• Last updated 3/14/10 by Mothering Editorial

I have concerns with the vapor emitted from plastic toys. When I removed a new toy from the trunk of the car on a warm day the smell was very intense. Should I be concerned about toxification from plastic toys?You are right to be concerned, as chemicals more readily escape from plastics when heated. A very common plastic used in toys, including teethers and other "mouth toys," is PVC (#3). Bad stuff, its production is a source of carcinogenic dioxin in the environment. Soft PVC toys are made flexible with phthalates, chemicals that have caused reproductive system harm... read more

• Last updated 3/14/13 by mamazee

Credit: Carlos Pardo In two days, the nation will pay its taxes. But did you know that April 15 is also Bike to School Day? I discovered this while writing an article for Mothering about ways parents can help green their schools, due to be published in its Fall back-to-school issue. The people urging families to walk or bike to school normally frame it as a solution to rising rates of childhood obesity: Thirty years ago, reports the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 90 percent of children who lived within a mile of school walked there. Today, that number... read more

• Last updated 3/13/13 by mamazee

Awoke to a forecast of hot and dry. So I washed my new favorite (went Goodwill shopping Saturday) sleeveless white shirt, then hung it on the clothesline to dry, jumped into the shower, and—voilà!—hopped out of the shower and into a clean, dry, cool shirt. # Photo: How can laundry on a line NOT be beautiful with a sky like this one? High altitude, clear skies, sunny weather make for a blue that’s almost impossible to match in CMYK (though, admittedly, much easier in RGB!). I love living in Santa... read more

• Last updated 1/17/13 by Melanie Mayo

The red peppers and onions dangled overhead. The hams and the venison hung in their paper wrappings, and all the bunches of dried herbs, the spicy herbs for cooking and the bitter herbs for medicine, gave the place a dusty-spicy smell. Do you remember that description of the attic from Little House in the Big Woods, where Laura and Mary would play house with pumpkins for furniture and a corncob for a doll when the late autumn chill drove them indoors? Maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ve re-visited the world that Ma and Pa worked so hard to sustain with your own... read more

• Last updated 7/10/09 by Mothering Editorial

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) continues to pressure the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to stop marketing violent movies such as The Dark Knight and Iron Man to preschool-aged children.The CCFC writes on their website: "Burger King Iron Man toy giveaways for preschoolers. Indiana Jones Lunchables. Incredible Hulk toys for children as young as three. The Dark Knight Cheerios. The MPAA could stop this onslaught but they won't."The Federal Trade Commission has asked the MPAA to develop a policy that ensures that PG-13 movies will not be... read more

• Last updated 7/14/09 by Mothering Editorial

Could chocolate help our kids become better global citizens? Believe it or not, it can. It all depends on how the cocoa is grown, how it's bought and sold, and what our children are taught about this favorite treat. When the cocoa is sourced one way—from organic farms and bought on "fair trade" terms—chocolate can actually help our children grow into better-informed, more conscientious global citizens. Produced another way, chocolate might offer nothing more than empty calories for your family and trouble for cocoa-growing communities in tropical countries.How can... read more

• Last updated 4/4/13 by mamazee

We have Tree. I have gone back and forth with the Yule tree dilemma. Buy a sustainably harvested tree? Buy a tree that you can plant? A (apologies to Martha Stewart for my cheeky usage of the following term) faux bois, aka fake tree?  I don’t know about you, but trees are loaded for me. I have memories. My late Grandma Marie’s very cute, 2-foot fakey, that sat perched atop her heavily consoled color television (you know, decorative carving, lots of wood polish residue, tweed-covered speaker screens), Christmas cards strung around it via string... read more

• Last updated 3/7/13 by mamazee

You can find Kris on Twitter, Facebook (Kris Underwood), writing occasionally at her blog and sometimes at the Imperfect Parent Blog. I like to cook, particularly when fall comes around. Maybe it’s just something in the air. Or maybe it’s just the realization that winter is coming and we have that instinct kicking in to store food away for the season. I don’t know. I wanted to make apple butter, but didn’t want to do the actual canning process. I mean, that takes a lot of time that I found I have not had lately. Plus, my canning pot is sort of busted.... read more

• Last updated 9/11/10 by Mothering Editorial

By Jennifer Margulis On Saturday, January 10, 2009, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) hosted an all-day meeting with 50 members of the public in Ashland, Oregon to discuss vaccine safety and to hear recommendations from the public about where research money about vaccine safety should be spent. A similar meeting was held in Birmingham, Alabama on December 13, 2008, and a third public meeting will be held in Indianapolis on January 17, 2009. Ashland residents, including concerned parents, health care professionals, and students, were paid a $50 stipend to attend. At... read more

• Last updated 7/10/09 by Mothering Editorial

At GreenKidsAuction.com, you can reduce, reuse, recycle, and save money on new or gently used toys and products for your wee ones. From bedding to toys to carriers and furniture, you can find a variety of items at a good price. Tell your friends, or join the online community to help make the world a little more sustainable.www.greenkidsauction.com. read more