Going green?

Honestly, I don't think I do anything to help the environment as a mom. I use disposable diapers, I don't recycle my plastic and glass bottles, even though I should. I use wet wipes instead of just washing her butt with water. One thing I do though is reuse the cans of baby formula and baby cereal to store stuff like peanuts and muruku in them. Oh and I do use energy saving lightbulbs, but I don't know why some have blown even though they are meant to last for years and years (isn't that what they say?). Must be the wrong watt voltage.

Some people are very into saving the environment, and do a lot of green things. They even go to the jungle to replant trees. I, on the other hand, am a lousy gardener. I just can't be bothered even to water plants. Maybe if I planted them myself, I would care more. We were all given this mini bamboo plant at our office to put at our desks, and some went all out and bought those oxygen balls for the plant and stuff. And every few days they'd bring their plant to the sink to wash the pot and all, and replace old water. All I did was put mine near the window to get more sunlight, and water it. Even then I stopped watering it, cos someone considerate did it for me. Or rather did it for all the people that placed their plants by the window... In the end, I forgot about my plant and it died. I am so bad at keeping plants.

But I don't mind having a small chili plant in a small pot. That I kinda want. Even though I haven't made any effort to get one. We used to have a chili padi plant at my house in LA. Because, you know, it's hard to find chili padi in shops in LA. So we had a plant. I liked taking care of that plant. Or I thought I took care of it. I was quite young then. But I love gardens! I love a well tended garden, with a green lawn and pretty flowers. Tended by a hired gardener, of course. As a child, I used to love to imagine that I lived on a green farm, surrounded by lush hills, where I would go picking wild flowers. I think I was influenced by the Susu Dutch Lady commercials back then as a kid, where they had that milk maid? And I'm pretty sure it was filmed on that hilly cow farm at UPM...

Recently, I bought Salma this colorful pop-up book about what kids can do to help the environment. And it includes stuff like switching off the lights when leaving the room, turning off the tap when brushing teeth, using both sides of the paper... I hope I can raise an environmentally-conscious kid.