Family Beliefs & Contradictions
This post wasn’t supposed to be so long! I was inspired by The New Mommy Files’ post Spending, Saving and Finding a Balance, breaking down some of my family choices and the values behind this blog. Read or skim!
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The caveman diet
I really do believe that a “paleo” diet is best. Most adults are at least somewhat intolerant to wheat and dairy (lactose past childhood) as they are not a part of the natural human diet. The “food pyramid” most people are familiar with was created by the Department of Agriculture. Bread and milk are big government business! I believe that it is healthier to live primarily on vegetables, fruits and protein, especially meat and fish.
THAT SAID, I am a total noodle junkie. Especially the bad stuff, like Kimchi Noodle Bowls. MSG 4 life. Fact: My one year old has tasted Top Ramen. My husband also cooks amazing fried rice, and he especially loves all things bread. I personally eat bread rarely, but Sebastian eats everything, and bread was one of his favorite foods early on. I love yogurt and Sebastian enjoys whole cow’s milk.
Eating only organics
When people say that eating organically doesn’t matter, it gets me really heated! Because what “non-organic”, the sad standard in this country, really means is chemicals. Probably toxic chemicals. Definitely not what your body is supposed to be ingesting. Unless it’s Diet Coke…
We would love to shop the local natural food grocery store + farmers markets exclusively, but simply cannot afford it. Unfortunately, most people can’t. And that is pretty fucked up, but not nearly as fucked up as the fact that foods full of chemicals don’t even receive a warning label. (Seriously, it is real foods that are labeled and not the other way around – Just think about that. Oh, and the word “organic” is hardly moderated. Unless it says “USDA Certified Organic”, there are lots of marketing loopholes.)
When it comes to organics, we have a list of things that we will ONLY buy organic, including apples and berries and milk. We made the switch to only organic milk when I was pregnant and are very happy with that decision. We are working on switching completely to organic meat as well despite the staggering prices. (It’s well worth the money, if you have it.)
Creating minimal waste
For as long as I can remember, it has made my stomach turn to throw a bag of trash into the dumpster. It makes me anxious to imagine all of our waste just sitting somewhere. Luckily we have recycling available in our apartment complex and almost all recyclable items do make it there. We upcycle mason jars into drinking glasses and I use cute wine and kombucha bottles as flower vases. We almost never buy paper towels and use cloth rags instead. (I like paper towels for some things but when we buy a roll, it’s too easy to just grab one when a rag would have worked just as well.) We save napkins and re-wash chopsticks that come with takeout.
I do wish that we could compost but we don’t have the space to set that up where we’re living now. I hate throwing things like banana peels into the trashcan. I hate how quickly our trash fills up in general really, especially when a lot of what gets thrown away could break down fairly quickly if not encased in a plastic bag.
One great way we do reduce a lot of waste is by cloth diapering! We have been cloth diapering since Sebastian was 8 weeks old and have purchased maybe a dozen packages of disposable dipes since then – Last week our washing machine broke, and we did buy a pack on our last day after a week of cloth diapering while camping. We almost always use cloth, which I love love love. We have also used cloth wipes since the day we began cloth diapering and the adults sometimes use the wipes too, for everything from makeup removal to family cloth.
Using natural products
Using the most natural products we can afford is important to me. For Baby, we love Babo Botanicals, Earth Mama Angel Baby, and Yes to Carrots and are currently using baby wash from Eco Store USA. We use coconut oil for diaper cream. These gentle, natural cleansers also work to make wipe solution. I do pick up drugstore makeup from time to time but primarily use organic mineral makeup. I paint Sebastian’s nails with Piggy Paint. 
Our weaknesses are always budget-related. When funds are low and we need dishwasher detergent, etc, often the $1 option is the winner, and that is rarely a safe and natural product. We don’t cut corners with anything that touches Sebastian’s skin though – We use only fragrance-free diapers and laundry detergent and you will never catch us using fucking Johnson & Johnson’s.
I have also made my own face masks and scrubs and even tried my hand at DIY deodorant.
Minimal (junky) plastic toys for Sebastian
I would say that we stick pretty well to not having junk toys. Every toy I purchase is specific, and I don’t think I’ve bought a single toy brand new. They are all secondhand, and he has a few new items that were gifts. I generally prefer basic cloth and wood toys (and books), but one of Sebastian’s best toys is My Pal Scout
Shopping secondhand
We definitely kill at this one! Thrift shopping is a hobby and a passion for the whole family! Our old stuff is donated or taken to consignment shops, or swapped with friends or my sister. All about the hand-me-downs! We have purchased clothes, diapers, toys, furniture and more secondhand. I would estimate that 70% of my wardrobe is secondhand, maybe more.
Shopping secondhand is important because it reduces waste – It’s recycling! If money is no object, you can get in on it by shopping vintage or higher-end secondhand shops. It doesn’t mean that you have to buy all of your stuff from Goodwill and garage sales. (Although you’d be surprised what you can find there!)
Not buying Nestle
As I was typing up this post, I had to throw this one in. There is plenty of information online about the evil that is Nestle but basically, they have horrible practices that kill babies. Literally. They market baby formula in place of breastfeeding in countries with poor water. Moms receive product samples that last just long enough for their breastmilk to dry up. They are then forced to stretch as much formula they can afford by mixing with too much or unclean water. Babies die from diarrhea, something much less likely to happen if babies had been breastfed.
My husband was quickly on board with this one and we go out of our way not to buy Nestle products. They own a lot of companies and I don’t have them all memorized so there are sure to be mistakes now and then, but we certainly aren’t buying Coffee-Mate or Butterfingers. I encourage you to boycott Nestle too.
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Convictions are important and cause me lots of mama guilt for sure, but in the end the most important thing is that our children are healthy, fed, and always feel LOVED and cherished. And of course I believe that everything should be done with STYLE.
© 2012
This is a great post! I agree with almost all of your ideals. Definitely an inspiration to stick to my consumer morals (which I am not always good at.)
yes, agree on that post…..that horrible evil Nestle too!
I so wish we lived near one another. We’d totally be BFFs even though our religious beliefs totally clash. Haha!
We boycott Nestle and as I was watching Hulu today I realized they sponsor EVERYTHING. Oye.
I’m glad my post inspired you, because I really enjoyed reading this one and learning a bit more about you and your values. We have a lot of similar priorities, despite somewhat different diets. I do believe that we shouldn’t over do the grains, but that’s a weakness of mine, too. I love bread, rice, noodles – you name it!
Your passion for buying second hand is admirable and I love seeing the awesome things you manage to thrift. Thanks for sharing this!
I loved this!
We think a lot alike!
I cringe at the thought of our waste piling up in the landfills. With our world population just hitting the 7 billion mark (in reality, it’s probably a lot more than that), think about all the waste we are going to accumulate in the future. How are we going to find room for all of it… and how much of that could’ve been recycled?
I wish organics and natural products were more affordable too. I try to buy organic but most of the time I just feel guilty. The only way to lower the price is if everyone starts buying organics and ditch the non-organic stuff but that will never happen.
It will probably never happen and that kills me. People are just so happy to be ignorant. All the time people are telling me how unimportant they think it is to buy organic. It’s so fucked up how brainwashed society is that ‘we’ [society] actually considers toxic chemicals in our food and products the norm.