Author Archives: melhm

Chemicals

I’ve always thought that I was pretty clued-up in regard to additives and nasties in personal and home products, however in the last few years my eyes have really been opened to the evils of what surrounds us… chemicals in food, tin cans, baby bottles, containers, shampoo  & body wash etc, house cleaning products, toys – the list goes on and on of previously trusted products with potentially hazardous or even carcinogenic ingredients. My house has been purged as much as possible from these silent killers but has it been too late? It feels like every year cancer in its various guises gets closer to us and more and more people that we know are struck down, and younger and younger.

Reading ‘Slow Death By Rubber Duck’ by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie slowdeathbyrubberduck.com  earlier this year , amongst other things sent all our children’s bath toys straight into the bin; and subscribing to their Environmental Defence site www.environmentaldefence.ca has us rid of perfume and commonly available body and hair cleaning products. Alas their information covers mainly Canadian and North American companies and I find it almost impossible to glean any equivalent quality Australian-based info.

Let me give you all the information I have found!

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Parenting advice…

I’ve just been listening to Conversations with Richard Fidler on ABC radio again… I love his show: his enthusiasm for his guests, the research that goes into each talk, and every single talk he has ends up being fascinating, even though I might not think it in the beginning…

Today he interviewed a clinical psychologist specialising in children & family law – a great chat with very interesting viewpoints – ie that ADHD doesn’t actually exist, that most children who are being given psychotropic drugs shouldn’t be and it is the issue of control that is the problem.

The interviewee (whose name I’m trying to find!) also gave his two most important, and wonderful, points of advice regarding good parenting:

1) Be a good role model.

2) Open up your heart to your children so that they can feel how amazingly awesome you think they are.

So simple, yet I feel so guilty already for being far from a great role model most of the time, and letting my learnt shouty behaviour get the better of me… but I’m trying every day to get better and break away from my destructive past… I hope that I show them how much I love them? He said it’s not just about telling them you love them (although that’s obviously important) but also your body language and how you manifest love in other ways as children are so perceptive.

I’ve just finished a brilliant book – it took me three fricken months to finish it and then had to give it back to the library but I’m so glad I pushed through as it’s given me a lot to think about:

‘When Your Kids Push Your Buttons And What You Can Do About It’ by Bonnie Harris.

In a nutshell: your kids are your teachers. Whatever buttons are getting pushed in you is what you need to deal with from your own childhood and sort out! It’s amazing that I’m only starting to realise that instead of feeling like the grown up, adult mother of two with all the answers, that I thought I would be at almost 40 –  instead I feel immature, unsure, unwise and out of control a lot of the time – and it has been through reading this book to wake me up to the fact that having children will obviously bring up submerged childhood issues that you never realised existed before you had kids… Parenting’s a minefield, I need all the help I can get!

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Wind

Goodness it has been windy here the last 24 hours… windy and cold. I thought a part of someone’s roof had fallen into our garden and was harbouring ideas of wandering along the street door-knocking to find out who it belonged to… until I realised it’s from our own house. D’oh!

My poor nectarine tree is in the middle of budburst: little blossoms have started to appear, beautiful pink delicately-scented flowers – after a lovely warm weekend it must have thought we were ready to start thinking about balmy summer evenings and getting our swimmers out (I certainly was!) but alas, the wintry reality has set in and here we are again with heaters at full steam ahead and me wearing my jacket inside as I type this… sniff (really)

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Water

I went to a talk the other day at my library on ‘Nutrition for Babies & Kids’. Most of what the guest speaker said I thought was pretty obvious but there were quite a few new mums there asking about introducing formula/ weaning etc. I was shocked and dismayed to hear the speaker (supposedly a qualified nutritionist introduced by the sponsors, a local pharmacy) advocating the drinking of bottled water over tap water for kids up to the age of 5. Dangerous and misleading – apart from the expense of buying bottled water & the environmental impact, what about the plastic contamination and lack of fluoride? I’ve a mind to write to the chemist and tell them how I feel, if I only get a minute to find a piece of paper & an envelope!

Categories: Family | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

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