I would have always considered myself and my husband leaning to left politics and being eco conscious. But man, having a kid kind of radicalized us.
Even knowing full well that cooperations are the major problem we still do the small and individual things. We know it is mostly for our conscience, so that we can say, we did what we could. We definitely don’t do everything - for example, I still eat meat about once a month and I give our toddler meat a couple of times a week. Today I bought strawberries from Greece because that was all she wanted to eat. At the same time, we are stepping further and further out of our comfort zone. We now started having a compostable trash bin. I have a huge phobia of larvae etc and vetoed against it for ages, but we’ve arrived at a point at which I will try it out (at least for 9/12 months). We’ve always recycled and tried to mind what we are buying and how much we want to consume, but I would definitely say we unconsciously upped our game because now, there’s more at stake. All these small things, reducing plastic, reducing waste, reducing consumption, buying less, travelling less, double checking the food labels to avoid the big No Gos like Nestle…
We also changed our life goals and ideals. We don’t want a house anymore. We don’t want to ever own a car. We don’t dream of travelling the world or own this or that. We don’t celebrate holidays with meat meals and an abundance of unnecessary presents. Money well spent is money spent on better things. I am happily donating money I would have spent on trips or items or takeout to OVD Info or help for Ukraine instead. It’s a much better gift to ask someone to donate 10€ than to get me a bottle of wine or another scarf.
At the same time, we are reminding ourselves all the time that this is not enough. That big change needs to happen. And I think that’s where the biggest “radicalization” happened. We went from nagging youngsters, dooming nihilists, to people who do more than just care. From doing our little thing at home, but excusing doing big things with “well the system needs to change for this to work”, cursing big corp. We now want to make that chance happen. More than ever and more actively. This means finally becoming more political. I’m now applying for citizenship so that I can actually vote in my country of residence and maybe join a party. Because that and campaigning are the things we can do. Go to meetings, demonstrations, join a movement, join a party, sign petitions, talk, talk, talk. Be angry. Be loud. And may I add, this doesn’t just concern the environment. Social issues are so much more unbearable now.
I wish it didn’t take a kid to make me that much more active. I wish I had done more in the past. I am ashamed, especially considering my nationality, I should have been so much more active. But the second best time is now. Some things take awful sacrifices, but imagining your child’s future, it’s not “just nice” if it sucks less than we fear, but it is an indescribable visceral ever present fire of energy.
I agree, it’s not fair.
And I want to add: We [parents] do do stuff.
I would have always considered myself and my husband leaning to left politics and being eco conscious. But man, having a kid kind of radicalized us.
Even knowing full well that cooperations are the major problem we still do the small and individual things. We know it is mostly for our conscience, so that we can say, we did what we could. We definitely don’t do everything - for example, I still eat meat about once a month and I give our toddler meat a couple of times a week. Today I bought strawberries from Greece because that was all she wanted to eat. At the same time, we are stepping further and further out of our comfort zone. We now started having a compostable trash bin. I have a huge phobia of larvae etc and vetoed against it for ages, but we’ve arrived at a point at which I will try it out (at least for 9/12 months). We’ve always recycled and tried to mind what we are buying and how much we want to consume, but I would definitely say we unconsciously upped our game because now, there’s more at stake. All these small things, reducing plastic, reducing waste, reducing consumption, buying less, travelling less, double checking the food labels to avoid the big No Gos like Nestle…
We also changed our life goals and ideals. We don’t want a house anymore. We don’t want to ever own a car. We don’t dream of travelling the world or own this or that. We don’t celebrate holidays with meat meals and an abundance of unnecessary presents. Money well spent is money spent on better things. I am happily donating money I would have spent on trips or items or takeout to OVD Info or help for Ukraine instead. It’s a much better gift to ask someone to donate 10€ than to get me a bottle of wine or another scarf.
At the same time, we are reminding ourselves all the time that this is not enough. That big change needs to happen. And I think that’s where the biggest “radicalization” happened. We went from nagging youngsters, dooming nihilists, to people who do more than just care. From doing our little thing at home, but excusing doing big things with “well the system needs to change for this to work”, cursing big corp. We now want to make that chance happen. More than ever and more actively. This means finally becoming more political. I’m now applying for citizenship so that I can actually vote in my country of residence and maybe join a party. Because that and campaigning are the things we can do. Go to meetings, demonstrations, join a movement, join a party, sign petitions, talk, talk, talk. Be angry. Be loud. And may I add, this doesn’t just concern the environment. Social issues are so much more unbearable now.
I wish it didn’t take a kid to make me that much more active. I wish I had done more in the past. I am ashamed, especially considering my nationality, I should have been so much more active. But the second best time is now. Some things take awful sacrifices, but imagining your child’s future, it’s not “just nice” if it sucks less than we fear, but it is an indescribable visceral ever present fire of energy.