About

How did we get here...

As I sit here typing I have a stock pot of organic cotton prefold diapers boiling to prep them with organic parsnips roasting in the oven which will turn into baby food tomorrow. I wonder how I got here. Well, some might say it isn't so odd that I got here, but the fact that my family got here...my husband, that may be a little more shocking...

I was raised by Buddhist hippy parents.  I should say that most people probably couldn't tell. Although they were hippies in college, they weren't overtly hippy looking. We had a large house in the upper middle class suburbs of New Jersey. Aside from the Buddah statues, meditation cushions, tofu, Socratic questioning and lack of sugary cereal, most of my friends didn't know my parents were like that, they just knew something was a little...odd.

My husband, well my husband is a Jewish Republican Conservative Financial Adviser...yes that is his job title. In many respects he has pulled me to the right.

Although I love the environment and used to cry when I saw black smoke coming out of trucks because my dad told me that it was pollution, I generally subscribed to the idea set forth by my favorite geology professor, "No matter what we do to it, the planet will far outlive we humans, it is much more adaptable than we are." I still must admit that most of what I do isn't as much an environmental thing as it is a protect my child from chemicals and do what feel natural kind of a thing.

When the recycling bin is full my husband and I throw bottles in the regular garbage, I drive an SUV (not a hybrid), I do not eat raw (that was the worst month of my life), I am not 100% organic, my son gets vaccinated, I love my air conditioning and my fancy chemical laden face cream.

This is why I, we straddle the grid. I dream of moving to the mountains and never seeing another person besides my husband, kids, and dog...but the fact is, we love the movies, Carvel and making enough money to buy things and go on vacation.

Most of my "crunchiness" or "off the grid tendencies" stems from my son who is now 7 months old. Most of my husband's crunciness stems from my pressure or him not wanting to answer to "the man". We cloth diaper, I make my son's food, I make my cleaning products, I practice baby wearing, I believe in Attachment Parenting, and so on.

So here we are straddling the grid...seeking our independence from societal norms and government dependency, while enjoying the social aspects of well, of society. I think my point is that nothing has to be 100%. My life and parenting is led by what feels right in my bones, in my soul...not by society. For every personal rolling their eyes in disgust at a mother breastfeeding in public, there is a crazy breastfeeding Nazi who thinks that a mom formula feeding her child is a failure. My point is that it doesn't have to be one or the other.