I have a friend who has a small farm. So they decided to go organic. They had so many bugs in their food that they decided to add a small amount of non-organic products to make the food edible. When you think of it bugs consume food and any species that consumes food, also poops. So you get lots of poop on your food or you get non-organic food. Pick your poison.

I'm not concerned at all about bug poop; pesticides and herbicides are much more detrimental to our health, and, unlike bug poop, cannot be easily washed away.

I have a friend who has a small farm. So they decided to go organic. They had so many bugs in their food that they decided to add a small amount of non-organic products to make the food edible. When you think of it bugs consume food and any species that consumes food, also poops. So you get lots of poop on your food or you get non-organic food. Pick your poison.

Oil is organic

Anonymous wrote:Older does not equal wiser in your case, OP.

Every generation may have its ridiculous parenting extremes.
But as a research scientist and wife of a doctor, I assure you that sunscreen and avoiding environmental toxins will help our children live longer and healthier.

The key is starting young - that is when damage is most dangerous because it progresses throughout your life.

You rock on with your bad habits - you're already doomed anyway.

So sorry to tell you this, PP, but sunscreens are now on the toxics list. Current research is showing that not only are the chemicals in sunscreen harmful to the body, but sunscreen ingredients don't block the most damaging rays, which means people using sunscreen are getting even more of the most dangerous type of sun exposure, which can (and does) lead to more skin cancer.

Wear sunblocking clothing, don't go in the sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., wear a hat, and generally stay out of the sun if you want to protect yourself from skin cancer.

Once again, the cosmetics (read 'chemical') industry has sold us a bill of goods, this time about the benefits of sunscreen, and in the process, have made zillions selling this harmful product to use gullible souls, myself included.

Anonymous wrote:PP again...I agree that we should let our kids just play and I do. I don't over schedule. I also agree kids need to learn conflict resolution skills, but I think you are jumping all over the place saying we are making our kids toxic with worry about chemicals. I have yet to meet a kid who talks about GMOs, plastics and pesticides. Perhaps you mean academic pressure, but that is a different topic alltogether.

I think academic pressure, competitive sports, etc. whatever you call it, it's pressure. I do think worry about toxins is another pressure kids deal with. There is a lot of negative messages that children receive when there are so many environmental fears. Fears, competitive pressure....holy cow, did you grow up with such stress! As a parent it is tough to just let kids be kids. If you read these posts, there seems to be so many reasons why kids can't do things. It is our job as parents to make it safe to be kids. Have a secure backyard and sit outside and have an iced tea (or wine!) and watch them play. Let them have down time at home when no potential sexual predictor is present.
To be honest, with all the fears that we are talking about, I have never seen so many toddlers in stores with their Mom's not in their eyesight. How about kids standing up in grocery cart seats? It's your job to watch them and make their environment safe and happy.

PP. I am so sorry that you were sexually abused in your home. I am sening loving kindness your way.

It must be exhausting trying to protect your kids from everything that carries even a .0000000001% chance of risk.

And to the PP who said home is safe - that's where the vast majority of sexually abused kids (including me) meet their abuser. And trust me, they're just as good at fooling you as they were at fooling my mom.

PP again...I agree that we should let our kids just play and I do. I don't over schedule. I also agree kids need to learn conflict resolution skills, but I think you are jumping all over the place saying we are making our kids toxic with worry about chemicals. I have yet to meet a kid who talks about GMOs, plastics and pesticides. Perhaps you mean academic pressure, but that is a different topic alltogether.

There is a lot more fear because there are many more chemicals in our environment and there is a good chance they are making our food supply and even the air less safe. I was like you. I thought people were so melodramatic about plastics and GMOs and cows treated with antibiotics living in deplorable conditions. Then I started to reacting to non-organic foods.

Then I started hearing more and more friends/neighbors/coworkers were having kids diagnosed on the spectrum and then it hit close to home. My child has ASD. We have zero family history. There is something like in 1 in 50 chance of having a boy on the spectrum and that number comes from data several years ago. He was not premature. My husband was under 40 at conception and I was not a high risk age. I did not take antidepressants during pregnancy. Basically all the things looked at did not apply to me. The numbers continue to rise. This isn't just about widening the spectrum definition. I have talked with special ed teachers who have been in the field many years without taking prolonged breaks and I got an earful. Something has changed and the ones I talked to are fearful for their own childbearing kids. Yes, premature births and saving more lives may explain some increase and we could find a few other reasons, but we're still in trouble. We are one of the only countries that welcomes GMOs without insisting they be proven safe among other things.

I could go on and on, but to compare this to bulling is missing the mark. You are lucky this hasn't hit home for you, but in this case saying people should just "chill" doesn't cut it. These kids are canaries in the coalmine. How many kids have to suffer for people to wake up and realize this is a BIG deal?

I agree that we have lots of new information to better protect our kids. However I think the take away, is it might be helpful to be aware that all this information can tend to make kids feel globally unsafe and create a loss of innocence.
I think it is important to teach kids about things that could potentially cause them harm without making them neurotic.
When I grew up I remember duck and cover from a potential atom bomb. However, there is a lot more to be fearful of today.
I think one of the things that would be very helpful is to let kids have downtime in their homes (a safe place) and just let them play. Our philosophy on sibling fighting was don't interfere unless you see blood (a bit extreme, but you get the point, I hope!).
Limit you kids exposure to competitive events (another way to instill fear).
It's your job to find a way for them to be kids. Being neurotic, angry, insecure kids is toxic! And we wonder why we have a bullying problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Older does not equal wiser in your case, OP.

