As new-to-the-game parents learn quickly, parenthood is full of trade-offs. Happy-hour drinks for midnight bottles. 8 pm reservations for 5 pm kid menus. Sleeping in for pre-dawn awakenings. We parents shrug it off easily enough because these trade-offs are a small price to pay for an amazing experience.
Yet for parents who strive to be eco-friendly, sacrificing sustainability for ease is not easy to accept. And this trade-off can seem impossible to avoid.
Sleeping, feeding, diapering, developing, entertaining, transporting…every aspect of bringing up a little one presents unique challenges. Fortunately, there are countless products to suit these needs. Get hundreds of items that tackle parenting hardships in one trip to Target. How about a wipe warmer for diapering on a chilly night? Just throw it in the cart next to the stay-put silicone bowl & placemat setting.
Parents can become frustrated and overwhelmed by the carbon footprint and waste produced by each new product. The carbon emissions come from manufacturing and shipment (often from China). The waste comes from plastic and Styrofoam packaging bound for the landfill (even if you try to recycle it).
The need for the convenience of these products is real because parenting is hard. I am dedicated to sustainability, yet I’ve placed many orders from Amazon for those urgent needs. Like one who breaks a New Year’s resolution, unpackaging these products comes with a bit of self-loathing for me. In retrospect, I wish I had done it differently.
To make things worse, most baby and toddler gear and toys are heavily used for only a few months. As soon as the child outgrows an item, it sits unused – taking up space in the home – for months or even years. This also frustrates eco-friendly parents because they understand that this gear should be used by another family in place of a new item that is far less eco-friendly (see above).
The good news is that parents don’t always have to trade off sustainability for ease. The answer is simple – get your gear secondhand as much as possible. Use the resources available – hand-me-downs from friends and relatives with outgrown items. Buy Nothing groups are now prevalent and can bear surprisingly great stuff for free. Apps like Facebook Marketplace make finding used items other people sell easy. And if you don’t want the potential hassle of dealing with a stranger, Kid A – my business based in Minneapolis – makes it easy to shop locally for premium used baby gear and toys – online or in our store. The important thing is to utilize all of these options before submitting to Target or Amazon…you may be surprised by how easy it is to find what you need used!
Then when you are done with the gear, get rid of it. Getting that gear back to good use is eco-friendly, but decluttering and getting some money back also feels great. The many options to give, donate, or sell are just the inverse of the options to buy used. Give outgrown gear to expecting family, friends, neighbors, or those in need. Online marketplaces, of course, are a common way to sell, but they can also be inconvenient. That is why I made Kid A available…as a local option for folks to declutter, get paid, and spare the hassle.
Whichever way you do it, the key to more sustainable parenting is to buy and sell used. Early and often. Make this a goal from the beginning, and you’ll be surprised just how easy it can be!
Check out Kid A Marketplace at 2313 W 50th St, Minneapolis, MN 55410.
