Mr Three

My son turned three just before Christmas so I decided to put the “want, need, wear, read” philosophy (you can read about it in this previous post) into action. I wanted a minimalist birthday that he would still be excited about. Currently he is really loving watching bits of the movie Cars and so I decided to try to get a few cars bits and pieces as he did not have any and it was something I knew excited him.

Want – As a three-year-old he has very random and fleeting ‘wants’ according to whatever he sees that day so rather than ask him what he wanted I took the “want” decision into my own hands. We are planning to build a large sandpit in the back yard so I thought we would buy him a Tonka Dump Truck to use in the sandpit. I chose a good quality truck that can withstand being left out in the weather with intentions that it can be passed on to other children to use when it’s useful life has finished with him.

Need – He didn’t really have any absolute needs but as he only had the one doona cover (a second-hand Thomas cover) I decided to buy a spare one then there will be one to have on hand if it gets soiled and I can’t wash it the same day. I searched a few charity shops and found a second-hand McQueen cover. I was a bit disappointed it no longer had the matching pillowcase with it but happy I got something I knew he would like that was also a more sustainable purchase.

Wear – He needed some more shorts as we are currently in the throes of toilet training and we need plenty of spare. I looked in a few charity shops to try and find size 3 clothes but I found that it is a lot harder shopping for kids in charity stores as there wasn’t really anything in his size. So, I decided to buy these new with the philosophy of handing them down to others when he has outgrown them. I bought him some Cars board shorts and a matching shirt.

Read – Being immersed in toilet training at time I bought two books that I thought would help our efforts. A Thomas the Tank Engine potty-training book and another one about a boy called “Henry”. When reading the Henry book, we always swapped the name to our son’s name instead to personalise it. Again, these were bought new as I could not find any second-hand options. I have since passed these books on to another family as he is no happily sitting on the toilet. I’m also happy with the purchase of books as when they reach the end of their useful life being passed around to kids who are toilet training they are biodegradable.

Overall, I was very happy. We also put our low impact approach into his birthday party. We just had had one preschool friend over along with his Nanna and Grandad and Aunt and Uncle. We had a vegetarian lunch and guests were asked not to bring presents (and they complied 😊!). The kids enjoyed some beautiful play together and to top the day off we went to the beach to build a sand castle. No balloons, no plastic party favours, no party bags. The family of his preschool friend who came along called it “the best kids party ever”. It was a simple day but still a lovely celebration.

CHECK LIST:

Plastic avoided?  – largely – the Tonka Truck has plastic wheels

Excessive presents avoided – yes using the “want, need, wear, read” philosophy though it would certainly be possible to shift to fewer still or no presents we’re not at that stage yet.

Biodegradable – clothing, bed spread and books yes. Tonka Truck no but I’m hoping by purchasing a quality toy it will be used by many kids after my son.

 

Welcome to Clear and Present Danger

Image from John Henderson’s Photo Stream on Flickr under Creative Commons Licence

Consumerism is an ever-growing problem. Sometimes our spending is rationalised under the banner of ‘economic growth’ but the reality is our obsession with buying things – our affluenza – is damaging the environment

Craig Reucassel’s War on Waste showed us the astronomical amount of clothing Australian’s throw out. He assembled a 6-tonne pile of clothing in Martin Place, Sydney and asked passers-by to guess how long it took Australian’s to throw out the same amount of clothing. The answer was 10 minutes.

Annie Leonard, whose film “The Story of Stuff” highlights the issue that in the US people now consume twice as much as people living 50 years ago. Much of the items we choose to purchase too have a very short life. Products have planned obsolescence built in plus, as George Monbiot writes in his excellent blog post on the issue we buy a great deal of products that never have any utility to start with – silly gifts bought on a whim that will end up in landfill within an obscenely short time. Many of the gifts we give this Christmas won’t even make it past January before they hit landfill.

Consumerism is the social norm in our culture. And at times it can be horrifying. Black Friday seems to be spreading across the world like a virus and anyone who has ever witnessed the crowds at the Boxing Day sales in Australia can see consumers gone mad. We must change our behaviour. Ross Gittins writes that “you need less than a majority of people changing their behaviour to reach the critical mass that prompts most other people to join them and, by doing so, cause an improvement in the culture”. Let’s be the catalyst for change.

Gift-giving is a big part of our consumerist culture. There is an expectation when your child is invited to a birthday party that you will bring a present. Indeed, many kids want a party chiefly because of the obscene amount of presents they’ll collect. Yet there is a great case to be made for deliberately trying to give our kids less, not only to teach them about sustainability, but to stimulate their imagination. And it’s not just birthdays that are an issue. At Christmas time, we often fall into giving gifts to all sorts of acquaintances just because present exchange is expected and we don’t want to be impolite. We often give our own families more than necessary too. We must remeber that the amount of gifts one receives bears no relationship to the amount they are loved.

Clear and Present Danger sets out to challenge social norms around gift giving. As George Monbiot writes “Bake them a cake, write them a poem, give them a kiss, tell them a joke, but for god’s sake stop trashing the planet to tell someone you care. All it shows is that you don’t.”

Come join me on my journey into challenging the sustainability of gift giving – one present at a time.