By Maria Rainier
With so much pressure to raise your kids, give them balanced diets and the proper education while being the do-it-all mom, who has time to think about being environmentally friendly? You do! Here are a few easy, quick ideas to contribute to Mother Earth while contributing to the mother-do-it-all list.
• Use a reusable water bottle instead of packing your children’s lunch with a plastic water bottle
• Use reusable containers and not plastic bags
• Pack stainless steel or reusable utensils and not plastic utensils in their lunch
• For infants, consider organic or homemade baby food
• Switch to LED lights for Christmas, and Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) for everyday lighting and nightlights
• Keep lights off when you’re not in the room
• Unplug unused chargers and electrical units (this saves money too!)
• Check out local produce and farmers markets for fruits and veggies – it’s helping your local community and chances are, the products are more organic
• Switch to cloth napkins for meals and snacks that you can reuse (unless you’re really recycling those napkins and paper towels)
• Switch to cloth diapers
• Start a compost bin for unused foods that can be transferred to a garden, killing two birds with one stone – Make sure the kids help with this one!
• Avoid plastic food containers and Styrofoam boxes
• Use reusable cloth bags for groceries
• Use vegetable-based laundry detergent versus petroleum-based detergent
• Wash the laundry in cold water versus hot
• Go Green with bills – pay online
• Reuse scrap paper or let your little ones scribble on the back of your unwanted paper
• Reuse plastic containers that everyday items come in
• Buy fair trade kids clothing
• Buy wood-based toys versus plastic-based toys
• Shop on Craigslist, Freecycle, at yard sales or second-hand stores for your children
• Use already purchased boxes, paper, plastic from purchased products for art projects
• Buy rechargeable batteries
• Encourage your kids to spend time outdoors playing (and go with them) instead of staying inside and using electricity on lights and electronics
There’s not a lot of time in the day when it comes to being a mom; trying to implement a few environmentally-friendly ideas should at least give you an award for being a good mom. I’ll look in to that! Just keep in mind, you don’t have to do them all to be successful, implement one or two ideas now and more later. Leave a comment on this post to tell us the ways in which you are an Eco-Friendly Mom!
Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education where she’s been researching both the highest paying jobs and the lowest paying jobs on the market. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.
