once I realized the advantages of co-sleeping for my baby and myself, I would walk by the crib in her nursery and wonder at its purposes. We still have not sold it and I often joke that it is an artifact of modern American parenting. Neither my husband nor I believe in “crying it out,” and I have even come to believe that it will be considered by future generations a form of normative abuse. Who in their right mind ignores a screaming and pleading baby? Who can believe that such an experience is good for the baby? I can only imagine what these experiences does to the baby’s brain development and self-esteem. My worst fear is that my children–from the experiences of crying it out–would seek out masochistic behaviors in their teens and adulthood. The least I can do in the early years of their lives is to nurture them and comfort them as they start out as practically aliens in this world.

Co-sleeping is an environmental choice if for the fact that it does not require a crib. A.P. parents like myself who started out with a crib can sell or freecycle cribs and enjoy cozy sleep with their children in a family bed. Co-sleeping requires fewer materials and thus would generate less waste for the environment if crib manufacturers and everyone who they are in bed with (pediatric associations?) did not push cribs on new parents.

Next, breast feeding is an environmental choice. Let me answer the counter argument that breast feeding mothers consume more food and so that influences the environment. To begin, breast feeding mothers need about 300 to 500 extra calories a day. What does this equal? 2 tbsp. of peanut butter or 2 cups of plain yogurt or 3 cups of juice. Breastfeeding does not produce the waste that formula containers, plastic bottles, nipples, pacifiers (assuming that one practices ecological breastfeeding), and all the other equipment that accompanies formula feeding babies.

Last, baby wearing is an environmental decision because it requires less material. For starters, look at all the plastic and metal used to make the average stroller. Parents who wear their babies can use a long swap of fabric or even a blanket to wrap and attach their babies to their bodies. Next to a warm, adult body, baby needs less clothing–in cold weather, a baby need only wear a sweater inside of a wrap rather than a snowsuit or puffy winter coat.

Admittedly, my next argument is a bit of a leap, but it is my experience that A.P. babies, especially babies who are worn and carried by their parents, will see more of the world that they are now part of. Baby watches as mom sweeps the floor, prepares meals, walks around the neighborhood–whatever mom does, baby observes. It is my belief that babies who are allowed to see what is out in the world will be more likely to be compassionate to others who are in the world. And compassion for others, I hope, might mean compassion for the earth and its resources.

Sure, Attachment Parenting, natural parenting, intuitive parenting, whatever name you choose to slap onto these practices, may not, at first glance, seem to have to do anything with the environment, but if you dig a little bit beneath the surface, it is easy to see how A.P. is good for the environment and the families who make use of it.

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With all the hubbub of the 2008 campaigns and the fact that we live in Washington, D.C. and can’t seem to escape politics, my husband and I were discussing the elections and the state of our union.  My husband calls himself socially liberal but fiscally conservative and says that while he is politically independent, he is closest to being a libertarian.  He also believes like Locke that by and large, man’s human nature is selfish.  On a personal level, however, and this surprises me, he believes that most people are good and are trying their best.

Playing the devil’s advocate, I suggested that people (Americans) participate in consumerism and selfishness (knowing that our country consumes resources and is largely responsible for the degradation of the environment globally) because they do not know any better or simply do not know or want to change their day to day lives.  For example, many folks understand that Walmart supplies products at low prices and with its popularity has influenced the free market by putting pressure on its suppliers to continuously lower prices.  As prices lower, suppliers are forced to lower the quality of their products.  Low prices and low quality products equals a faster turn over rate so that consumers are forced to go back into the stores (Walmart) and replace their products with new ones and dispose of the old.  It creates waste.  I believe your average person (consumer) can understand this and yet is not willing to change.  Why?  Because low prices mean that a consumer can consumer more.  And because consumers are not always able to delay instant gratification.  Rather than shop for products at thrift and secondhand shops or spend more money at a higher quality retailer, consumers want to go into a store and buy what they want at the lowest possible prices.  Over the last year or so I have reduced the number of purchases for new products and have tried my best to find good used things; still, I have found my way into a Target, Barnes & Noble, and Macy’s.

