Eco Parenting: Walking the Thin Green Line

Being the family’s green police officer is not always easy

My two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Natalie loves to “wash the dishes,” which is to say that she stands at the sink, holds a container under running water until it overflows and the empties it. She repeats this procedure over and over, inevitable getting soaked and spilling water all over the kitchen floor. When I finally tell her it’s time to stop, her disappointment is so acute that the tears seem to stream down her face with almost as much forces as the water coming out of the faucet.