Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to the suburbs, and they are everywhere. Some of the kids are in travel lacrosse and soccer and they are in FIRST grade. They all have the same exact huge white SUV. It was hilarious the other day because a few of them ran into each other at the grocery store and were talking obnoxiously about their vacations while standing in line at Aldi. Anyway, once I got to the parking lot, they were all talking and loading their groceries. They all have the exact type of car a HUGE white SUV. My first car in high school was a Prius. Dh wants an SUV but I am adamant about having a sedan. We have two kids, and it's fine. Do these people not care about global warming? We had an earthquake a week ago, killing thousands of people. Driving these huge cars is such a waste and global warming contributes to more earthquakes. I went from living in an apartment to this. It's such a big change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:If you cared about the environment, you'd still be living in an apartment in the city where you can walk everywhere. Hypocrite.

THIS.

Ok, not op here but I’m choosing to raise my kid in the city, in an apartment, and rarely drive because I think we all need to do our part to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

I also think giant SUVs are a pox on humanity.

So now what’s your excuse?

Do you fly on airplanes?

Aviation is the most climate-intensive form of transport.

It reminds me of when Meghan and Harry got serious sh*t for shading everyone about their lack of environmentalism and then were called out for flying in private jets everywhere.

I know this is going to totally blow you away, but some of us arguing against SUVs/giant houses/very consumption-focused lifestyles not only don't have private planes, but don't fly often. I fly maybe once a year. And some years not at all. I live in an apartment. My family owns one 10 year old car that we drive maybe once a week to go hiking and do a big grocery haul. We live in a neighborhood with public transportation and walkable services, and we support politicians and policies that make our lifestyle more accessible for more people. And we are not rich ourselves -- HHI of 140k, with one parent working part-time to maximize time with kids and also make it possible to do things like make more of our own meals, compost and buy used, do errands by walking or biking, and other choices that can be more time consuming but are, we believe, worth it.

I know peopel are going to responds stuff like "well I guess we can't all be perfect like you" but I'm NOT perfect and don't think I am. I'm just tired of people on this thread acting like actually living these values is impossible or miserable. We have a wonderful life, we and our kids are very happy, we don't want for anything. It's actually possible to choose something other than big house/big car/scheduled to within an inch of your life/kids in everything/huge fancy vacations to far flung locations/etc. If that's what you want to do, nothing I say will stop you. But you can't tell me I'm a hypocrite, or that living more sustainably is impossible, or only available to rich people, or that no one actually does it. Some of us do it. You could too, if you wanted to. You just don't want to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Never mind. Your parents were definitely early adopters if they were buying the first-gen Prius in 1997.

Which also means they were INCREDIBLY wealthy. Interesting that OP hasn't brought socioeconomic class into this - I suspect she's just angry others can afford a lifestyle she doesn't believe they're entitled to.

OP here. We were middle class. Prius was 22k. Bought the car my senior year which was 2008

Hahahahahahaha! Middle class and bought you a $22k car. Yeah, ok, you loon.

In 2008 a Prius was absolutely a status symbol/ fancy people car. Like Teslas are now (minus the whole Elon Musk factor).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Never mind. Your parents were definitely early adopters if they were buying the first-gen Prius in 1997.

Which also means they were INCREDIBLY wealthy. Interesting that OP hasn't brought socioeconomic class into this - I suspect she's just angry others can afford a lifestyle she doesn't believe they're entitled to.

OP here. We were middle class. Prius was 22k. Bought the car my senior year which was 2008

Hahahahahahaha! Middle class and bought you a $22k car. Yeah, ok, you loon.

In 2008 a Prius was absolutely a status symbol/ fancy people car. Like Teslas are now (minus the whole Elon Musk factor).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Never mind. Your parents were definitely early adopters if they were buying the first-gen Prius in 1997.

Which also means they were INCREDIBLY wealthy. Interesting that OP hasn't brought socioeconomic class into this - I suspect she's just angry others can afford a lifestyle she doesn't believe they're entitled to.

OP here. We were middle class. Prius was 22k. Bought the car my senior year which was 2008

Hahahahahahaha! Middle class and bought you a $22k car. Yeah, ok, you loon.

In 2008 a Prius was absolutely a status symbol/ fancy people car. Like Teslas are now (minus the whole Elon Musk factor).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Never mind. Your parents were definitely early adopters if they were buying the first-gen Prius in 1997.

Which also means they were INCREDIBLY wealthy. Interesting that OP hasn't brought socioeconomic class into this - I suspect she's just angry others can afford a lifestyle she doesn't believe they're entitled to.

OP here. We were middle class. Prius was 22k. Bought the car my senior year which was 2008

Hahahahahahaha! Middle class and bought you a $22k car. Yeah, ok, you loon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Never mind. Your parents were definitely early adopters if they were buying the first-gen Prius in 1997.

