Is Eco parenting or green parenting just a myth in the 21st century? Or this great environmentally friendly parenting becomes a necessity to raise our kids?
Why its high time to raise your baby more eco-friendly way?
Let’s find out all those in this write-up along with some cool sustainable eco parenting tips.
Stay tuned!!

Children are like plants; if you nurture them with love, care & compassion; they flourish like fruit & blossom like a fragrant flower. That is where the beauty of life stands for; the ultimate meaning of life to create a greener future. According to Jane Hanckel, the pioneer for Eco-parenting, “Children are the fruit of our future. Eco parenting is to grow greener children, creating life capacity for joy for the future.”

What Is eco parenting?

Eco parenting is a healthier & simplified version of lifestyle choices for smarter parents that often encompass organic, natural & low environmental toxins exposure and ensure a joyful atmosphere for children to lead happy, healthy & flexible lives.

In today’s fast pacing world where the parents are busy, technology grasping our majority of time-energy and global warming & toxic pollutants creating alarms to our living lifestyle, Eco parenting is not an option but a necessity as Professor Mark Cohen claimed.

 

Categories of Parenting Types

Many indigenous proverbs say that parenting has made humans. Like Indigenous knowledge, parenting is essential in modern societies also. According to parents and children’s methods and psychology, modern psychologists and sociologists have mentioned certain types of parenting. Today families are adopting these kinds of parenting in many respects.

• Permissive Parenting: This type of parenting is more than flexible in common sense. Parents don’t behave like an omnipotent or something like that here. Parents seem to appear as friendly persons who don’t bother with the activities of their children. They get infinite liberty from their parents. It looks exciting and better in some cases. But too much of anything is terrible indeed. Freedom and responsibility work together to bring something good.

• Authoritarian Parenting: This is the opposite of the type mentioned above. In this particular case, parents act as dominant guardians who act like dictators or tyrants. Children experience strict rules and regulations. Psychologically, children get an outlook to fear their parents. And parents usually don’t care about the likes or dislikes of children. Generally, they adapt to the behaviors to please their parents. It is not an example of good parenting.

• Authoritative Parenting: This kind of parenting is a creative one. Parents appear here to be kind of, friendly seniors who care about their children. They try to understand the needs and likes of their babies. Also, they can limit unbound liberty in creative means. Generally, children are naturally eager to experience everything they see around them. This type of parent helps the children to know about their surroundings. But the limit of age is an important thing. Parents deter their children from performing in some instances in a creative process.

• Uninvolved Parenting: Anyone can call this a careless type of parenting. If true, maybe it’s not intentional. Many parents think that self-help is the best help in this case. They let children grow up by themselves. Uninvolved parents spend less time with their children.

• In many cases, children feel deprived of the proper relations with their guardians. Its result can be worse. In western societies, causes of psychological problems for young citizens happen because of this kind of parenting.

 

The primary aim of eco-parenting system is to create:

• Love, connections & bonding between Parents & children
• Parents’ active involvement in providing valuable time & energy
• Healthy living environment
• Joyful, pleasant atmosphere
• Healthy lifestyle

 

Parenting Types that are Closely related to Eco Parenting

Green Parenting: Green parenting means taking care of a family’s children in a natural, pollution-free, and minimalist way. Healthy choices in food, clothes, everyday utensils, lowering family waste at a minimum level, raising children by eco-friendly means in every single activity are parts of green parenting. Eco parenting and green parenting are very similar in many ways.

Natural Parenting: Natural parenting deals with raising and naturally caring for children. Nature is indeed the best designer of everything around us. And life has also designed the proper way to bring up human babies. Natural parenting discourages artificial products and techniques from being used when children are growing up. Undoubtedly, it’s a holistic way to adapt. 

Sustainable Parenting: The idea of sustainable parenting came from sustainable development. It deals with raising children by adapting proper conscious activities to keep the ecosystem safe. It has physiological and psychological sides also. Sustainable parenting includes a growing awareness of nature and its processes in one’s children by raising. Sustainable parents inform their children about eco-friendly consumption, production, and recreation.

