Trade-Offs: Raising a Baby in the 21st Century

Editor’s Note: Allison Wolff is the Founder of Vibrant Planet, a company that provides strategy and communications for companies and nonprofits focused on social and environmental innovation. She was also lead strategist and writer at Stone Yamashita Partners and former Director of Marketing for Netflix. This is her first contribution to GO Media.

I am the mother of a 9 month old little girl named Emerson. I struggled for years—almost to the point of having the age window close on me—with the question of whether or not to have a kid because of planet’s likely dismal future. Emerson is a “we didn’t try not to get pregnant” baby and, because she dropped into my womb with only one unprotected “oops”, I tell myself that she was fated to be here given all the trials and tribulations my other 40 year old friends have gone through to have children. A friend who is a climate scientist/astrologist/string theorist convinced me that she is likely one of the planet saving souls who has been waiting to arrive on Earth.

Since I found out I was pregnant, I have struggled deeply with what kind of mom I ideally want to be versus what is realistic given a number of difficult, well…realities. I grapple with everything from sleep and food introduction philosophies to vaccinations and what products to buy or accept from friends as gifts (i.e. I have been very particular about what I allow to enter my daughter’s mouth). I can’t wait until I have to start thinking about discipline and potty training.

• » See also: Fleurville Bags: Eco-friendly, Family-friendly…and Sexy?!
• » Get Eco Child’s Play by RSS or sign up by email.

I have worked in the corporate and nonprofit sustainability/green/environmental space for five years and, thanks to clients like Bill McDonough*, know way too much about what is in our products, our homes, our cars—everything man made around us. Like all conscious humans, I am a walking eco-dichotomy—I’ll preach to others about why a farmer’s market chicken deserves to be priced at $19 yet I go get my hair highlighted every three months.

With regards to all the stuff needed for baby Emerson, I have been faced with weighing more trade-offs than I imagined possible in figuring out a) what’s necessary, b) what’s safe, C) what can we afford, and, c) what Emerson will actually like. “Safe” for me goes way beyond the question of choking. I can’t agree more with McDonough’s* statement “What kind of society would make something like this to put into the mouths of children?”* In fact, I apply it to every toy and clothing item I buy or accept (gifts and hand-me-downs)—however, sometimes, I give.

Tweet This Post