Going Green

I must admit I never gave much thought to this whole GREEN thing...or my carbon footprint, but that like everything else, has changed since I've become a mother. Really, it all began as I started to learn that the plastic baby bottles I was using were potentially leaking a chemical called BPA that could be toxic to my children. In the six months since I discovered this, it has become widespread media news. It is now much more commonly known that plastics with a 3, 6, or 7 in the little recycle triangle on the bottom may contain harmful chemicals. How disheartening to think that the people that manufacture baby bottles and serve our children baby food could have this chemical in their plastics.

As I read more, I become even more concerned and more convinced that we really don't know what our children are being exposed to on a daily basis... whether it be something in the food they eat, the toys they play with or the air they breathe. There is a thin line that you have to walk on these issues. Since switching the boys to milk, we have given them nothing but organic whole milk, but we are not so restrictive in our actions that we cannot order milk at a restaurant during lunch or dinner. We try to no let them play with our cell phones and turn off the wireless router in our house when we are not using the computer, but when we walk outside, there are three cell towers within a viewing radius. For us, "going green" has little to do with geopolitical issues. It is about arming ourselves with as much information as we can about the potential dangers in our surroundings and making rational decisions according to the best options we have available to us.