Every generation may have its ridiculous parenting extremes.
But as a research scientist and wife of a doctor, I assure you that sunscreen and avoiding environmental toxins will help our children live longer and healthier.

The key is starting young - that is when damage is most dangerous because it progresses throughout your life.

You rock on with your bad habits - you're already doomed anyway.

I agree with this. I think that the environmental toxins that our generation and our children's generation are exposed to will have any number of ill effects.

Just because you are doing ok at 50 doesn't mean these things will never have any impact.

Reviving this thread...I have a child with autism and it's everywhere. We're not talking those eccentric kids you knew growing up. We're talking flapping and stimming and other stuff that suggests toxic exposure. A Harvard study linked ADHD and pesitcide levels in kids.

My mother had this same attitude you have. We did all these things and everyone is fine. Now that she, my uncle, my brother and my sister all have cancer and her grandson has autism she has hopped on the organic wagon and she is reading studies and staying informed.

Keep in mind our food supply is different today than it was when you were young. Our foods are often coming from other countries. We have more processed pseudo foods. High Fructose Corn Syrup and Genetically Modified crap were not around. Even oreos supposedly had better ingredients. The crops had less pesticides and the cows weren't injected with so many hormones. The chickens were not kept in the awful filthy conditions many of them deal with today.

There is research to suggest the mother and even granmother's toxic load affect the fetus. So, just because you didn't have issues living life on the wild side playing with those balls of mercury, doesn't mean your kids and grandkids will be just fine.

Re:mosquitoes. The issue is West Nile Virus. Read up on it-scary stuff.

I bet you all didn't care about tics too? Guess what, not we have to worry about the lyme disease rated climbing quickly. Read up on it. It's no walk in the park. My neighbor has it. My friend's kid has it and a friend of mine nas it.

Oh and all the parents who let their kids roam free? Some of those kids were molested and are just now telling their stories as adults. One of my classmates got into a life-threatening accident with a car while he was roaming free on his bike doing risky things.

Times have changed and we need to change with them. I hope you don't have to go through what my mother went through to see that maybe everyone didn't turn out fine.

This thread reminds me of the things that I swore I would never do or become when I got old. Saying stupid stuff was high on the list. Why do old people do this?

13:11 You are a weirdo. But I hope you feel better

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I don't have bad habits that are harmful according to current thinking. No body knew about Mercury or DDT back then. Get it?? You could be doomed to be hit by a bus while your chatting away not paying attention on that phone attached to your head.
One of the secrets of a long life is to have a sense of humor. Some of you should try it.
Also, I'm guessing some of you party poopers are younger than 50. So bye for now, and go play with the youngsters.

Several things: First, you are completely wrong when you say no one knew about DDT. My father knew, and went to the county mosquito spraying program and insisted that they not spray in front of and our behind our house. So, the truck would stop spraying at our property line, drive 100 feet, and start spraying again. We were the ONLY family whose house was not sprayed, and we as children were teased by our friends because our father was so "crazy" for not getting our house sprayed. After each spraying, we saw lots of dead birds on the street, and my father would pick them up and show them to the neighbors. Robins, bluejays, cardinals, and more. Oh, they said, huh? After a while, people on the street started paying attention, Since Silent Spring appeared, and then our whole street refused to be sprayed, thanks to my father.

Second, I do remember playing with mercury from broken thermometers, BTW, and it was fun. But that's not the same thing as saying it didn't harm me. Perhaps it did, I just don't know (yet).

Third, back in the 1960s, the number of chemicals we as children were exposed to through food, clothing, automobiles, pesticides, household products, furniture, building materials and so on was a tiny fraction of the number of chemicals our children are exposed to today, even before they are born because many of these chemicals reside in our (their mother's) bodies. About 80,000 chemicals have been introduced in our country since the early 1960s, most of which have never been tested for toxicity.

I feed my children organic food, and keep their exposure to toxins to an absolute minimum because I know they are bombarded by toxic substances in their every day lives. They breathe in chemicals that didn't exist when I was a child. It is not possible to compare my children's childhood to mine -- the world is so very different, and yes, more chemically toxic.

BTW, would you want to go back to a world with no car seats, no airbags, no bicycle helmets? That's how I grew up, but I don't want that for my children. Many things were better when I was a child, but many things were worse. Do you want to live through the Civil Rights era again? A woman's place was in the home, and blacks were "the help". I say "black" but actually when I was a child, African Americans were called "negroes" or "colored". Do you really want your children growing up in that environment?

I do remember feeling safe when I went outside to play. My mother rang a bell or yelled for me, and I came home, or she called around to my friends' houses to find me. There was no hovering from her, and I'm sorry my kids to not have that freedom. We used to go out in the woods to play, build forts, castles, wander, and no one worried. We came home when we got hungry. I also agree that technology is a mixed blessing. Kids don't need FB or ipads, cell phones, whatever electronic junk is to come next week.

Also, OP, a lot of the food you ate as a child WAS organic. It only wasn't labeled as such. It was just food.

We also had a more robust ozone layer in the old days, so sun exposure wasn't quite as bad from a skin cancer standpoint..