Greener Than Thou

I get so tired of hearing how "green" others believe they are. I will admit that I follow a few so-called mommy blogs where they piss and moan about how being a parent is hard and occasionally throw in a post about how much green/healthy/ more organized we are than the rest of the world.  While I don't want to become a "Mommy Blogger", I do appreciate some of what I read there.  The other day I read a great post about a Mom admitting to spanking her child in a parking lot. ( I say Good On Ya Ma!) 
But I have had enough of the claims of "green parenting." 

There is a big difference between teaching your children to be "green" and  teaching your children a full understanding of the impacts of human activity on the earth.  I grew in in a house with no running water until age 7.  We were a 1-car family of 6 for most of my childhood. My parents grew and hunted our food, had chickens for eggs, and made goat cheese from the milk of our goat.  (It was disgusting, sorry Mom.)  We wore used, handmade, hemmed and re-mended clothing. My mother darned our socks. We didn't buy things in plastic packaging because that packaging used petroleum products to create it and will stay in a landfill for hundreds of years. We didn't use paper towels or paper napkins or eat processed foods. We didn't have a clothes dryer, didn't use air conditioning in the car, and composted everything - including the outhouse pit.

It's true my parents have since eased up a little bit. They have modern plumbing.  In 2000 they got an electric clothes dryer and became a 2-car family. In 2005 when I graduated from college I gave them my dorm microwave - which they begrudgingly accepted, though they still refuse to use plastic containers in the microwave, ever, AND they unplug it every night so that it's not using electricity to display the time.

I am no-where near as "green" as my parents were and are.  I am however more eco-aware than many people I know and I credit that entirely to my parents.  Here are a few things I feel are most important in attempting to show the earth some respect:

Use phosphate free dishwasher detergent ( I love Method)  WHY?
Use a clothesline instead of the dryer whenever you can.   WHY? 
Sort your trash and recycle, even if your community does not.  WHY?

Finally teach children to value the earth, the trees, and the air and teach them WHY we need to be more environmentally conscious. Teach them that ORGANIC foods are not necessarily healthier for us...... but growing things out of the earth without the use of chemical sprays and pesticides is good for the EARTH.   If we fuck this place up, we won't have a place to post blogs about how we are more "green" than others.... ;)