Third day of Daily Footprint Project. Six pairs of jeans. I counted. Fresh out of the dryer.
Part of my sixteen year old daughter’s biweekly laundry. I took her laundry out of the wash earlier, and put it in the dryer. I did that as a favor to her, and also because I needed the wash machine to do my own laundry. That’s when I realized. With my awareness more turned on than usual, I started counting the jeans. Six. I make do with one jean a week.
A big part of my footprint is related to my green softness as a mom. It is hard enough navigating the treacherous path of teen parenting, without introducing some more restrictions. If I was going to be pure green, I would hassle my daughter about so many things. Turning off the lights. Limiting her laundry. Using the Energy Preferred setting for the dryer. Even better, not using the dryer at all, and start using the drying rack more. Not driving to her school, that is only half a mile away. Not dumping recyclable plastics into the garbage. Turning off her computer. Unplugging her appliances. Eating leftovers. It’s not that I don’t tell her. I just don’t follow through with the kind of consequences and incentives that might make her take me seriously.
Call me weak, but I don’t have it in me, right now. I am fighting other battles, and I am not about to take on one more. If my children were little, that would be another story. The best I can offer, is to inspire her through my example, the small changes I am making every day.
Daily Footprint Project Daily Log Day #3 Water personal: toilet flush 12(oops) wash hands 4 shower 1 wash face 2 brush teeth 2 rinse grapes, apples full load wash machine mom: communal: rinse salad Electricity/gas personal: desk light laptop on since 8am laptop plugged in overnight microwave tea 2’ microwave oatmeal microwave full laundry load wash machine my load in dryer (except for towels and sheet, that went on drying rack) electric toothbrush 3’ mom: cook cream of wheat on stove put Catherine’s load in dryer’ communal: lights, appliances Food personal: cup of tea with organic milk organic oatmeal with organic whole milk grapes organic whole wheat bread local organic yogurt, local prosciutto, US brand from Virginia apples mom: cream of wheat with organic milk communal: organic green salad pizza carryout (4 for Halloween kids dinner) Halloween candies for trick or treat organic bread Waste personal: mom: lots of plastic wrappers from Ikea furniture communal: three newspaper wrappers plastic bag from organic green grapes compost from salad/veggie peelings Transportation personal: mom: wife: communal: ½ mile late night errand to local grocery store Non food shopping personal: mom: Ikea furniture for Charlotte’s room rug, armchair, mattress, lamp communal:
La Marguerite 
we have same age daughters, another parallel.
Today I decided to venture into her room – i don’t even know what to call it – a mess sums it up nicely
to cheer me up I made her bed, you should have seen what I found underneath – plastic containers from god knows how many sweet things
a small pile … a pile !!
i have a closet sugar-aholic on my hands – i know her friends bring stuff and she has a alot of friends over
so they pow wow in her mess, eat garbage and then dump it all under her bed ? Figuring what , that she’s goind to secretly dispose of the mess someday ??
I just didn’t even know where to begin
she has 3 prs of jeans – she wears them now for 2 weeks – new rule
there are enough socks to probably last a month
and she’s not allowed one more stitch of clothing period until she prooves to me she can somehow wear more than the same t-shirts – the same 14 now that we do laundry every other week
what does that have to do with you – i like how you said green softness and I think instead of considering it a hassle – perhaps it’s an enrollment
not that I am doing any better in the sugar dept
“mean” frustrated mother earth aka karen hanrahan
http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com
Thanks Karen, for empathizing with my plight. . . We should start a group of green mothers of teenage daughters!
[…] – Day 1 of Daily Footprint Project -, and my difficulty setting limits, as in the laundry example – The Complicated Landscape of Green Parenting -. With Prad, issues of control, power, and authority, make it difficult for both he and I to take […]
[…] of materialism, and I have documented my struggles often in this blog, as in here, and here, and here, and here. This being said, women do represent a positive force for the climate fight, as supported […]
I’m fortunate that my daughter is relatively eco-conscious, however my biggest challenge has been getting her to even do her laundry. I need her to learn to do this before she goes away to college next year…
In the past few weeks though she’s been good about doing laundry after I ordered these detergent packs online (www.grabgreenhome.com). They really make it easy – no need to measure and pour liquid detergent into the machine, just add a pack to the load and it dissolves. It’s all natural too and uses less packaging which she likes. I can see her using this next year at the dorm because she can grab a few packs instead of carrying a heavy detergent bottle each time to do laundry. Hopefully she will stick with this! Just wanted to share in case anyone else is facing a similar challenge!
I think I spend half of my day turning off light switches and tvs!