Zero-Waste Parenting: Zero-waste parenting is a method of raising children by lowering the pollution rate at a particular stage. New family activities leave a substantial amount of carbon footprint. This carbon footprint becomes harmful gradually. Adaptation of the zero-waste lifestyle in raising children can be a creative and effective answer to this problem.

Carbon-Zero Parenting: Undertaking family matters means a lot of work to keep it safe and sound. These activities include making food, cleaning the house, clothes, other things, etc. At present, all of these activities cause a lot of carbon emissions. Carbon-zero parenting is a creative and sophisticated way by which carbon emission can be reduced significantly.

Minimalist parenting: ‘Minimalism’ is a term that is very difficult to define simply. Parenting was first introduced in 2013 by a famous book ‘Minimalist Parenting’. It is a way of raising children with the usage of minimum resources found from our surroundings. It means that minimalist parenting is a little bit similar to zero-waste parenting in one sense. But minimalism has a broader meaning. It includes an aggregate subject.

Organic Parenting: Generally, we mean ‘organic’ as a sort of natural or bio-related thing or process. But organic parenting refers to something completely different. It’s not that simple to have organic foods or clothes in every part of life. Organic parenting is a process allowing children to grow up with a nature-centric outlook along with a wholesome lifestyle.

Budget Parenting: Like minimalism, budget parenting is a complex term to determine. It’s not merely maintaining restraint in money habits in our daily lives. It includes a creative and nature-friendly way by which one can care for children. Budget parenting tends to lead the everyday family economy to a nature-centric lifestyle in an excellent idea.

 

Why its high time to adopt an eco parenting way to raise your kids?

First, look at the scenario of how Children & Environment is so profoundly connected and why a better environment is a necessity in today’s world for a better future. Let’s have a look:

The alarming consequences:

1. Pesticides linked to ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
2. Approximately 2400 children’s medication increases for ADHD
3. Some food wraps contain hormone disrupters
4. 15% of asthma is caused by cleaning products
5. Some personal care products contain ingredients that cause cancer & inhibit brain development
6. 93% of Americans have BPAs (i.e., bisphenol A in organophosphate, a plastic hardener) in their blood linked to breast cancer, obesity, heart disease & ADHD

Toxic Pollutants in children toys, personal care cosmetics & food:

Massive amounts of chemicals are introduced throughout history, and each year, which are not tested in human beings & children. There is no proven credential for using those but are used in day-to-day life. Many of these chemicals stay in the human body for a prolonged time period after they have been exposed.

These chemicals include: leads, and BPA– some of the main chemicals which cause:

• ADHD – (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
• Neurobehavioral disorders
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Hormone disruptors
• Heart disease
• Cancer 
  1. BPA is a plastic hardener existing in different plastic bottles like baby bottles, water bottles & tin food. In 1930, it was considered a hormone disruptor that causes susceptibility to BP AIDS to children. Tin soup can raise the sensitivity of exposure to BPA by 20 times. BPA is banned in Canada as it’s declared as a toxic substance. Many countries need to follow this suit.
  2. Leads related to ADHD hormones, disruption & diabetes.

• 1. Organophosphates are present in indoor-outdoor children’s environment, in the school environment, and also in our food, where infants are exposed to over 100 chemicals in the uterus, which is, in turn, cause developmental delays in children of the age of 3 years old. So the mental health problems start in the womb long before the child is born.

Author of “last-child left & woods” book Richard Louv claimed, “The child & nature is an endanger species” – portrait the health of the children & earth is inseparable. There were some alarming data showing:

• 1. • 64% OF UK’s children play outside less than once a week
     • 28% hadn’t been on a country walk in 2009
     • 21% had never been on a farm
     • 20% had never climbed a tree.