Which also means they were INCREDIBLY wealthy. Interesting that OP hasn't brought socioeconomic class into this - I suspect she's just angry others can afford a lifestyle she doesn't believe they're entitled to.

OP here. We were middle class. Prius was 22k. Bought the car my senior year which was 2008

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you cared about the environment, you'd still be living in an apartment in the city where you can walk everywhere. Hypocrite.

THIS.

Ok, not op here but I’m choosing to raise my kid in the city, in an apartment, and rarely drive because I think we all need to do our part to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

I also think giant SUVs are a pox on humanity.

So now what’s your excuse?

Do you fly on airplanes?

Aviation is the most climate-intensive form of transport.

It reminds me of when Meghan and Harry got serious sh*t for shading everyone about their lack of environmentalism and then were called out for flying in private jets everywhere.

I know this is going to totally blow you away, but some of us arguing against SUVs/giant houses/very consumption-focused lifestyles not only don't have private planes, but don't fly often. I fly maybe once a year. And some years not at all. I live in an apartment. My family owns one 10 year old car that we drive maybe once a week to go hiking and do a big grocery haul. We live in a neighborhood with public transportation and walkable services, and we support politicians and policies that make our lifestyle more accessible for more people. And we are not rich ourselves -- HHI of 140k, with one parent working part-time to maximize time with kids and also make it possible to do things like make more of our own meals, compost and buy used, do errands by walking or biking, and other choices that can be more time consuming but are, we believe, worth it.

I know peopel are going to responds stuff like "well I guess we can't all be perfect like you" but I'm NOT perfect and don't think I am. I'm just tired of people on this thread acting like actually living these values is impossible or miserable. We have a wonderful life, we and our kids are very happy, we don't want for anything. It's actually possible to choose something other than big house/big car/scheduled to within an inch of your life/kids in everything/huge fancy vacations to far flung locations/etc. If that's what you want to do, nothing I say will stop you. But you can't tell me I'm a hypocrite, or that living more sustainably is impossible, or only available to rich people, or that no one actually does it. Some of us do it. You could too, if you wanted to. You just don't want to.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:LOL! We have one child and have a "large" 3 row SUV. Because I'm her Girl Scout troop leader and she's in a big car pool for school (LD school). It is also our only vehicle as we live walking distance to metro (Vienna). Don't assume you know everything about these people OP!

Blah, blah, blah. You lost me at one kid.

As a parent of one kid, most parents of multiple kids expect you to do the driving/hard work as they complain they cannot with multiple kids.

I'm a parent of one kid and no one has ever expected me to drive their kid around or take care of their kids. Also, my kid does Girl Scouts and I can only think of a handful of times where it made sense to transport them somewhere in one vehicle, and we collectively rented a vehicle for it. None of the parents of our troupe has a car big enough to transport all of them at once and no one would expect them to -- there are always multiple chaperones for any activity so there are 3-4 cars going anyway since of course no one has a car big enough for 3-4 adults and 7 girls. That's called a transport van.

Sports carpools of 3-4 kids are very, very common if your kid played a travel sport with 3 practices per week.

What if you chose sports walking distance from your home?

What if your kids didn't do travel sports that require tons of driving?

What if you chose to live somewhere with public transportation or bike paths to most things, including sports practices, or lobbied your local government to provide buses and bike paths to make that possible where you live?

Y'all act like you just woke up one day with lifestyles that require a giant SUV and a five-bedroom house on a half-acre lot 30-40 minutes from work. These are all choices. I judge your choices. You are not helpless. You are living exactly the life you want to live, it is one that relies on tons of consumption, including lots of fossil fuels, and you are part of the problem.

Don't sit there and try to convince me you have NO CHOICE in any of this. The whole point is that we all have a choice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you cared about the environment, you'd still be living in an apartment in the city where you can walk everywhere. Hypocrite.

THIS.

Ok, not op here but I’m choosing to raise my kid in the city, in an apartment, and rarely drive because I think we all need to do our part to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

I also think giant SUVs are a pox on humanity.

So now what’s your excuse?

Do you fly on airplanes?

Aviation is the most climate-intensive form of transport.

It reminds me of when Meghan and Harry got serious sh*t for shading everyone about their lack of environmentalism and then were called out for flying in private jets everywhere.

I know this is going to totally blow you away, but some of us arguing against SUVs/giant houses/very consumption-focused lifestyles not only don't have private planes, but don't fly often. I fly maybe once a year. And some years not at all. I live in an apartment. My family owns one 10 year old car that we drive maybe once a week to go hiking and do a big grocery haul. We live in a neighborhood with public transportation and walkable services, and we support politicians and policies that make our lifestyle more accessible for more people. And we are not rich ourselves -- HHI of 140k, with one parent working part-time to maximize time with kids and also make it possible to do things like make more of our own meals, compost and buy used, do errands by walking or biking, and other choices that can be more time consuming but are, we believe, worth it.

