Category Archives: Eco Friendly Parenting

Green Rainy Day Play

Rain has come to southern California at last! Yes, I know many of you have had lots of rain already, but the other day was our first really significant rain. It rained hard enough at times to make the back yard into a puddle.

rainy day play

I’m one of those moms who lets her kids go out and play in the rain, so my daughter was utterly crushed when I wouldn’t let her play in that storm. I had a good reason, though; she was headed to a friend’s birthday party shortly.

Under normal conditions though, I love letting them play in the rain. I did it as a kid. Lots of good memories from getting completely soaked.

Then comes the time to call the kids in, dry them off, hang up coats and umbrellas where they can dry, and find something more interesting than just staring at a movie on television for the kids to do.

1. Make a fort.

This works year round, of course! However, if the weather is cold outside it’s a nice way for the kids to have a cozy little place to play.

2. Bake.

There’s nothing like warm treats on a cold day.

3. Read stories together cuddled with a blanket.

Just so much fun to do something together while you keep warm.

4. Pull out rainy day activity books.

There are plenty of titles to choose from. Once the kids are done playing in the rain, new science projects, making play dough and so forth can help keep them and you occupied.

5. Indoor hide and seek.

This was one of my favorites as a kid. It’s generally best to have rules against running, ad if you’re hiding any presents for the upcoming holidays, make sure you don’t let them hide where you hide the gifts! There’s a reason why my closet is off limits to the kids for playing, and it’s not just the mess they make in there pushing things around.

6. Go to an indoor mall with a play area.

Not to shop, unless there’s something you really need there. When your kids are just too full of energy and still young enough for the indoor mall play areas, they can be a huge help.

Fast food places also generally have play areas, but it’s probably going to be harder to avoid buying treats if you go there. If there’s a children’s gym in your area that has open play times, they can be another good option to get the excess energy out.

Beyond the Sugar Crazed Rush of Halloween

Goodness, my kids had too much sugar yesterday. Considering that under normal circumstances, if we have candy they get one piece a day, and yesterday we pretty much didn’t worry about consumption…

homemade halloween costumes

Let’s just say kids on a sugar high are pretty interesting.

It’s one of the few days a year that I allow so much freedom with sugar. It’s going to take months to eat everything they picked up trick or treating last night, because the one piece a day rule goes right back into effect.

They got an early start too. We took them to my husband’s parents’ house for a visit, and they took the kids across the street to show off the costumes to a neighbor. Who of course gave them little bags of candy.

When we got back home, so did a neighbor, because she wasn’t going to be home to see them in the evening.

Overall, this makes me really glad I don’t give them access to a lot of candy all year. Not to mention how nice it is that Halloween was on a Friday, so they have two days to wind back down before school is in session again. They need it.

All this makes me really glad that I do so much cooking from scratch. Much easier to avoid HFCS and such in other foods when you do that. Besides, homemade bread is so much better tasting!

I am a believer in moderation, but with things like HFCS moderation is more challenging than many think. I pretty much accept that it’s going to be in most of the candy my kids got for Halloween, as is food coloring.

Cooking with fresh fruits and vegetables, making my own sauces and spice mixes, allowing only 100% fruit juice when they have juice, and so forth, cuts back the potential sources delightfully.

I know some people would soonest avoid it altogether, and either don’t do trick or treating, or take or trade away the candy so obtained, but that’s just not me.

As for winding the kids down, just now they’re painting. I’m encouraging a lot of creative and active play today to work the excitement out of their systems. Seems to be working. They’ve gone from arguing all morning to playing very nicely together this afternoon.

I Love Being Able to Spend Less on Baby Supplies

I still have a few months to go, but the more I talk to people, the more I realize how little I will need to buy for this baby at first. Cloth diapers, certainly, since no one in my family has taken that step before, but otherwise we’re looking to be in really good shape. New bottles and nipples for when she’s old enough that I can hand over some pumped breastmilk and let someone else feed her.

