I’ve mentioned before that I’m a pretty environmentally conscious person, and I try to do a lot to reduce my family’s carbon footprint.  Another passion of mine has been helping children living in poverty.  I have been involved in several of my local agencies that do many different things targeting children living in poverty, from food banks, breakfast programs, support to the parents, programs for those at risk of criminal activity and so on.

I also have a soft spot in my heart for Unicef and after the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004, we raised funds at work and I asked if we could donate it to Unicef.  I have in the past been  a member of Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund and Amnesty International.  People have asked me if I am a hippie, and I guess if that means trying to do things to make the world a better place, then, yes, I am a hippie.

My legacy to my causes is my older daughter.  She was raised being aware of my causes and what they all mean.  Before the age of ten, I was taking her to rallies, meetings and I think most exciting for her, War Child concerts.  Definitely a great way to raise awareness.

She is in the Activist Club at school.  She came home and told me that their meeting was protested yesterday.  She was quite indignant.  How dare they protest something as noble as an activist club!  I told her that they had as much right to protest as she had.  Her reply was “But Mom, they called us Commies”!  To which I thought, “Well, pretty close”!

The protesting students were against an event that the Activist Club was setting up.  They want the school to go a day without plastic bottles.  Great idea, I’m all for it, but these other students don’t like the idea because they feel the elimination of plastic bottles will cost jobs.  I told my daughter that they are probably right, and if that is what they believe in they can protest.

That was not the answer she was looking for.  I think she thought that because I support her cause, I would support her disdain at being protested against.  I believe in free speech, even if it is not my opinion.  I probably would have been really pissed, like she was, but if she can go and protest for fair trade organically grown white tea, others can protest for their local economy.

As sophisticated as some teens are, I think most of them think that their opinion is the right one and no one can tell them otherwise.  Are all the parents of teens out there rolling their eyes at this?  Yes, it is understated.  I think it is great though, that regardless of their stance, both of these groups of teens are standing up for what they believe in.   Most teens only care about what they are going to wear tomorrow, what they are going to do on the weekend, etc.

I’m very proud of my little hippie, for all her noble causes and the goat that she donated to a village in Africa in my name as my Christmas present.  Oh yeah, and the fair trade organically grown white tea I got for my birthday.

I have always been a very eco-friendly person.  In fact, I used to be an actual due-paying, card-carrying member of Greenpeace.  I even had cheques with the Rainbow Warrior on them.  I was pretty hardcore.

As the years have passed, I have relaxed a little.  I still care deeply about the environment, but have decided to go about saving it in a less militant way.  Obviously, in our household, there are many green practices and my children have very good habits and attitudes about the environment.

You know the saying, “if it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down”, well that’s a practice here.  Lately though, the baby of the family has been forgetting to flush, PERIOD.   Her sister is very grossed out by this and her father has been mentioning to her that she should be flushing when there are “floaties”. 

Again yesterday evening “floaties” were left in the toilet, so dad again metioned that she should be flushing those down.  As she marched off to the bathroom with dad’s reminders trailing after her, my charming daughter announced “OKAY, you have GOT TO shut up”!

If you read the previous post, you know that this child is very precocious and comes out with the funniest things.  I looked at my husband, and we just burst out laughing!  I know I am not being a good parent, but how do you stop yourself?  And trust me, she talks literally NON-STOP, so at some point, funny stuff just comes spilling out!

This same kid, a couple of months ago, wanted to know if we should be leaving the tooth fairy “a little something something for her troubles”.  Where does this come from and what is going to happen when puberty hits?  My husband and I are in soooo much trouble.  We had it easy with the first one.

I am the absolute worst at not reacting to things, especially when they are funny.  I can rarely pull off a prank because I am always smirking and giggling and trying not to laugh.  My face is so readable, I could never be a poker player. 

I know I am a terrible parent for encouraging this behaviour, but I figure if you’ve got to be home with the kids instead of out on a Saturday night, there should at least be some entertainment value!  What’s your take on this?  I’d love to hear your opinion.  You can leave a comment below, or send me an email at donig@mts.net or via Twitter, http://twitter.com/OrianneD.  Thanks for reading!

Orianne