In my latest for Parents I wrote about how I’ve evolved from a would-be cloth diaperer (never happened!) to a mom who does what she can and then calls it a day. My values haven’t changed — but I’ve realized that far too many of our expectations about how to be a crunchy earth goddess mama are rooted in buying all the things, and/or creating tons of extra domestic and emotional labor. We aren’t going to solve the environmental injustices facing our planet by making all of our own baby food or packing zero waste lunchboxes — so you aren’t failing anyone except the patriarchy if you don’t. (Sometimes I do anyway — but it’s on my own terms now.)
Where do you fall on the “natural parenting” spectrum? And can we please just retire that word? As Lindsay Powers says in my piece, “There’s no ‘unnatural’ way to parent!”
