For our final Green Spotlight post this month, Eileen Spillman, single mother of two, full time teacher, and eco-mom extraordinaire, shares her eco-annoyances and what it means to pass green values onto your children. 

Do you have any environmental pet peeves?  

Oh yes, many. 

  1. Teeny tiny bottles of “green” cleaners but no re-fill size.  I think any environmental benefit of the cleaner was swallowed up by the packaging.
  2. Over-packaging. 
  3. When you bring your own mug to a coffee shop and they make it in a paper cup anyway, pour it into your cup and throw away the paper cup.  Kind of missed the point there.
  4. Planned obsolescence.
  5. The marketing ploy of making people feel like they have to spend a lot of money to help the environment and the whole designer, Hollywood version of being green.  Which is ridiculous because as soon as you have a second house, a boat, and find yourself taking plane trips every other week for pleasure, you need to stop kidding yourself about what a great environmentalist you are.
  6. People who drive fifteen miles out of their way to shop at upscale, organic grocery stores.
  7. Products like the Swiffer, which are designed specifically to force you into buying more consumables.  A mop and bucket does a better job anyway!  And what exactly is convenient about another product you have to keep track of, find a space to store and remember to refill when you run out? My mop and bucket are always there for me.
  8. The entire baby industry, which preys on new-parent anxiety with products you don’t need.

Do you get any indication that your children might be picking up on some of your Earth-friendly choices?  

Definitely.  They are old enough now to understand some of it.  Our apartment has a view of the back parking lot where the dumpsters and recycling bins are kept.  It is great excitement to watch the two trucks come and do their thing.  We talk about where each is going and what it means to recycle. 

The kids are totally with me on trying to use the car less too.  If I ask them to walk somewhere instead of driving, they will tell me that it’s a good thing we aren’t using the car, when just a couple of years ago there would be whining. 

Right now I am working to get them to understand the concept of not wasting food.   We’ll see how that goes.  My daughter is very aware and worried about people in the world who don’t have enough to eat, but hasn’t connected that her throwing out half a plate of food has anything to do with that. 

What’s your favorite part of being a mother?

Reading bedtime stories, random outbursts of “mom, I wike you”, remembering how to play hopscotch and cat’s cradle, the first note that was printed and spelled all by herself saying “I love you mom.  I really, really love you.”, living room dance parties, little arms around my neck and little kisses on my cheeks and being the arms they run to when life is full of spiders, monsters, rough sidewalks, loud flushing toilets and darkness.

Thanks Eileen for being our featured Green Spotlight mom this month!  We especially love Eileen’s can-do attitude—which obviously makes her so effective as a mother and a eco-role model. 

The Green Baby Guide welcomes all eco-pet peeves!  We also want to hear about the ways that your children are learning from your environmental choices.