Being a Green Parent

The younger your kids are when you get them started thinking about recycling and so forth, the quicker they will adopt the ideas. My own kids at 2 and 5 have already learned the difference between the trash and recycling. My daughter loves to ask for things to reuse in art projects. We all have a lot of fun.

I'm a stay at home mom. We aren't rich. Yet I do try to use environmentally friendly products whenever possible.

Yes, some things are expensive. But there are plenty of ways to go green without spending a ton of money. You can made homemade cleaners that are much friendlier and cheaper. You can garden to get organically grown produce. It is possible.

We've made sacrifices. We only have one car. Mine broke down, and after some thought we decided that on our budget and with how much I use a car, it made more sense to not replace it.

Being green on a single income is tough. But it makes sense to me. I hope my experiences will help you to find ways to make environmentally friendly decisions no matter your budget.

If your kids are like mine, despite your best efforts they somehow accumulate a horrendous amount of toys. It can be truly frightening at times. We don't even buy that many, but the gifts from family members sure do add up.

When you shop for toys one consideration should be what they're made of. Plastic is very common in toys (hard to avoid, in fact), but overall not exactly the best of materials. Some kinds are potentially unhealthy and plastic ages poorly.

It also pays to think of how many toys a child really needs. Just think of what you had growing up and compare it with what your children have now. Odds are good that they have far more than you did.

And that they mostly only play with a few.

Some families do well with secondhand toys from thrift stores and garage sales. You have the advantage of not buying something new and of spending a lot less money. You do have to watch out for quality issues when you buy secondhand, of course.

I always like to emphasize toys that encourage creativity and/or activity. Dress up, sports, dolls that don't come from a movie or TV show, building blocks of various sorts, that kind of thing. So many toys these days are associated with the marketing from a TV show or movie that the children's imaginations are limited by what they've watched.

Recycling is a pretty easy habit to build with kids. If you have the bins ready and just make it a habit for yourself, your children can follow suit.

For younger kids, expect to be constantly answering the question of "where does this go" when they're throwing something out. My kids get really excited when I say "recycle bin" because they know that's the better one.

This is easier some places than others. My area has single bin recycling, so we don't have to sort. Other places you have to sort by the type of recycling. And a sad number of places just don't give you the option unless you drive your recyclables to the recycle center yourself.