Category Archives: Eco Friendly Parenting

Is It Safe to Let Your Kids Go Free Range?

I read an article yesterday that got me thinking again about free range kids. A mom let her 10 year old son walk 1/3 of a mile to the park, but he was stopped by the police and brought home. The officer claimed she was endangering him by allowing him to walk so far alone.

In a quiet, generally safe neighborhood.

Thank goodness the Chief of Police, when contacted, disagreed with what the officer had done.

My kids aren’t yet of an age that I’ll let them go free range. The older two are 4 and 6, and I already know that my 6 year old will still run out into the street without looking for cars first. That’s one of my big criteria for letting her do things like walk alone to school.

I strongly approve of letting children roam in age appropriate ways. It’s important for their development and self confidence.

Kids in my area are definitely walking home from school on their own by 10 years old. It’s a nice neighborhood, and certainly safe enough even for kids a bit younger than that to walk home alone. Heck, I was walking home with my older sisters when I was in preschool, and my oldest sister was just 3 years older than I was. There were some other daycare kids too, but I don’t know their ages. Just that no grown ups were involved.

Despite what some people think, the world hasn’t gotten more dangerous. We are significantly more aware of the dangers, and that’s a big part of why parents are so fearful of letting their children roam.

Think about it. We can look online and see maps of where registered sex offenders are living. We hear stories from across the nation about children being snatched, sometimes in broad daylight. It’s so easy to hear about the worst that can happen that it’s hard to recognize how rare it is.

My kids are starting to get a little more freedom, mostly due to the kids next door. The oldest ones there are old enough to supervise the others in the front yard. None of them roam like I did at their ages though, at least so far as I see.

They also get to roam ahead of me when we walk to school or go hiking. It’s a very small freedom, but it means they can explore at a bit more of their own pace rather than waiting for me or my husband to point things out to them.

No, letting your kids go free range isn’t completely safe. Nothing is. Accidents can happen no matter how careful you are.

But kids need to learn how to be responsible and confident when they are out on their own. You don’t want your kids to be adults who are afraid to do anything alone. You want them to be confident and competent. The way to develop those skills is to give them little freedoms as they grow and teach them how to do things on their own safely.

Loving the Handmedowns

We took a little trip this weekend up to my sister’s house. Not a big drive, it would have just been an hour if it weren’t for the non-injury accident that shut the freeway down to one lane on our way up there. Took us an hour just to get through that point.

But the trip was worth it. We have the handmedowns for Selene now. Bags of clothes that my sister’s daughter has outgrown, our old Exersaucer that we had handed down to her, and a dance pad game that she no longer wants that our older two are having a blast with. Plus a few other random supplies.

It’s the wonderful part about my sisters and I having our families in so much the same time frame. Tons and tons of stuff has gone through 4 girls already, and has now been handed down to the fifth.

I love that about baby clothes. Most get worn so little that they can go through a lot of kids. Each cycle the most worn out ones are cycled out, but that still leaves a ton of baby clothes that we’re reusing. Hardly anything new is needed at this point.

Although I must say it’s really hard to resist all the cute clothes when I pass by the baby department at Target. Baby girl clothes are just so cute! But so far I’ve been good.

Trying to Get Cloth Diapering Started

As I posted after she was born, Selene is a very small baby. Or perhaps I should say was. Little rascal has quite the appetite, and she’s not so tiny anymore.

She might even fit into the bumGenius diapers we have for her at last.

That’s what I’m trying out today. First time I put one on her, even as tight as I could get it, she just swam in it. Tiny, tiny baby girl! We

My mother is rather surprised that we’re doing cloth diapers, but she understands the bit about saving money. She was worried about the water use, though. A good point, but I got a great tip from a reader that I’ll be trying to save on water when I wash the diapers. She suggests soaking the diapers in the wash for a half hour, rather than doing multiple cycles. I sure hope it works for me! Thanks, Deoxy!

The diapers are fitting a bit better now. I don’t have a scale to say what she weighs now, but I would have to guess at least 7 pounds.

One challenge we’re facing is that our little miss is a queen of futile diaper changes. Yes, she’s one of those who manages to save up for just after you change her. Or during. Those are… umm… fun too, really….

Obviously that can be a bit of a hardship with cloth diapers. We’ve gotten better at catching when she’s really ready for a change, rather than just getting started, and I hope this will keep the number of quick changes down.

I know we’ll still end up using some disposable diapers. There’s pretty much no way my mother-in-law will put up with cloth. Since she is a highly willing babysitter once baby can take a bottle, there’s only so much complaint I can have about that. Doubly so since she usually buys her own diapering supplies.

I have to say, Selene looks awfully cute in a cloth diaper. It makes getting her dressed a bit more interesting, fitting her clothes over the diaper, but I can deal with that. I just like being able to cut down so much on waste.

The 3 Rs with a Baby, Part 3: Recycle

Just as in the rest of life, recycling that which you can’t reuse is important. If you’re good at reducing and reusing, you can cut down the need, but odds are you’re going to have to recycle a fair number of items.

Recycle

Perhaps the most obvious thing you can recycle with a baby would be the baby food jars. That glass is so easily recycled is one of the reasons aside from BPA concerns to choose glass jars when you buy baby food. Of course, if you’re making your own baby food you won’t have a lot of jars to recycle. But there are times for most parents when jarred food is a simpler choice.

There’s also a site called BabyEarth.com that offers recycling of those things you don’t feel are worth reusing. I haven’t tried it, but the plan looks good. They break the goods apart and send them for appropriate recycling. If something is, in their opinion, still usable, they’ll donate it for a family to use.

The 3 Rs with a Baby, Part 2: Reuse

Yesterday’s post covered some of the areas you can reduce what you buy for baby. It’s a challenging topic, but very worthwhile. Today’s topic is in many ways one of the easiest:

Reuse

There are just so many things you can reuse with a baby. Their needs are pretty simple, and many baby items can go from child to child to child with no problem at all.

This is particularly true among friends and extended family. You can cut down the cost of having raising a baby as well as the environmental impact if you’re fortunate in available handmedowns.

Baby clothes are the classic, especially in the smaller sizes that tend to be all too prevalent as baby shower gifts. So many outfits get worn once, maybe twice, maybe not at all before baby outgrows them.

If you’re lucky, you have handmedowns, and plenty of them.

CPSIA has made buying used baby items potentially more difficult. No one is quite sure what’s happening there, or what the one year delay really means, if anything. So many statements made have a note at the bottom that they may not be the official position of the CPSC, making it impossible to tell if they mean it or not.

Hopefully things will clear up soon in favor of making it easily possible to reuse appropriate items for children.

Don’t Forget…

Someone else can probably reuse the items your baby used. Keep the cycle going as long as each item is worth reusing.