Sustainable Motherhood’s Top Ten Sustainable Parenting Activities

Unless you live under a rock, you know today is Earth Day. In honor of Earth Day, I will provide a formal definition of Sustainable Motherhood and share the Sustainable Motherhood Top Ten Low-Impact High-Return Activities.

Sustainable Motherhood is a lifestyle that can be maintained without copious amounts of Prozac, alcohol and/or Ben & Jerry’s indefinitely without the exhaustion of individual happiness and energy. It is the pursuit of environment- and family-friendly activities that benefit you, your family, your community and your world. True believers often make lifestyle tradeoffs, such as quitting thankless day jobs to focus on improving the lives and communities of those around them. While the term sustainable originated as an environmental term, with respect to parenthood, it refers to the positive impacts that can be made through informed choices regarding nutrition, fitness, education, work, money, entertainment and the environment.

To further clarify, I compiled the Sustainable Motherhood Top Ten which details my favorite low-impact high-return family activities.

• Making organic smoothies together.
• Baking organic cookies while the freen eats the chips out of the bowl.
• Driving to school together in the CRV with the sun roof open singing Jack Johnson’s song 3R's - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. (ok driving is not exactly sustainable but it is the singing that counts)
• Reading I am the Peach by Luisa de Noriega.
• Pushing the stroller up the mountain on a cool crisp spring morning.
• Walking down to the beach to throw rocks in the lake at sunset.
• Joining community clean-up day with the whole family.
• Going to the grocery store together - checking labels for corn syrup and plastic containers for BPA the whole way.
• Watching American Idol. (ok I’m sure it is bad for the environment, but it is exceptionally family friendly.)
• Working in the garden with the Freen - We’ve converted to all organic seeds and soils this year - generally the Freen throws dirt and I chase him around trying to keep him from stomping on the newly sprouted flowers. Good for me, good for the Freen, good for the environment.

Please comment to share your favorite Low Impact High Return Family Activities. Happy Earth Day!