Oh yeah, did I ever mention it’s a girl? Or so we think. She wasn’t 100% cooperative with the ultrasound tech, but we got a fair view. Just not as clear as we had with our other two.

We hadn’t gotten rid of our old baby stuff, for one thing. That will save us a ton.

Baby clothes had been handed down, but we of course have offers of more clothes.

We were thinking we would have to buy a new baby car seat, as the old one was past the age they recommend using them for safety reasons, but my sister reminded me that she doesn’t need hers, and it’s well within the usable age range.

All in all, not a bad deal.

It’s getting to where I really need to pick out our cloth diapers, just to be sure they’re on hand when the time comes. I was also reminded by a reader, Diana, that cloth wipes are also a good idea. That makes a lot of sense to me. Why throw out wipes when you can just wash them together with the diapers?

My husband is also thinking he will install a hose and sprayer head for rinsing poopy cloth diapers into the toilet. Amazon sells a mini shower, but you can also get parts and make something similar on your own for less. I just can’t seem to find the tutorial I saw on that a couple months ago.

Now I just have to pick a brand to start out with. Anyone have a favorite?

Going for a Greener Halloween?

Every major holiday is a good time to think about how you can go a little greener. You just have to look at all the consumption encouraged at such times. Just think about how much simpler Halloween was in the past.

Now stores are selling more and more elaborate decorations for Halloween, lights and so forth. It’s quite a switch from the decorations we used when I was growing up.

I’m still prone to buying the usual candies to hand out… it’s once a year, and my budget really doesn’t allow for organic treats.

But as I’ve posted in the past, I’m a fan of homemade and/or reusable costumes. If I can make it, especially with supplies on hand or minimal purchases, I’d rather do that than buy a costume at the store knowing that several other kids will doubtless be wearing the same thing as mine in that case.

One of my other favorite tips is to just use a pillowcase to hold treats, rather than buying a bucket or bag for them, no matter how reusable. Certainly you can get some great themed ones if you buy a bucket or bag, but it makes so much more sense to me to just grab a pillowcase.

When I was a kid, my mom cut bats out of black construction paper. Those decorations lasted for years! She also made gravestones out of some styrofoam she had gotten someplace or other. I think it was from something shipped to her work. They’re still in her garage and get reused most years.

My husband and I do have some decorations we’ve bought in the store. Not a lot; we don’t go all out in Halloween decorations. But we don’t go buying new often, or really even over the past couple years. Saves a lot of money that way, not to mention waste.

For costumes, homemade is my own favorite, but thrift stores can be good too… if they aren’t sold out already. That’s also a nice way to get dressup clothes for kids into that.

As with many things, I think the simplest way to go green is to just go simple. Make do with what you have. There’s a reason why reduce and reuse are so very important!

Cough & Cold Medication Makers Getting it Right

I like to see concessions like this. Drug companies have conceded that children under 4 should not be given any kinds of cough or cold medications.

Pediatricians have been saying this for a while now.

It’s been pretty clearly shown that these medications don’t do much, if anything, for children that young. Pediatricians would like it banned under age 6, so this is just a start. About 7000 children a year go to the emergency room due to reactions to or misuse of cold medications.

A warning is also to be added that using antihistamines to make a child sleepy is not an appropriate use.

I’ve had the worst time convincing my husband to lay off buying the children cold medications when they get sick. He sees them and forgets everything I’ve told him and had him read about how ineffective they are for children as young as ours. I’m willing to give Tylenol for fevers as appropriate, but overall I just don’t like giving medications.

Instead, I like humidifiers if the breathing is uncomfortable. A cool cloth on the forehead can make a feverish child feel somewhat better too. Even just playing in a lukewarm bath really helps a lot. A friend of mine taught me that tea tree oil can really help with congestion, but even though I have it in the cabinet I keep forgetting it when cold season rolls around.

It really all comes down to using your common sense as a parent. Most colds don’t need a medication to make the child feel better; you can do far better by taking other measures for comfort. Don’t go beyond what the labeling says when you do give medicine, and keep all medications, natural, over the counter and prescription, out of the reach of children.