Park Slope Purity (not what you think)

See NY Magazine:

http://nymag.com/guides/innerpeace/26552/index.html

pretty interesting -- on one woman's venture into the environmental purity of her microclimate (er, home)

but I didn't have the patience to read through to the other six pages . . ..

Thank you so much for posting this. I had wanted to write something about this but didn't have a chance. I read most of this in the actual magazine and it frustrated me!

Basically, yes, this woman explores the idea of "environmental purity" or just being eco-friendly and finds out it's more than using Seventh Generation products. Most of the article entails her trying to do things for her children's sake (carpets that don't offgas toxins, finding other materials for teething objects or toys made of plastics, non-pesticided cotton mattresses, etc.).

Okay sounds great, right? the problem I had with the article, and I am not a mom, is that this woman Sarah Burton basically comes across embarassed about investigating or caring about these things. She starts to believe that only people with money can go this route and her embarassment is distracting, I found. Sometimes that may be true about needing money to go this route but eventually once these things 'break through' they come down in price. So, it has to start somewhere and if you ARE aware, then go forward is my view.

She then admits at the end, after explaining diapers' bad impact (they basically never decompose in the landfills and are made of horrible materials) on the environment and suggests the option of Gdiapers (supposedly break down and are more eco-friendly) if you don't want to do cloth, that she uses Pampers!

I found this article sad by the way it ended although it did bring to light a lot of issues about standard items we use in our day-to-day lives.

Whew! OKay, those are my thoughts.

cat.