Does your family look 'crunchy' or are people surprised?

[frontierpsych]

Just wondering!

To the outside world, our family would appear 'normal'. My husband works a white-collar job as a contractor, I am looking for work myself (In the meantime I paint and sell my art on Etsy, which I guess is kind of crunchy-looking) But the way we dress, our home (which looks decidedly uncrunchy with all those plastic toys. I'm sure many would notice, though, that my 2 year old doesn't have a bed, because he sleeps with us!), etc. You wouldn't think we were crunchy by looking in our fridge or pantry (we're about middle of the line when it comes to food, somewhere in between "Mac and cheese and cheetos, and soaked grains and kefir) We are moderately crunchy (co-sleep, no vax, no circ, extended RF, breastfed till 22 months, gentle discipline) but have un-crunchy traits as well (disposable diapers (we used cloth for 18 months then my mom ruined ALL my diapers! ), just cut my son's long locks, use daycare, no babywearing (he hasn't liked it since he learned to walk), weaned before age 2 (I'd have loved to go longer, but we were facing some family problems and had to wean him), stuff like that.

Are you visibly "crunchy"? Do you think people notice when you are out in public, or when they visit your home?

[Tumble Bumbles]

I don't think we look at all "crunchy" on the outside. Well, I suppose we kind of do on a couple levels. My dh is a local 'rock star' (a very respected musician in the area) so I guess that's kinda 'crunchy'. Otherwise, not really. We dress pretty casual -- think Old Navy. We're Christian and our home reflects that with various Biblical things around.

To be honest, if someone were to just take a tour of our apartment without us being home, we look a lot like conservative Christian Republicans who play a lot of music

(We're not Republican, we're Independent)

However, we are pretty 'crunchy' in many areas, mostly involving treatment of children and human rights. We are anti-circ, don't vax, don't spank or shame, follow most principles of unconditional parenting. We co-sleep, are pro-BF, I homebirthed (and will again), we unschool. We eat home-cooked, almost all natural (the occasional 'junk' can be found too), we recylce, I grow some food herbs on the patio -- we used sposies which is not crunchy (no w/d when dd was little) but we use cloth everything else except TP... I wore dd when she was into it...

So, when you get to know us you'd find us pretty 'crunchy' but on the surface you probably wouldn't know it.

I'm at the point where I don't care. I used to, but I've come to know that it truly is what's inside that matters. I've met the most hippy-lookin', crunchy, hemp-wearin', dreadlock havin' people who treat their kids terrible and lived very 'mainstream' but look very much 'the part'.

[Youngfrankenstein]

Somehow I've always felt that living in a big-old housing development made us lose credibility in the crunchy department.

Of course it did allow us to have a great birth suite with private bathroom and a whole lotta babymoon. It was my "birth cave"!

ETA: I love how you put "think you're normal" Cause APs not normal! HAHA!

[goldingoddess]

I'm pretty sure we look 'crunchy,' and our house looks crunchy.

There are no paper products in our house other than toilet paper. All of our cleaning products are green. We don't have a TV. Every piece of art in my house has naked women in it.

We drive a compact car and share it between us because of our environmental consciousness. My husband has long hair down to his butt and gauged ears. I have hairy armpits and don't wear make-up. But on the other hand, DH is very high up in his company and definitely has a very professional appearance there, but we're in the bay area, so 'looks' are relative because long hair is definitely acceptable in the computer programmer world.

[ChetMC]

I think that another person like us could spot us.... I don't know how much we stick out to the mainstream though.

We use cloth diapers. We don't own a car. We don't buy paper towels or swiffer cloths. We're the only people on our street who compost. DH and I both wear our kids as babies and toddlers. We buy a lot of wooden, metal and natural fibre toys. We don't have any cable or broadcast television (just DVDs, Netflix, and downloaded stuff with the commercials stripped out). We co-sleep. DD takes a lunch to school and there's no packaged stuff in it.

However, we still own plastic containers. Our kids have plastic toys like Lego and Playmobil. We buy freezer bags for freezing meat. Our kids wear clothes from Gymboree, Osh Kosh, Target, and The Children's Place. DD's backpack for school is from Lands End. We eat hot dogs. I'd buy raw milk if I could get it, but I can't so we drink regular non-organic milk from the grocery store. We buy bananas, and we're going to hell for it. We shop at Costco.

