Walking the Walk

Here's another eco-baby article about toy buying. After we got our toys-for-tots, I had a small bit of guilt about the non-eco friendliness of them, but I think we did alright getting *active* toys at least - sports gear, sidewalk chalk, play-doh, etc... None of our toys required power sources, either. That was not an accident. T.J. and I both feel pretty strongly about providing toys for children that make them active and use their imagination.

It did make me realize how easy it is to forget about toy safety when you are concerned about what a child might actually want - and how hard it may be to balance the child's wants with both safety and earth friendliness. Since our target age was past the "eat everything" stage for the toys we bought, I feel all right about the options we chose. Even the packaging wasn't too over the top. If we had been buying baby stuff though I think I'd have made a bee-line for the wooden toys (with non-toxic paint!). That's a lot easier, too, as babies aren't concerned with brand names yet.

So, just a little realization (for me) that it's much easier to talk the talk than walk the walk with a lot of the ideas I've been touting on here. It doesn't mean we aren't going to do our best to be safe and eco-conscious, but I feel a bit like a wanna-be now rather than a true green mama! A good lesson in humility for me, I suppose.