I'm headed to the green, green jungle!
Not the real jungle but a place called, the "Jungle" with fake green everywhere and nothing organic or healthy to eat. This is where my four year old begged to have his birthday party. I resisted and wanted to do a charitable birthday party and be the greenest mom I could be. I lost. There’s something about a cute face that came from your womb begging you to have saturated fat, high fructose corn syrup soda, cupcakes and play putt putt golf while running around like a wild baboon, playing video games. I really did resist. So then I needed to figure out how to sprinkle some of my green mom qualities onto this, not to so green birthday party. We used recycled, make your own invitations and soy crayons from the best place ever, Stubby Pencil Studio. I’ll tell you more about this eco-friendly company later and how you’ll get to win some earth friendly art supplies! The birthday boy will wear his organic shirt from MamaOm, so everyone knows that we’re an earth lovin’ family. I wanted to get the kids the organic playdough from Wild Dill , but it's made fresh and it takes two weeks to ship, bad mom I didn't plan ahead. I'm not wrapping my sons gifts, he has to go on a dinosaur hunt to find them (guess his gift) and they're dinos (he has a little obsession)! I think my good intentions and green sprinkle here and there, should really count for something! Oh, and to end the day I’ll have a green margarita with some family members (that counts, right). I’ll need it after all the screaming, yelling and begging for more tokens. And did I mention the annoying parrot that squawks and won’t shut up? Yeah, that will drive me to have two green margaritas!I wasn’t going to write all of this and flaunt how oh, so very ungreen I am going to be this weekend but then I thought, nah, readers need to see that I’m normal. I’ve written this a dozen times over but folks, being green isn’t a contest and we shouldn’t pass judgment. We all just have to do our very best and be some shade of green each day. Hopefully I won’t turn green from the not so organic margaritas either! I’d love for my kids to want earth friendly birthday parties and will continue to encourage it and when possible impress upon them the importance of having a charity party or doing something o’so green but I cannot force them. Y
ou might want to check out a post I wrote this winter about having a charitable birthday party for my daughter. I gathered some great ideas that I hoped to utilize this spring as well, no such luck. Nature Mom & Enviromom write good posts about having a green birthday party for your wee one but this Green & Clean Mom just didn't cut this year for this child. Oh, well if I’m going to go to the jungle with fake green grass and painted elephants and giraffes all over the walls it might as well be for the good of my sweet little boy turning four.Labels: children, going green, green birthday parties, Green Moms, organic clothing, Parenting


4 Comments:
Congratulations on his birthday! I am sure he would have enjoyed himself either way you went with it!
so funny that i just read this b/c i feel like i just went through the SAME thing! my boys are about to turn 1 and 3 and i wanted to have a greener party but ending up with paper plates (i had over 35 guests--i just don't have that many real plates!) and a cake with evil trans fat :( but we did eliminate the plastic loot bags and used cloth tool belts fill with "kinda green" goodies instead since it was a construction theme.
if you do the best you can the rest of the time, then what's the harm in a fake green dino party once in awhile? :) hope the party is fun and enjoy the margarita(s)!!
Well, happy birthday to the little boy!
And my thought is that you can't force kids to do things that are "good" for them like this when it conflicts with their very strong desires and passions or it backfires later. I'd rather have a few non-green birthday parties and the like but have the wee ones grow up to appreciate and life a green lifestyle long term than feel like it was forced on them and rebel. You do what you can -- and you do plenty!
Happy birthday to your little cutie.
I myself have a 7 yo girl and 9 yo boy. They are coming around to my green ways-using Sigg Bottles and not accepting plastic bags. BUT I dread their birthdays this year in Sept and Oct. What will I do when they want video games and plastic toys? Until now I let them have these toys, I guess I continue but I will tell them my take on environmentally friendly toys. They won't care. BUT I will sneak in a healthier cake and recycled plates.
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