We live near downtown Montreal though. I think we'd need to be pretty weird before anybody here would notice.

[AllyRae]

I don't know...a lot of crunchy people I know look pretty much like me--and we look like non-crunchy people only we'll sit down, lift our shirt, and nurse our toddlers, then pull some organic healthy food out of our reusable grocery bag to feed our preschoolers, who are busy exploring the world around them without being hovered over. : I guess I don't know what "crunchy" looks like, because in central Ohio, crunchy doesn't look like the "hippy stereotype"...they just look like everyday people who just happen to do things a bit greener.

Maybe that's also why I don't feel all ostricized or left out or "weird"....my cleaning choices, vaccine choices, whether my fruit has pesticides on it, and other aspects of "green" don't really come up in everyday conversations, nor do I flaunt it around on a t-shirt. : Our kid's cloth and/or eco-friendly disposibles are under her clothes. And most of our other green choices either aren't relevant outside of our home, or they blend in with the rest of the world (since nobody really takes notice of the fact that you use a reusable container instead of a disposable one, filter your tap water, ect. )And I don't own birkenstocks. Although I've always wanted to try them (I can't see spending $100 on a pair of sandles though. : )

[Alyantavid]

I think people are usually surprised. But mostly because we don't scream our life choices to people. Except I am one of about 5 people in our little town who always uses my reusuable grocery bags. Which are filled with everything from local, organic milk to rice milk to Lay's chips.

[rhiOrion]

I'd say we're somewhere between choices 2 and 3.

But, that's actually where we probably are on the crunchy meter, too.

We have a crib sidecarred to the bed. Lots of baby carriers hanging from the back of DD's door. A laundry hamper for cloth diapers. A spray bottle of vinegar and water. Most of our other cleaning supplies and soaps are Method brand. We have a worm box in the back yard, but most people wouldn't know what it was if they saw it. Various reusable grocery bags.

But we have lots of plastic toys. We use paper towels and ziploc bags. We eat middle-of-the-road food.

So, we look about as crunchy as we are.

[tabrizia]

I chose the second option, but it is probably somewhere between 2 & 3. There are baby carriers scattered throughout the house along with cloth diapers and no cribs, though they are 3 adult beds, so it isn't completely obvious that DD still co-sleeps nightly and DS co-sleeps part of most nights. There are also tons of plastic toys with more natural toys sprinkled throughout them, along with a ton of electronics. You won't know we didn't have cable unless you tried to use our TV and figured out that we only have gaming systems and Apple TV hooked up to it.

Especially now that mine are 19 months and 3 1/2 it is a bit harder, since the no bottles and no baby food thing isn't really obvious anymore, and DD doesn't normally nurse around company, even though she is still nursing. If you looked in our pantry and fridge you might or might be able to tell, we have a bunch of organic items, but we also have cookies and fresh made cupcakes out right now too. I think just looking around most people's house it would be a bit hard to tell quite honestly.

[Chicky2]

I guess it depends on the observers definition of crunchy. I have long dreads, my dh has long salt and pepper hair (mostly salt now, lol) he wears in a ponytail. We homebirthed, ebf, co slept, mostly cd when our kids were that age, both of us wore our babies ALOT, we don't vax or circ, we wear hand-knit or crocheted items in the winter (have a dd w/AS and OCD which manifests in beautiful knitting, lol), we use cloth napkins and washcloths in the kitchen, we clean w/vinegar, baking soda, and borax, we drink raw goat milk, raise our own honey bees, raise our own meats (rabbits, chickens, guineas, ducks, goats, soon pigs), will make our own cheese when we have goat milk of our own (we get it across the road for free now). Family activities include foraging for nuts and berries, butchering our meats, playing games at home together. We do have satellite, we home school, several of us play instruments, and I cook most of our food from scratch. We do buy some crap, though, lol. I have a bday girl today who is currently eating gummy worms.

I've always said we are the funkiest crunchygranolatreehuggin'homesteadin'homebirthin'r edneckedhippies you'll ever meet!

