The first of many confessionals…
Momconfessionals IS greenbaby-nyc. It’s a new year with a new website and a new beginning. Why the change? If anyone had bothered to read my mini bio before, you might have seen something along the lines of: a mother, living in the outerboros of NYC, trying to be greener every day. Trying was the key word. I always felt an obligation to keep my posts more green than not and some of my readers liked to point out whenever my posts weren’t green enough for them of course. Not that I minded. Many times they pushed me to keep trying, be greener, be a better parent and for that I’m grateful. The only thing was that I itched to talk more on a broader level, about all aspects of parenting.
My original intention wasn’t to be solely GREEN oriented, rather that it was one of many facets of my parenting style. Like all mothers, it was simply about my lifestyle choices, whether right or wrong, that I was making because I wanted a better, more meaningful and fruitful life for my children. Don’t get me wrong, I have enjoyed, met some wonderful people who I now can call my friends and learned so much from my affiliations with all things green. That unto itself was an eye opener as well. There are so many resources and “green” spokesmodels out there and that was never my intention to be, despite the expectations. In order to expand my conversations beyond the “GREEN” topic, I decided to make a transition to a moniker that was more fitting. Why mom confessionals? Well, quick frankly because I’d be the first to admit I make a fair share of parenting mistakes. While I toyed with I’m a bad mother.com and terrible mother.com — hahah! I often find myself saying, ” I have to confess…” and there it was… mom confessionals.
Mom confessionals is my blog where my journey as a parent is charted for all to see. I’m still trying to be greener everyday — it’s not just good sense for the present, but for my children’s future as well — but like myself, its a work in progress. You’ll see the usual product reviews – many green focused, but some are not, chronicles of our family roadtrips, glimpses of moments in my life and things I just want to share that I’ve learned on the job.
Here are a few confessions for the record:
- I didn’t learn about BPA until my daughter had been using BPA leaching bottles for 2 months and have been racked with guilt ever since.
- I was a failure at composting despite an earnest attempt. My Chinese is hardly fluent and my in laws simply couldn’t keep track of all my composting rules. It was too complicated and what I had in the end was disease causing compost because it simply became a mini garbage can in my kitchen.
- I care more about what my kids consume and what touches their skin than my own. They’ll get all the organic foods and toxic free skincare.
- If you ever come to my home, you’d be shocked to see some non-green products sitting right next to green ones. My in-laws are addicted to shopping clubs and can’t seem to kick some habits.
- I had a REAL Christmas tree this year which will live a second life as my garden mulch.
My parenting philosophy is simple. Short of putting my kids in a bubble, I can’t rid the world of phthalates, make sure every bite they intake is organic and never let them watch a drop of TV until they are older – but I can certainly try. If they do occasionally, I won’t try to kill myself, it is not the end of the world. Being green to me is also not being wasteful. I’m not going to dump everything in my house because it isn’t green. They’ll live the life they have, some living way too long I admit, and when they’re done, I make the “greener” choice. Before making the switch to all green cleaners in my house, I had two shelves. One with the “dangerous” chemicals, and one with their green alternatives. As I finished off the “dangerous” ones, I hoped never to see their return (although my in-law’s trips to the wholesale clubs sometimes yields a lingering bottle or two) and replaced with my “greener” alternative. My home is lighted with energy-efficient bulbs and we’re recycling maniacs that police each other (maybe that’s why they can’t seem to remember the rules of composting, they’ve retained every recycling rule out there). My daughter may sample cheese puffs outside of her home and I’ll find the organic equivalent, pulling a bait and switch (amazon.com is my friend). We’ll got to McDonald’s occasionally, but at home, Chicken Nuggets are Ian’s Organics with DHA. I’m still trying earnestly to cloth diaper my son as well as breastfeed him as long as I did for my daughter (2 years) if not longer. When my husband built my son’s nursery, the custom furniture piece he built was made with reclaimed timber and the walls were painted with Benjamin Moore’s Natura Zero VOC paints. I’ve got a playroom filled with Fisher-Price, Mattel and Legos, right next to toys from Plan Toys and Sprig Toys.
I am always aiming to be greener, safer and a better mom, but like I said before, just like me, it’s a work in progress. This site is still has much transitioning to do from GREENBABY-NYC to MOM CONFESSIONALS, all the posts have been transferred, but I hope you’ll enjoy the journey with me.
As a mother of 2 – a two and half year old and most recently a newborn, nothing needs more simplifying than my life. Between juggling my blog, tweeting, running my online store, going to nursing school all the while juggling the family’s complicated calendar, nursing what seems like 24/7 and making sure my toddler doesn’t feel neglected, my life is chaos. Always trying to juggle way too many things at once, this laptop would come in handy when I need to study most. That can be anywhere, anytime — while the DH is in the grocery store picking up the weeks food needs, I can be found with my microbiology book and notes in hand. While I’m nursing or washing the dishes, I’ve got my textbooks on audio being read to me aloud. What an amazing thing it would be to have this gorgeous, portable laptop with me to take practice quizzes on the road as DH drives us to run errands, catching a wi-fi connection, checking on my class discussion boards, replying to tweets and processing inventory and orders all at once. In those rare moments when I’m able to go to the library and get some intensive studying done, I will no longer have to wait in line to use the library computers at 30 minute intervals. I can take advantage of their free wi-fi and let another person have a chance at the library computers.
Enter to win one of (3) HP Mini 110-1100 by Studio Tord Boontje PCs simply by leaving a comment on this post and Mom Bloggers Club will randomly select a winner from all comment posted regarding the HP Simplify My Life Sweepstakes. Deadline for entries is January 20, 2010 at midnight ET. Reader winners will be randomly drawn using Random.org and will be based on the order in which bloggers (like me) enter the sweepstakes and post on Twitter. Winners will be announced on Friday, January 29, 2010. For additional chances to win, visit 
