The Sun ran a Los Angeles Times story this morning that has some interesting statistics about all the high-priced plastic toys and other items we buy for kids -- and how to deal with them when our kids have grown out of them (in what seems like about 2 minutes, in retrospect).

The story is about L.A. moms who buy pricey ExerSaucers and Bugaboo strollers for their little ones, then unload them at a huge kids' consignment sale for about half the price they paid (or, of course, less). The story talks about parents selling all sorts of items at these sales, including -- gulp -- breast pumps.

I gulp because I really wanted to give my old Medela Pump n' Style to a close relative when she had a baby. The motor was still working fine, and I had found a web site where the new mom could purchase some of the parts that touch the milk -- such as bottles and tubing -- brand-new. Passing on the motor would have saved her a couple hundred bucks. But after looking on the Medela web site, I balked; it said you could never really be sure that the internal components had gotten completely clean. (Pumps designed specifically for rental, it said, were safe for multiple users.) Even though I wondered whether this was a convenient way of selling more breast pumps, I didn't want to chance it.

I think this is a big reason more baby stuff doesn't get recycled. No matter how clean you get a used item, it's still used. Sometimes our zeal for conserving resources today is matched only by our fear of germs. And you frequently see warnings not to buy used cribs or car seats because the cribs might not meet current safety standards, and the car seats might have been in a crash you didn't know about.

What kid items would you buy or accept used?

(Associated Press photo of toy car assembly in China, 2007)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
                    

It seems fitting to kick off Green Week with a web site about green parenting. The Green Parent, written by an environmentalist mom, is dedicated full-time to the subject, with posts about recycling, eco-friendly crafts, saving water, and more.

Speaking of Green Week, please don't forget to answer my call for images of your kids' fantastic art to showcase on the blog. E-mail them to me here. Or you can snail-mail to:

Kate Shatzkin, The Baltimore Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21278.

But please send only copies if you want to keep the art; I wouldn't want to lose anything precious.

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

One thing I'd like to discuss during Green Week next week is kids' art, and how to handle it in ways that preserve both Earth and sanity. You know what I'm talking about, right? From the first scribble, art is a major (and wonderful, please don't get me wrong) pastime for most children. It also creates a potentially huge pile of paper and related products around the house.

Yet throwing any of it away -- even if you are careful to recycle -- is fraught. Sneak it into the recycling and you feel like a heel, especially when your kid catches you doing it and wails. Keep it all, and soon you won't be able to find the door.

There are a lot of creative solutions to this, of course, and we'll talk about them next week. What I want to do now is provide one of those solutions by inviting you to recycle your child's art on this blog. Scan it or photograph it and e-mail it to me. (If you'd like your artist identified, please send name and age.) I'll run pictures I get all week with our green posts. Kids get to see their work displayed on the blog, and you get to pack off the original to be turned into something new.

Like, perhaps, another art project?

(Art by my Sam, 4)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 6:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
                    

Today is Earth Day, of course, and in honor of the occasion, I'm announcing our first themed week on the blog -- Green Week. No, it's not this week. That's too soon for me to get it together predictable. And this way, our Green Week will coincide with next week's Baltimore Green Week, which kicks off this weekend with an Ecofestival and some other events.

I'm hoping that many of our regular features will have green themes, and I could use your help. Do you have:

--Questions for a green Monday Consult?

--A green-themed post for Father's Day Tuesday consideration that you dads could offer up by email, complete with a picture of you with your adorable kids?

--Ideas for a green Tip Sheet Thursday?

I've already got a "green" Dinner Together recipe to try, but welcome your ideas on the food front, too.

What else would you like to see covered during CCM's Green Week?

(Sun file photo courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)