[nicky85]

My husband has shoulder length hair and a short beard and likes to tie a bandana around his head. I can't count the number of times we have been out and someone has asked him if he's a hippie! I'm not too crunchy looking- jeans and a sweatshirt most of the time. Once people hear about our diet (60-80% raw vegan), they know we're crunchy! We do part-time co-sleeping, breastfeeding until 18-24 months, EC, CD, no vax, and see a chiropractor regularly. My husband is even trying his hand at growing us some greens.

[SunRise]

1 car family, no t.v. or no cable, composting, healthful eating, cloth bags, pellet stoves, wood stoves, piles of wood dumped outside waiting to be split and stacked, etc are common things in my neighbourhood and amongst my kid's friends families so we wouldn't stand out any more then the next door neighbour!
Many families are university profs or admin staff, environmental engineers, computer geeks, self-healers (acupuncturists, massage therapists (I know 4 in my neighbourhood)) ... white collar jobs

But some visual things around my home would be small counter top compost under sink, beside the recycle bin, rain barrel in garden, compost barrel in garden, tomatoes, beans etc growing in garden. Weeds (i.e. no chemicals) in front lawn. 1 semi compact car in driveway. We have a biggish flat screen tv but no cable.
Drawer full of lunch re-usable containers, lots of cotton serviettes, dishtowels stacked up.
We each have our own bed, but two of them are nicely made and rarely used for sleeping in. One big bed is disheveled and clearly used.
Several slings, carriers hanging off hooks in front door way.

Soon to be a pile of wood dumped in the driveway...

Slowcooker emitting some yummy smells.

[CBEmomma]

Well I think we look normal and everyone else doesn't

Friends and family know we are crunchy. We eat organic foods, cloth diaper, babywear, co-sleep, had a homebirth, are unsure of vaccines (our oldest had horrible horrible reactions and our Doctor thinks it's best to leave vaccines alone with him and not vaccinate our youngest yet. So we'll talk about it again later with him and see how everything is), recycle, use re-usable bags, etc. etc. etc. I don't think strangers really know, mainly because many don't even know what crunchy is. They can probably tell we do things differently with me wearing our youngest in non-traditional baby carriers (I use MTs, wraps and the Ergo mostly) and you can usually see a piece of a cloth diaper sticking out. It really doesn't bother me what others would think. We live and parent the way we feel is best for our children and ourselves and no one knows me or my kids better than I do.

[oaktreemama]

I chose if people know what to look for. We co-sleep, ebf, erf, no circ, homecook (some organic as we can't afford 100% here), lots of wood or open ended toys, no cartoons, no Disney, no Nick, hardly any junk.

We recycle but so does eveyrone else-it is the law in our city. We use cloth bags but so do half the population. We are able to buy a lot of local produce that isn't techincally organic (many small farms around here don't bother) but is fresh and delicious. Our city encourages you to compost and use rain barrels so again environmental choices just don't make you stick out around here.

However, we do vax, use sposies, use daycare and we are HUGE Buckeyes, Browns and Indians fans. Our son is growing up in a house and family filled with sports nuts.

[verde]

We're actually between one and two. We drive old, used cars but one is fueled by vegetable oil. We have organic gardens, composters and chickens, shop in co-ops, farmers markets and thrift stores, and cosleep. I have to look reasonably professional at my job but I'm "out" about my crunchiness. My husband has a beard but keeps his hair short because he says long hair is too hot.

[Nicole730]

nak

I'd say we don't look that crunchy.

Not as mainstream:

delay vax
homebirth
consumed placenta
family cloth
bed-share
extended rearface
extended breastfeed

more mainstream crunchy:
eat as much organic as possible
avoid most processed/pre-packaged foods
vegetarian
veggie garden
compost
recycle
cloth bags


also cloth diaper and babywear (and homemade a lot of both of those) - I feel like babywearing and cloth diapering is becoming more mainstream...but maybe that's just the people I hang out with

[GardenStream]

If they knew what to look for, then they would see it. Rain water collection for the passive solar greenhouse would be a clue. The clothesline out in the yard. The 2500 square foot organic garden. The orientation of the house (it's a bit off from the other houses which all face the street) to maximize sun exposure and heat the house in winter. On the inside there are lots of things that give it away. The composter in the kitchen, the vermicomposter in the laundry room, the cloth diapering station upstairs, the home canned goods everywhere, the items fermenting on the kitchen island. The cloth bags by the door in the mudroom. The huge stack of egg cartons we need to return to our egg supplier.

