“Wrapping each other up in towels and cramming themselves into the laundry baskets may be fun, but it’s not really sustainable fun.”
My sister and I were talking about our Thanksgiving dinner but I found I had to keep raising my voice to be heard over the mayhem occurring in the background of her house. As usual, with a family of six, there was a stack of laundry that needed sorting and folding. However from what I could hear on my end of the phone it sounded like every time she made a pile, one of the kids or family pets would ruin it. Definitely not sustainable fun! I was intrigued by this phrase though, wondering if it might capture a whole new parenting vocabulary. Not just sustainable fun but also sustainable work or schedule or communication or friendship. At my daughter’s age of eight few ideas stay sustainable. For example, she recently decided to help feed our dog. In concept, fantastic. In reality, one forgotten meal and the plan was dumped. Definitely not sustainable. Or we decided at one point that rather than argue about things that made her unhappy we would pay attention when she raised her hand and discuss it logically, reaching a decision after hearing from her. I think it was the conversation that went something like; “It’s time to,” hand raised and discussion. “I was not going to say homework, I was going to say brush hair,” hand raised and discussion. “If you are willing to go out like that,”hand raised and discussion. “Yes, we still have to go to church.” Hand raised and discussion. … You get the idea. After half an hour of this I had completely forgotten my original request, we were late to church, and she still didn’t have her hair brushed or know what the consequence would be. Definitely not a sustainable plan. Sustainability, whether in our energy plans or in our families, takes a future view that is not always easy to see through the murk of our everyday lives. We want what we want when we want it. Still, it is a goal worth pursuing. A sustainable goal, if you will. My sister eventually did make it out of her house, ready for an activity that wouldn’t leave her house in shambles or one of her children in tears. The laundry, however, is still sitting there.
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“Researchers are experimenting with feeding squirrels birth control.” Sign me up! Due to the mild winter and a bumper crop of nuts the squirrel population is exploding. Researchers could look no further than my backyard for evidence of this. I’ve got a family of squirrels that seems to be multiplying like crazy. But what to do about them? I have joked with my husband that it could be good practice for my archery skills (though I don’t think I am quite good enough to hit one yet and I’m pretty sure animal control and PEETA from on this). So birth control sounds like a more reasonable approach. Still, as one person commented on the NPR transcript… since we can’t even figure out whether birth control is morally ok for humans, should we be giving it to squirrels? A new gallup pole has found, in fact, that social issues like birth control and abortion are top issues during this election for women in swing states. So birth control for rodents might be walking a fine line. On the precedence side I’m pretty sure we do already spray fruit flies to keep them from propagating. Is it that big of a leap to go to squirrels? And then, if not…. There are quite a few countries I have heard of where wild cats and dogs are a huge nuisance. Take, for example, this article in the NY Times: You wouldn’t want to stop this dog from having a little litter of puppies, would you? Apparently India also has a problem with nuisance monkeys. And, you’ll see from this article they are taking procreation out of the monkey’s hands:Metro News:nuisance-monkeys-captured-and-neutered-in-india So, where does this leave us with the squirrels? Perhaps if we gave them a choice they would appreciate the birth control option. After all, the mommy and daddy squirrel in my backyard can’t be too happy that there are now three little extra squirrels competing for our BBQ scraps and my dog’s attention. |
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June 2020
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