• Last updated 3/31/10 by Mothering Editorial

Looking for a fun family project for Easter? What could be more fun, and special, than homemade Easter baskets? Lynn Colwell from Celebrate Green! shows how easy it is to create your own heirloom Easter basket from upcycled fabric scraps. Click here for step-by-step instructions on the Celebrate Green! blog.  Also check out Safe and Natural Easter Egg Dye from the Celebrate Green! team. Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are the mother-daughter co-authors of the book, Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for... read more

• Last updated 3/2/10 by Mothering Editorial

My 7 year old son has recently been watching the news early am before my husband or I awaken. We have been allowing him to watch PBS in the am but now he is becoming interested in watching the news and often reports to us a violent or bizarre story that is being reported. I'm not sure if I should prevent him from watching the news in am or use what he hears as topic for discussion. Any advice would be much appreciated.   Dear Parent, There is more than one answer to your question as it depends on your lifestyle preferences and the culture you like to immerse your... read more

• Last updated 2/4/10 by Mothering Editorial

February 4, 2010 A Boulder, Colorado hospital has made the move to reduce waste and save money by switching to cloth diapers, among other changes, reports the Denver Post. Boulder Community Foothills Hospital is known for its eco-conscious choices, including sporting solar panels on the roof, and with an international reputation for "being green" hospitals all over the world are learning a trick or two from Foothills. Last year the hospital saved $150,000 by switching to reusable metal sterilization containers alone. At the direction of sustainability coordinator Kai... read more

• Last updated 12/20/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Jackie Hunt Christensen Issue 90, September - October 1998 Ever wonder what your child's toys are made of? Chances are, if the toys are not wood or metal, they're some kind of plastic. But what kind? Unlike most food containers or packaging, toys generally aren't marked with the triangle of "chasing arrows" and a "1," "2," or "4" in the middle that indicates the plastic type that was used in its manufacture. As a curious environmental activist and concerned parent of two, I decided to do some checking. I started with one of my girlhood icons, Barbie. More than a... read more

• Last updated 4/7/13 by AdinaL

Years ago before I had kids I was in Boston taking the T with my brother and the turnstile was broken. There was a long line to buy tokens and I didn’t feel like waiting. “Let’s just jump it,” I said impatiently. “Absolutely not,” my brother answered. “If everyone went through a busted turnstile, where would that leave the public transit system? You have to think about the Categorical Imperative.” That was the first time I was introduced to Kant’s concept of the Categorical Imperative. The way my brother explained it, Immanuel Kant believed... read more

• Last updated 10/3/10 by Mothering Editorial

Why should advertising and marketing to children be a priority concern for mothers and fathers?We live in a nation in which the values of what sociologist Robert Bellah calls the money world are steadily crowding out the values of what I call the motherworld. The dominant values of our culture are radical individualism, excessive materialism, and bottom-line thinking-- and they leave little room for values such as connectedness, interdependence, commitment, and other qualities necessary for raising healthy, caring, and ethical children. This profound imbalance lies at... read more

• Last updated 6/12/12 by Mothering Editorial

By Danielle Crawford Skov Issue 111, March - April 2002 When my husband, Mike, and I signed up for a cohousing project in Steamboat Springs , Colorado , we saw it simply as a way to buy a home in a town with outrageously priced real estate. The ten houses in the project would share land, a garage, and other development expenses. We assured our friends and relatives it would be just like owning our own home in any other neighborhood; there was nothing "commune-like" about it. Building the community was not easy. We met for several hours every other week over a year... read more

• Last updated 3/14/13 by mamazee

  How do we ensure a healthy future for our children? In America savvy marketers have effectively duped us into believing that convenience in the Holy Grail: fast food, paper plates, quick-drying high-tech fabric, take-and-bake pizza. We eat our meals out of cans or boxes or plastic bags; we put diapers made of wood pulp and petroleum-based super absorbent polymers on our babies, and we use our cars to drive half a mile away. The happy woman in the TV commercial spraying toxic chemicals to get stains out of a collar shirt has no wrinkles on... read more

• Last updated 9/21/10 by Mothering Editorial

By Jonathan Rowe and Gary Ruskin Paul Kurnit is the president of KidShop, an advertising firm that specializes in marketing to children, and he has plans for our kids. "Kid business has become big business," Kurnit says.1 To make kid business even bigger, he preaches what he calls "surround marketing": saturation advertising that captures kids at every possible moment.2 "You've got to reach kids throughout the day-in school, as they're shopping at the mall, or at the movies," says Carol Herman, a senior vice president at Grey Advertising. "You've got to become part... read more

• Last updated 1/5/10 by Mothering Editorial

Jan 06, 2010 Maybe you were one of the millions of people who vowed to reduce their eco-footprint this year when the clocked turned twelve, or perhaps you are always on the lookout for a new reason to go green. If so, the new One Small Change Challenge, created and sponsored by small business owner and mom Suzy Hawbacker from Hip Mountain Mama, is for you. Hawbacker and crew are using their internet savvy and the power of the blogosphere to promote environmentalism by challenging anyone and everyone to make one eco-friendly change each month leading up to Earth Day on... read more