Other things were totally uncrunchy with. There are plastic toys all over my livingroom, the Disney channel is on half the morning, our clothes are totally normal, DH works a very normal job, our oldest goes to preschool, DH and I both have SUVs.

I don't think most people would have any idea what we're really like just by glancing at us.

[Marissamom]

we are just a little crunchy. we are natural birth, delayed/limited vaccination, exclusive breastfeeding in the 1st 6 months, more baby-lead solids, some babywearing, now mostly cloth diapering (though didn't start with cloth until 9 months), still breastfeeding my toddler though my second pregnancy, and plan on tandeming, co-slept for 15 months, and will co-sleep the second (don't own a crip, though we did use a packnplay), extended rear-facing, and tend more toward gentle discipline. but we also eat mostly processed foods, don't recycle or compost (due to living in an apartment where it's not available), don't use green products for most things, and do use paper towels and zip-lock bags. I think we're going to keep getting crunchier as time goes on, we've already made the leap into CD, are venturing into family cloth, I'm planning on mama cloth after the pregnancy, and I'm also planning on trying EC this time around (DD did start EC/early PL at 11.5 months).

[shnitzel]

I don't think I look crunchy at all unless I am wearing DD in a wrap, we have a (hand me down) bugaboo stroller which looks very uncrunchy and use it a lot since we don't have a car.
I live in a place where a lot of crunchiness seems to be mainstream, organic is common and a lot of people babywear and I do see women breastfeeding in public.
I do think because of the way I dress people - knee length skirts, tights, wig/scarf people assume I am completely mainstream minded although that might just be an assumption on my part. I always wonder what people's perception is of me when they see me. When I laugh about how crunchy I am getting DH always comments how I don't look the part (said with relief).
It's funny b/c when people come over they often do comment that they didn't know I was into healthy food - by the box of sugary organic cereal which I consider total garbage that I try to buy to prevent DH from buying garbage mainstream cereal if I am not up by the time he comes home for breakfast. I also don't think people realize how healthy the food I cook is because it tastes good. People seem to assume that healthy food tastes awful, and I love creating dessert which makes me really seem uncrunchy.
If people bring up certain subjects like childbirth I will only half voice my opinion so I don't think most people realize how diehard a natural childbirth fan I am and when I mention DD sleeps in my bed I play it off as convenience instead of something I believe in. So I don't think most people consider me crunchy.

[ErinYay]

Neat question!

We're probably seen as being nerdy weirdos, but not so much crunchy.

DH and I both have visible-in-short-sleeves tattoos (I have a flower on the left inner wrist, 3 red stars on the inside of my right arm, and these caaaa-razy bear tattoos on each shoulder, DH has a G clef and a green power-up mushroom from Super Mario on his left inner wrist, a Metroid (video game) on his left shoulder, and the Army Airborne seal or whatever on his right shoulder), he has a lip ring, we dress anywhere from nerdy-skater-post-punks-who-grew-up to professional fancy-pants, and we're constantly joking around in public. "Goofy" is probably a good word to describe how we appear, and I mean that very lovingly.

Those who know us even a little bit aren't surprised at our parenting choices, but I don't think anyone would glance at us and think, "I betchya they had their babies in a yurt and named them all IsisStoneMaven."

Our home has a pretty "Yup, they're gonna homeschool vibe," despite the zillion dollars of electronics everywhere. We have oodles of books, craft supplies, art stuff, instruments, and it's decorated in a pretty modern-eclectic way. If you looked through our books, though, you'd have no idea what to make of us. From dog training books to Christian apologetics to chaos theory to libertarian stuff- we're all over the map. People *are* usually surprised to learn that we're conservative (religiously, not politically) Christians, but oh well, too bad for them.


I *DO* plan on purchasing a denim jumper, thick woolen stockings, and close-toed Birks for when we start homeschooling, because I think that stereotype is toooo hilarious!