I wrote a piece last week that will be published on another blog in the near future (I'll let you know when it appears) about how I'm helping my kids to make being environmentally friendly a part of their everyday lives so it just is how they live and not something that is a big deal.
I suppose it's hard when they've got a mom ramming it down their throats all the time. No one likes to hear the same thing over and over. If I was just quietly turning my family green like lots of parents are doing, that would be one thing. But our family's greening is something that I talk about, write about, announce to the world almost daily. It's part of my job to talk about it.
The boys hear people ask me about environmental things all the time. Yesterday at church I was asked if I knew anything about eco-friendly palms (it was Palm Sunday), and I said I hadn't really thought of it, but I'd look into it for next year.
Like most normal kids, when mom says to do one thing, they like to see what happens when they do the opposite. I wonder if I'm going to start having an eco-rebellion in my house. I think it would be different if this was the way I raised them from babies. But I'm trying to change the habits that I helped to ingrain in them from birth. Resistance is bound to happen.
If anyone has any advice or words of wisdom, please share them. I'd love to know how others help their kids make green just another thing they do.
2 comments:
The kids today grew up mostly knowing about being "green" as time goes on more and more people are understanding, but it's almost like electronics, computers and such, they were born with it and just "know it." I think they just "know" about being green. Most kids do. The schools are pretty good about teaching this. It's just part of life to them.
Green Team -
I think they understand the concept of being green, and want the environment to be healthy, but unless they've been raised by their parents with green habits, they need to change their habits like anyone else. At least this is true of my kids.
They are five and eight, and up until a year and a half ago, I always had cases of bottles of water and sports drinks for them, didn't mind too much if they left the lights on in their bedroom, and hopped into the car to run to the grocery store on someone's whim for the need for brownies instead of just making due with what we had at home.
They weren't taught good green habits by my husband and me.
I hope their are many other parents who made it a part of their kids life from day one, but I know for me and the majority of my friends, we're trying to retrain them like we are trying to retrain ourselves. The schools didn't get them until they were five.
Hopefully, with the emphasis that has been placed on it recently, the kids born today will just be green because its just the it is.
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