Sustainable Parenting; How It's Going

 

The last time I really spoke about sustainable parenting was back when I was pregnant so I thought I'd do a little recap on how it's going and whether it's gone to plan. I was always planning on cutting myself some slack (parenting is hard enough right?!) but still wanted to do my best to be sustainable because babies can come with a rather hefty carbon footprint. I thought I'd simply go through the points I made in my previous post and update you on how each one is panning out! 

REUSABLE NAPPIES // We started with these fairly early; I think we used disposables for the first couple of weeks before trialling reusables during the day to start with. For a couple of months reusables were all we used; day, night and even out and about, but once Bobby stopped needing nappy changes during the night we found disposables gave us less leaks. On the flip side, you can guarantee that reusables contain poo explosions, which is very handy. 

Currently we use reusables at home during the day then in the car, then a disposable overnight and once we're out and about out of the car (again because they just last a little longer). I'd love to be organised enough to still use reusables all the time, but it's simply not always practical for us and I'm happy that we've found what works and I remind myself that every time we use a reusable instead of a disposable we're saving a nappy from going to landfill!

REUSABLE WIPES //  Reusable wipes are hands down SO superior to babywipes. I can use one reusable wipe for something I'd need about ten babywipes for. I've not quite managed to work out a way of taking them out and about yet for nappy changes, and we've got into a bad habit of using babywipes to clean up after eating, so at the moment I'd say we're probably 50/50 reusable wipes to babywipes. 

SECOND HAND CLOTHES // I don't think I've actually bought any clothing new for Bobby because having him here has only shown me even more how short a time they actually last! I buy some from Vinted, get a lot passed down to me from friends and also use clothes swaps and second hand shops. This is probably my strongest sustainable parenting point so far! 

MINIMAL PLASTIC TOYS // Bobby definitely has more toys than I imagined he would, but lots of them have been passed on from family and friends. Most of what we have actually bought him are made from sustainable wood and are open ended so will hopefully last him a long time. We've just started doing toy rotations so I'm planning a clear out of his current selection and he'll hopefully need less going forward if a toy rotation system works for him! 

I'm pretty happy with how my sustainable (ish) parenting is going and it's about what I expected it would be. The things that are easy are a no brainer, it's just the things that take a little more planning and time that I tend to fall down on, which is fine because having a baby is already busy and time consuming!