I was listening to a podcast yesterday where a couple of moms were discussing how crunchy (meaning natural) they are. They joked that in some areas they started out super crunchy and then became soggy over time. It got me thinking about areas that I am most crunchy and how in other ways I am not following holistic natural living at all. So I came up with a list of 6 ways I don’t fit the hippie mom stereotype (soggy)and 6 areas where I definitely do (crunchy).
SOGGY
- Conventional toiletries
I am extremely low maintenance so I don’t use a lot of beauty products. But I can assure you the shampoo, soap, and toothpaste that I use are pretty much whatever is on sale at the grocery store and are probably chock full of chemicals. One area of great distress for a lot of women that want to use natural products is finding a deodorant that is effective, but free from aluminum and parabens. Here is a secret of mine that I have never shared before. I rarely wear deodorant. I may have stinky breath or smelly farts, or a number of other disgusting things that plague me, but I haven’t bought deodorant in years because I don’t sweat much and unless it’s a really hot day where I am doing a long bike ride in a short sleeve shirt then I generally do not get stinky.
2. Conventional cleaning products
I use regular dish soap and multi-purpose cleaner’s that contain bleach. It’s not because I am so clean because I obviously I am not, but it’s cheap and convenient. In a different stage of life I will probably go the natural route.
3. Health food stores
Again the frugal me often beats out the green me. I can’t afford all organic food and supplements.
4. Vehicles
We have a minivan and an SUV. Could be worse on gas, but definitely could be better. This is another thing that I would put in the “maybe later” category, but we need to be able to haul a trailer and a gaggle of kids so there is no Prius in the near future for us. My parents have one though and I love it!
5. Circumcision
This is a really controversial topic on natural mother forums. There are people that consider you a child abuser for circumcising. After all, it isn’t natural.
This is NOT something I am passionate about by the way, so by all means don’t circumcise your boys, but here is why we chose to. As Christians, we do not feel it’s something that is part of your salvation, but it is a symbolic part of our religion’s history. It’s been a part of my husband and my own families culture for generations and I know it’s an awkward topic, but it has never been a setback or something anyone has resented so we never felt led to change it. The history of male circumcision is really fascinating and it’s neat that in Genisis 17:12 Abraham is instructed to perform the procedure on the 8th day which is when vitamin K levels are naturally high in infants. This allows blood to coagulate and makes the procedure safer. These days they just give boys a shot of vitamin K, but it’s Pretty cool that God gave these instructions thousands of years before medicinal research would discover this truth.
We actually had a Mohel with our first son’s circumcision. It wasn’t a bris, and we aren’t Jewish, but it was still special. There was no medication involved and we were right there. It wasn’t gruesome at all and he seemed comfortable the entire day. Similar situation with our 2nd son except the midwife performed the procedure.
6. Essential Oils
This is another one for the category of “maybe later”, but we are on a really tight budget right now.
Crunchy
1. Home Birth
I’ve had a variety of births- home, birth center, hospital, car. They were all natural though and it’s something that I really loved and wouldn’t change. You have to be pretty dadgum crunchy to consider home birth and I did it with great excitement and anticipation.
My home was hands down my favorite place to give birth. I was born at home too, so in this case the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I know it’s definitely not for everybody and if I had any unusual or high-risk birth situations I wouldn’t have been a candidate, but if it’s something you ever wondered about it’s worth researching!
2. Cloth Diapering
Cloth diapering is close to home birth as far as being for the highly committed crunchy momma. The routine is not for the faint-hearted. I cloth diapered all four kids, except I only did with Ezie at the very beginning because then we lived in an apartment without a washer and dryer. We recently got a front load washer and it’s trickier to get them clean. I thought about quitting, but decided to go 6 more months which will be close to when Elle will probably be out of diapers. In 6 months I will save about 120 more dollars and then can sell the diapers.
3. Breastfeeding
Often times my frugal side goes hand in hand with my crunchy side. Such is the case with breastfeeding. There are lots of reasons to breastfeed, but I am embarrassed to admit my favorite is the fact that between all four kids I have saved roughly $6,800 by never buying formula. I know not everyone can breastfeed, but it’s been a nice experience for me and I generally wean at 2 years old. Notice I am using a cover in the photo. That gives me crunchy point deductions because a true hippie momma would nurse openly. I am not offended by it whatsoever, but unless I am at home I personally feel much more comfortable covered up!
