The New York Times warns that your child’s playground might be boring them to death (or at least into a phobia).

It’s summer time and parents everywhere are crowding onto playgrounds with their children. Me included. And I am shocked at just how boring they have gotten. Gone are the days when playgrounds were thrilling places: climbing to the top of a huge jungle gym, teetering 5 feet off the ground and screaming at my little brother not to drop me, or hurdling around on a tire swing until getting sick.

Calling all pregnant women in America: your country needs you for science.

The call to “Fair Trade your home” has been gaining attention recently. Recent awareness campaigns have shed light on the abundance of inhumane work conditions many around the world deal with, that we in the “developed world” exploit. Often it seems like overcoming such a complicated issue is impossible for just one person or family to do, but I found out it’s not such a big undertaking after all. Buying Fair Trade is a win-win proposition!

Been to an Eat-In recently?  Wonder what it is?

An Eat-In is a new take on the grand old tradition of sit-ins, and being used today to bring awareness to the devastating effects that poor nutrition, and specifically, inadequate, unhealthy, and additive-full school lunches are having on children.  The Eat-Ins are sponsored by Slow Food USA.  And whether or not you make it to an actual Eat-In in your community the idea is easily do-able wherever you are: sit down with your children, your friends, or your co-works and eat a healthy meal.  And then, sign the petition to get a Child Nutrition Act that will actually get nutritious food to children in schools.

You can have children in Chicago without a car and do it well. One of the great advantages to living in this city is how relatively easy it is to live without a car.  Easy, and it will save more than $7,000 a year for each car you are not paying to own and operate, according to the Center for Neighborhood Technology.

Chicago has made a stand for children (and green parents). Today, March 13th, Chicago became the first American city to ban BPA from products geared toward children 3 and under. The City of Chicago’s action follows similar leadership by the state of Minnesota, and the county of Suffolk in New York.

My child will wake up from her nap in a moment and my good intentions to write my Mother’s Day blog will become yet more ominously close to NOT happening (at least until after the actual day).

Chicago will turn its lights out tomorrow for one hour.  Last year Chicago participated in Earth Hour for the first time.  I watched from the pier in Rogers Park as the entire city went dim (except for the Trump Tower–one phallic hold out).  It was dramatic and beautiful and it saved a reported 7% of electricity.  That is the carbon emissions equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road for one hour. 

Last year they told New Yorkers they were miserable.  This year, they are telling Chicagoans we are even more miserable.  It’s enough to make a mama lose faith in the world’s business leaders that Forbes claims to represent.  (Oh, wait, too late.)

Toys have become a nightmare for many parents: 80% of the toys in this country are made in China and the toy recalls have shown how very little oversight ever goes into toys imported into this country.

It’s another day as a car-free mother of a toddler and I’m standing on the corner with Zella Rose in her sling and a huge, toddler carseat at my side. I called a taxi but it never came. So, I’ve dragged the carseat, the baby, and all the baby’s stuff to the corner. Empty taxis are swooshing by me. Some slow down, but none of them stop.

Although part of this comes from a deep paranoia that I will find a private eye going through my garbage and picking out a #5 plastic thingy that could have been recycled, mostly I reflect on my green-ness from a sincere desire to do better and know more.

I found that it was easier for me to THINK about my green actions if I had a way of organizing them in my mind. And, like everything else, once the organization exists, it is much easier to accomplish the goal.