But still I believe that people are good–just sometimes naive, unable to see the butterfly effect of their consumer choices on workers and citizens of the third world, and blindly comfortable with their way of life.

My husband responded to my argument with this, “You have to make good and environmental choices easy.  It’s like CFLs.  Everyone is using them now.”  In part, he’s right.  Just last week, Meredith Veira and Matt Lauer were talking about replacing their light bulbs at home with CFLs.  Who ever thought light bulbs would be trendy?  But, thank goodness it’s fashionable to be green.  Maybe Mama Earth will actually get a break!

My husband then went on to point out that GE’s engineer Ed Hammer created CFLs in 1976 but because of the initial manufacturing cost they never manufactured or sold them, and other companies didn’t either until 1995.

And I so cleverly responded (jab jab at myself), “How many people does it take to change a light bulb?”   Making the one simple change of replacing our light bulbs has taken thirty years!   And so now I fear that I am joining my husband and his pessimism that the world and our nation and Mama Earth is in need of some serious help (and love).  I guess it’s going to be a matter of time for these changes to come into play, although I hope it isn’t too late when the comfortable consumer realizes the effects of his or her lifestyle on the rest of the world and the earth.

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I’m a vegetarian.  I breastfeed.  My husband is not a vegetarian, but he understands my ethics and decision to not eat animals.  I continue to eat organic yogurt, but otherwise, I am practically vegan.   The debate over how we should raise our children has begun now that Annabelle is eating solid foods more often.  One night at a friends’ house, the hubby gave Annabelle a bite of his chicken thai.  In private I brought up my desire to raise Annabelle as a vegetarian, but h. pointed out that Annabelle deserves the chance to make her own decision.  Since we are teaching her signs to help her communicate while she acquires verbal skills, I asked that we wait to introduce her to the omnivore dilemma until she is about three and hopefully more articulate.  Until then, we agreed that Annabelle will abstain from eating animals and instead will enjoy a delicious and healthy vegetarian diet.

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Gosh it’s been a while! In the New Year, I am hoping to blog more often about my creative pursuits and environmental concerns. I will post my creative work, mostly crafting, and write and reflect on life in a way that I might not do on my daughter’s baby book blog that I keep for family. Still, my daughter and family are prominent parts of my life and thus, they’ll probably find their way into posts now and then.

To follow up on my first promise, here are some photos of my most recent creative work: painting and decorating the living room and dining room in our new home. For wall colors, I chose peach bud and riverbank green by Behr. To add light to the room, I chose cinnamon white to paint an accent wall and my fireplace, which are opposite each other, and I painted two old wicker chairs the same shade of white. Dark contrasts are carried by the dining room chandelier, an antique dark red wood mirror hung over an accent table in the dining room , large picture frames showcasing photos of my dear one, the inside frame of the fireplace, and the large mirror that sits on the fireplace mantle.

For window treatments, I selected reddish rust mod-curtains (not a fan of mod, but wanted an eccentric country look–my husband and I love to travel and our tastes reflect that aspect of our personalities–still I am a country girl) and an environmentally friendly roman shade that will keep heat in during cold weather and vice versa during hot weather. I replaced our cherry wood and cheap bookshelves with beech storage towers stacked on top of each other–it creates a great toy and play area for my 13 month old at one end of the livingroom and yet has an organized an clean look. Again, the beech color creates light and space for this open and airy room.

To create a flow and pull the two connected rooms together, I used red fabrics and art. In the dining room, I chose a bright red table cloth and a canvas art piece with lots of red, oranges (peach), and green–this piece works well for the entire scene of the room. I also placed red flowers in a vase on the dining room accent table. For the living room, I selected red accent pillows and a red throw to brighten up our neutral sofa and red seat cushions and red leaf pressed pillows on the now white wicker chairs.
Basically, everyone in our house is happy with the rooms’ new look. It was tedious at times, but I think that the rooms work together and are pleasant places for hanging out and well, living and eating. And for our next decorating adventure, we plan to take on our kitchen! More on that to come . . .

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