DCUM Weblog

But you can still do something to minimize your environmental impact on the beach. And no, I’m not referring to picking up trash on the beach – although that’s always a good idea.

What does nearly everyone do at the beach? Shower! There’s nothing better than those wonderful outside showers. But when you soap up, the soap runs into storm water drains that often lead directly to the ocean. The soap run-off is toxic to marine life.

And those “earth friendly” biodegradable soaps and shampoos? Well, according to this report from the Maryland Department of the Environment, even “a flush of ‘biodegradable’ soap suds will still harm fish or invertebrates in your local stream.”

That was news to yours truly, who regrettably had lathered up outside on more than one occasion with “earth friendly” biodegradable soaps. In Rehoboth Beach, our favorite seaside destination, the storm water drains flow directly to the Atlantic Ocean and to a fresh-water lake, which was recently the scene of a massive fish kill due to environmental toxins from storm water run-off, among other suspected causes.

So enjoy your outside shower, but skip the soap and shampoo. Save the real clean-up for the inside shower!

Happy Fourth of July!

Lynn

Copyright 2008 OrganicMania

A popular third-grade teacher at Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School, has been placed on administrative leave after a school-owned camera in his possession was found to contain inappropriate pictures of a young boy. School officials notified parents of the incident in a June 12 letter that said, "The teacher was immediately placed on administrative leave, escorted from Beauvoir that afternoon, and did not participate in any of the closing chapel activities". Discussion of the incident has been raging in the DC Urban Moms and Dads discussion forum since a June 16 posting asking for specifics about what had happened.

While school officials have attempted to be proactive in providing information to the Beauvoir community (distributing letters on June 12, June 19, and June 20), many DCUM posters have complained that Beauvoir has not gone far enough. Anonymous posters have passed on information that has ranged from insider knowledge to simple gossip. The debate has grown to encompass many aspects including accusations that the school prioritized guarding its reputation over the protection of children, that Beauvoir was conspiring with the Washington Post to keep the story out of the newspaper, and that forum users themselves were acting as a lynch mob.

Last night my family sat down around our dinner table and enjoyed a nourishing, home-cooked meal while we lovingly and supportively talked about our respective days. But then I woke up. As I rolled over in bed -- onto the soggy, half-eaten Teddy Graham that made up the “grains” portion of my four-year-old’s dinner -- I checked off yet another mark on my robust maternal guilt list:  Our family dinner hour masquerades as the family drive-thru 10 minutes.

I think I feel guilty because I grew up with an unrealistic model of domestic bliss, a family in which Mom served a piping hot meal every night out of a magically uncluttered kitchen and Dad eagerly cleared the table. No, not my parents: The Brady Bunch. Carol and Mike really screwed the rest of us -- no nut allergies or aversions to leafy greens in their perky little blended family. No one in the Brady family ever flung themselves to the kitchen floor in the throes of a tantrum, screaming, “Not grilled-cheese sandwiches again!” (Which, I confess, I did just the other night).

A mother’s prayer: Please, please, please let me get a good night’s sleep tonight. Please don’t let me wake up in a race car-shaped kiddie bed at 3 a.m. with my head wedged into a wheel well and a kid sprawled across my legs, like last night. Please don’t let a child crawl into bed with me and promptly pee on me. Just one good night’s sleep, that’s all I ask. Amen.

10 p.m. sharp:  Time to turn off the television and go straight to bed. Am so tired. Ooh, but an “American Idol” rerun is on! I’ll just watch for a minute.

11:00 p.m.  I’m so over Clay Aiken.  Anyway, off to bed.

11:03 p.m.  How can I be expected to sleep when a persistent voice is coming from the kitchen freezer, calling out, “Hellooooo? Anyone awake?”

"Can I have juice? Can I have juice?" This is the sound of our two children coming to dinner. We rarely have soft drinks around the house, we've explained that beer and wine are a few years off, we suggest a glass of milk or water, but none of it works. The boys want juice.

What is truly disconcerting, however, is what is more and more frequently occurring after dinner. Something akin to repeated renditions of "Mothra vs Godzilla" (albeit with a male Mothra) involving jumping on furniture, tumbling on the floor, knocking things over, and turning the most innocuous items into weapons. These epic battles leave our living room in a condition close to that of Nagoya after its destruction. The link between the sugar in juice and the havoc wrecked on our household seems clear.

I consider myself a lucky blogger. There’s so much to say about organics, going green, raising kids, and trying to make sense of healthy green living. And at OrganicMania, we've had some great discussions about organics versus conventional foods, like this one and this one.

As I look through some of the nearly 300 comments (!) you've left on OrganicMania, I’m struck by how many of us are struggling to make sense of our options in order to provide what’s best for our children. This morning I was struggling a bit, too, trying to choose from a myriad of possibilities for today's post.

But my mind kept wandering back to this story in yesterday’s Washington Post about the terrible impact of rising food prices on the world’s poor. Did you know that the UN’s World Food Program being forced to cut back on feeding programs that serve 20 million children?

This afternoon, the US National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health, released a draft reportindicating that low dose exposure to BPA plastics may be linked tobreast cancer, prostate cancer, early puberty in girls and behavioralchanges such as hyperactivity. And it's rumored that the Canadiangovernment will take an even stronger step on Wednesday, naming BPA a"dangerous substance."

Many feel that this report is long overdue. The fact is, for yearsnow, early pioneers such as the Environmental Working Group and savvymedia outlets like The Wall Street Journal have been warning of the potential risks of BPA. Just last August, a group of 38 medical researchers warned again of the potential risks.

It all sounded so wholesome and Walton-esque at the time: Our family was not going to succumb to the lure of the built-in DVD player in our minivan. Instead of staring slack-jawed at Sponge Bob, our kids would talk to us for hours as we merrily traversed to our summer vacation destinations (their little jaws get ample resting time at home anyway). Perhaps we’d even break into spontaneous song as we created warm, fuzzy family memories. As we drove away from the Honda dealership in our new, DVD-less minivan, we felt proud, and almost Amish.

Then came the time for us to actually take a family vacation. Correction—not vacation. Vacations conjure notions of lazy afternoons spent napping, evenings sipping piña coladas and competing in limbo contests, and mornings that don’t begin until noon. Our first big family retreat was to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania, a 2 1/2-hour drive from Bethesda if you take the scenic, endlessly stretching, gray highway route. I can honestly report that Sponge Bob’s presence wasn’t missed in the slightest for the first 90 seconds.

Perhaps the easiest way to think about how to “go green” for Easter is to think back on how you celebrated as a child. Did you have zillions of plastic eggs and small trinkets made of Cheap Plastic Crap stuffed in your basket? It’s doubtful. Easter used to be a simple affair. A basket full of jelly beans and chocolate, and some colored (real) eggs was all it took to send a child into spasms of joy at the Easter Bunny’s bounty.

So why do we think kids have changed? Simply because the retailers now encourage us to buy Cheap Plastic Crap trinkets and plastic eggs for Easter? Think again. Try to remember how you celebrated as a child and what made you especially happy. Why not take your cues from that experience to continue your family traditions?