I know peopel are going to responds stuff like "well I guess we can't all be perfect like you" but I'm NOT perfect and don't think I am. I'm just tired of people on this thread acting like actually living these values is impossible or miserable. We have a wonderful life, we and our kids are very happy, we don't want for anything. It's actually possible to choose something other than big house/big car/scheduled to within an inch of your life/kids in everything/huge fancy vacations to far flung locations/etc. If that's what you want to do, nothing I say will stop you. But you can't tell me I'm a hypocrite, or that living more sustainably is impossible, or only available to rich people, or that no one actually does it. Some of us do it. You could too, if you wanted to. You just don't want to.

First off, none of that makes any difference, at all, with respect to climate change, other than supporting politicians and policies. Not one bit.

Second, it's very easy to say, "It's actually possible to choose something other than big house/big car/scheduled to within an inch of your life/kids in everything/huge fancy vacations to far flung locations/etc." when you can't afford to do any of those things. But if you made $600k each year, I doubt you'd still llive in an apartment. I bet you'd take a nice vacation. You might even buy a car, and enroll your kids in an extra activity or two. You'll deny it, of course, but I simply don't believe you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL! We have one child and have a "large" 3 row SUV. Because I'm her Girl Scout troop leader and she's in a big car pool for school (LD school). It is also our only vehicle as we live walking distance to metro (Vienna). Don't assume you know everything about these people OP!

Blah, blah, blah. You lost me at one kid.

As a parent of one kid, most parents of multiple kids expect you to do the driving/hard work as they complain they cannot with multiple kids.

I'm a parent of one kid and no one has ever expected me to drive their kid around or take care of their kids. Also, my kid does Girl Scouts and I can only think of a handful of times where it made sense to transport them somewhere in one vehicle, and we collectively rented a vehicle for it. None of the parents of our troupe has a car big enough to transport all of them at once and no one would expect them to -- there are always multiple chaperones for any activity so there are 3-4 cars going anyway since of course no one has a car big enough for 3-4 adults and 7 girls. That's called a transport van.

Sports carpools of 3-4 kids are very, very common if your kid played a travel sport with 3 practices per week.

What if you chose sports walking distance from your home?

What if your kids didn't do travel sports that require tons of driving?

What if you chose to live somewhere with public transportation or bike paths to most things, including sports practices, or lobbied your local government to provide buses and bike paths to make that possible where you live?

Y'all act like you just woke up one day with lifestyles that require a giant SUV and a five-bedroom house on a half-acre lot 30-40 minutes from work. These are all choices. I judge your choices. You are not helpless. You are living exactly the life you want to live, it is one that relies on tons of consumption, including lots of fossil fuels, and you are part of the problem.

Don't sit there and try to convince me you have NO CHOICE in any of this. The whole point is that we all have a choice.

Spoken like a woman with very young kids, without an athletic background to boot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you cared about the environment, you'd still be living in an apartment in the city where you can walk everywhere. Hypocrite.

THIS.

Ok, not op here but I’m choosing to raise my kid in the city, in an apartment, and rarely drive because I think we all need to do our part to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

I also think giant SUVs are a pox on humanity.

So now what’s your excuse?

Do you fly on airplanes?

Aviation is the most climate-intensive form of transport.

It reminds me of when Meghan and Harry got serious sh*t for shading everyone about their lack of environmentalism and then were called out for flying in private jets everywhere.

I know this is going to totally blow you away, but some of us arguing against SUVs/giant houses/very consumption-focused lifestyles not only don't have private planes, but don't fly often. I fly maybe once a year. And some years not at all. I live in an apartment. My family owns one 10 year old car that we drive maybe once a week to go hiking and do a big grocery haul. We live in a neighborhood with public transportation and walkable services, and we support politicians and policies that make our lifestyle more accessible for more people. And we are not rich ourselves -- HHI of 140k, with one parent working part-time to maximize time with kids and also make it possible to do things like make more of our own meals, compost and buy used, do errands by walking or biking, and other choices that can be more time consuming but are, we believe, worth it.

I know peopel are going to responds stuff like "well I guess we can't all be perfect like you" but I'm NOT perfect and don't think I am. I'm just tired of people on this thread acting like actually living these values is impossible or miserable. We have a wonderful life, we and our kids are very happy, we don't want for anything. It's actually possible to choose something other than big house/big car/scheduled to within an inch of your life/kids in everything/huge fancy vacations to far flung locations/etc. If that's what you want to do, nothing I say will stop you. But you can't tell me I'm a hypocrite, or that living more sustainably is impossible, or only available to rich people, or that no one actually does it. Some of us do it. You could too, if you wanted to. You just don't want to.