Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Consumer

I've never been much of a consumer. In fact, I go so far as to make my own tortillas.

Yeah, that's right. Tortillas.

I'm learning though, that with Daughter, saying no to things is much harder. Don't get me wrong, she's too young to be making spoilt little demands but I see things and think, 'Ooh, I could get that for her!' And then I do. With myself I see something, think, 'I could get that for me' and then talk myself out of it.

Today, I bought all kinds of little goodies because, 'they were on sale' and Daughter would 'grow into them'. Euch. Last time I do that. Not only did I come away from the supermarket £50 poorer, but since becoming a parent I seem to have triggered some kind of plastic magnet deep within me. Little plastic tubs to store food in, little plastic spoons to feed it with, plastic teething toys, plastic baths, plastic ... everything.

Well, it ends now. I can use regular Tupperware to store food in - it doesn't have to be tiny. The plastic spoons are soft, so fair enough, I guess... The toys will be sterilised and passed on, the bath will be filled with balls - which I will get second hand - when Daughter gets too big for it, then used as a wash basket, or planter, or... mop bucket even. Anything. Then it will get recycled or passed on.

I started talking to an awesome lady of motherslittlehelpers.co.uk and love the idea of a toy library. Will definitely be using that as Daughter gets older. And it's made me consider other areas too. Books can't be recycled in the same way as regular paper, so even though I can get them second hand without impacting too greatly, the normal library is a good way to go too. And I loved going as a kid - I could go and choose different books and take them home with me like treasures. It was fantastic.

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