4. Composting
My husband and I love composting and recycling. We actually moved our compost pile with us when we moved to the new house. I geek out about composting. I also just realized I am babywearing while composting. That’s crunchy bonus points!
5. Co-sleeping
Co-sleeping is something I definitely did not plan on with my first baby, but it happened and I had a co-sleeper next to the bed at the time. From then I preferred it and have kept each of my babies in bed with me or near me. Some of them never even used a crib and went straight to the bed. Some people love it, some people hate it, but with nightly feedings I do believe it saved my sanity on many occasions. So far each of my children have gradually tapered off waking up and crawling into our bed. In the scheme of life this little bit of extra snuggles is just a blip on the radar.
6. Delayed Vaccines
You might be a crunchy mom if you get banned from your pediatrician’s office. Yeah, they called before Elle’s 6 month appointment and told me not to come in because she hadn’t been vaccinated yet. For the record, all of my children had the DTaP by the time the next baby came and they are all caught up on vaccines before starting school, but I guess my schedule wasn’t aggressive enough for that doctor. It’s not an easy thing to decide to take a firm stance on, but I have done a lot of research including reading books, reviewing the CDC guidelines, talking to doctors and parents. So despite the irritating claims, I did not get my information from some blog quoting Jenny McCarthy. Really people!? Anyway, our new pediatrician and local health department have been wonderful.
Loved your post, except the circumcision part. I am a Christ follower (and fellow crunchy Mom) so the issue of circumcision never occurred to me until I was pregnant with my 2nd kid/first boy. I researched my faith and what stands out most to me was this – “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” – Galatians 5:6. To me, that says it all. There are so many things we do not follow of the Old Testament because Jesus paid that sacrifice for us! The second part, is that biblical circumcision was not the same as it is today. Today they remove the entire foreskin, not just the tip of foreskin as was done in the biblical age. The foreskin has many functions and many nerve endings (more than the clitoris), and I assume most Christians would be very against female circumcision, but it is not much different. Just something to think about.. it’s one of many reasons I left my son intact (and we are of Jewish heritage, converted Christians). If my son makes the choice to do it himself someday, he will have that option, with proper anesthetic and pain medication.. imagine how painful it is to have your genitals cut with no anesthetic and in the name of nothing more than “tradition”? We can’t go back but we can make changes for the future, sometimes it’s good to break traditions when they are unethical, or permanently alter someone else’s body without their consent.
Hi Jessica. I appreciate your feedback and I approved this comment so that anyone who might stumble upon this old post like you did will be able to read your thoughts and maybe it will be an encouragement to them. Like I said in the post, I am well aware that this isn’t a salvation issue or a moral issue I was just amazed at how in the Old Testament they did the procedure on the 8th day. I have a hard time believing that it was a horrible, painful experience though because I was with my son the whole time. He reacted way more to an unpleasant bath or getting his hair brushed than he did being circumcised. All of the men in my family are circumcised and happily so. Also, I have heard a similar argument about the cochlear implant which is a procedure that we chose to have for our deaf daughter that definitely altered her body without her consent. Parenting is full of so many hard choices that we have to make on our children’s behalf day after day. I’m glad your at peace with your decision. It sounds like you a great mom who loves her children!
Hey, I know this is an old post, but I just wanted to put in a word for circumcision from the medical angle. In recent years, statistics have shown that circumcision both prevents penile cancer (Jewish men have close to 0%) and reduces the risk of contracting STDs. According to the NHS, circumcised males have reduced risk of contracting HIV; the risk of herpes is reduced by 25% and HPV by 1/3.
That’s pretty awesome data for an ancient all-natural intervention!
Thanks for chiming in. I thought for sure you were going to say something negative about it, which I’m used to. Glad to read about these findings though!
I like your post! You seem like a normal, loving Mom! I am definitely crunchy in someways and totally soggy in others 😀. I love the Soggy term by the way! I think no matter what your way of parenting style is, the ultimate goal is to have happy, and healthy kids.
Thank you! It think it’s good to be balanced. I totally agree about the ultimate goal!
I love the term soggy! Good job Mom, you seem like a normal, and super loving Mom. I am definitely crunchy in some aspects, and soggy in others. The beauty of parenting is that there’s no manual, which allows every family to make their own parenting choices. If the outcome is happy , and healthy kids, then it’s all good. Great blog!
Thank you! Your encouragement really brightened my day. 🙂