Tips for eco parenting: The road of the solution on how to achieve Eco parenting for a sustainable green future-

Let’s look at some crucial steps to adopt:

1. Approximately 93% of the children spend their time in learning centers, which in turn raising a generation of Amnesiac. The University of Wollongong’s studies showed Memory retention & outdoor learning is significantly improved and also the behavioral outcomes.
2. University of Illinois study shows just 20 minutes’ walk in nature is good & better medication for the children of ADHD. But in town setup or urban street states no improvement.
3. Modern Educational Scientist discovered if a child is going through 20 years of formal education setup, 70% of his intelligence irrevocably destroyed. As because today’s education teaching of coping with competition, not incorporating to make unique human geniuses. Home & school’s environments should be as such that will create an atmosphere to flourish a child’s mental strength & ability. The beauty of the child is he is flexible- Sadhguru says the spiritual Guru.
4. Intellectual emotion & spiritual need to create an environment that is not over stimulating for child’s potential development & healthy growth. The Fundamental principle is to create a joyful atmosphere, according to Jane Hanckel, which needs to be implemented at Self- the family-community-country level. Meditation & spirituality practice would be helpful as modern science claimed.
5. Simplify people’s life:

• Bringing Simplicity & joy in small things like playing in nature, climbing tree and swimming in pond, playing with mud, walking in nature, incorporating children in plantation & giving small indoor-outdoor tasks.
• Avoid plastic & chemical usage and too much exposure to technology instead expose children to nature & environment
• Introducing healthy homemade food. Avoid tin products, processed food, and supermarket drinks.

6. So how can we protect our children from chemicals?

• Breastfeeding (encouragement in community level)
• Eat unprocessed chemical-free food
• Minimize plastic usage in out food 7& in children’s environment.
• Avoid using pesticides
• Use ecological cleanings & personal care products
• Avoid using artificial fragrances

7. Violent video game, TV & internet addicts:

If you compared human brain to other mammals it is very tiny at birth, a mere 25% of its final adult size. The National Institute of Mental Health suggests the brain doesn’t fully develop until our mid-late twenties. The frontal lobe, responsible for judgment, planning, assessing risks, and decision-making, is the last region to finish development around age 30. So during this critical age period removing technology from the early childhood environment can lead to quite a child who has more connections with each other. More technology exposure kills the brain imagination, clogs & clutter up brain as it’s the softest organ of child which in turn leads to less thinking power/ability; less fantasy & imaginary power about fairy tales; becomes dull & leads aggressive behavior; and also causes several of violence & crimes.

8. Forming healthier & more resilient families:

John Bowlby, British psychoanalyst and Founder of Attachment Theory came with a hypothesis that healthy attachment is crucial to promote emotional regulation and is vital for optimal brain development. Our interactions with our children, whether positive or negative, affect the way their brains grow. Some tips are:

• Living simply, eating healthier food & using natural materials.
• Spending time in nature
• Practicing mindfulness in meditation
• Working together, potential for happiness & joy for all children.

Conclusion

So now its time to live simply & start questioning all this chaos happening.

The only solution is to,

• Spending more time in nature & Connect with it. Start to live in a more environmentally way. Its time to highly appreciate the green living lifestyle.
• Always educate your kids to figure out what is necessity needs and what is atypical needs. Encourage your baby to use natural resources wisely- for example, emphasis to use renewable energy like solar energy and wind energy for a better clean environment and energy security.
• Working on creating a joyful atmosphere of love & bonding; because everything is interrelated & connected. A child needs a joyful, pleasant atmosphere to grow, and then parents’ love-bonding with patient involvement of giving active time & energy will lead to flourishing -that’s all. We aim to create a better future for a better generation, which is better than us.

There are several papers published in this realm, but it’s not accessible to the General public, which is the ironic truth. And more upsetting is media as not cooperating to disseminate the information to the public.

Raising funds to teach all this information to all the general public, community, daycare centers, and children indoor learning centers and schools is a necessity.

So, adopt eco parenting very soon, inspire a child, inspire a world, and create a new potential generation in a new world.