For our kids, the best part of summer (aside from vacation) is all of the fairs, festivals and parades.
We went to THE parade of the summer recently and our kids were blessed with enough candy to rot the mouths of at least 9 other kids. At this parade, they toss out not only candy, but popsicles, water bottles, pens, pencils… it’s ridiculous.
But the aftermath was nauseating. After a nearly one hour parade, I glanced 6 feet to the left and here is exactly what I saw.
Trash – wrappers, papers, and bottles – despite a recycling bin sitting no more than 10 feet behind us. It looked this way up and down the entire street. It made me sad and very ashamed.
Afterward, my friend, Lynn, and I commiserated. “What are parents teaching their children?” Or moreover, “What AREN’T parents teaching their children?” My mother-in-law justified it by saying “well, they always send the street sweeper through, so it will get cleaned up” but that’s not okay with me. There just isn’t a good enough excuse for making the ground your garbage can.
Our kids overindulged that day. It was a candy fiesta, to say the least, but every single time they unwrapped another treat, I got a “Here, Mommy!” and they handed me the wrapper, because they knew that the ground was no place for the waste.
I wish everyone would embrace that. I wish every parent would teach their children that a little extra effort is worth it. Please, teach your children to love their earth, their city, their town, their block…
That lesson will last their lifetime.
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Dude! I totally took pictures of the litter after our Christmas parade, too!! I meant to do a post about it and I guess I forgot - it was HORRENDOUS, just completely horrible! We’re kindred anti-litter spirits!
Lisa Marie Marys last blog post..I’m The Best Wife Ever
Yes, Doreen - it did! It was just so …wrong - to see the street looking like that - it was nuts. I need to hunt down those pics! They’re on this machine ’somewhere’! (Every minute of my life, just about, is a “great blog post idea!” and yet, so many of them never make it to the ‘big screen’ - haha!)
Oh! I should totally show you the recycling bins, etc that I found at a National Preserve out here - I did blog that one and you’d love it!!
(You should get your own MyBlogLog acct - while it’s cool to see Jim’s face (someone I really look up to and have learned a lot from) on my blog, it’d be neat to see your face there, too!)
Ok, I found the posts - and now you’ve got me all excited about trying to get to the bottom of the ‘compost mystery’! I’m gonna go digging! (you’ll see what I mean, when you read the post!)
Here’s the one just saying we’re going out there, but, it has pretty pics of the place:
http://hippiespelunker.com/2007/07/07/the-grand-canyon-of-the-south/
And here’s the recycling one:
http://hippiespelunker.com/2007/07/18/little-river-canyon-environmentally-friendly/
Lisa Marie Marys last blog post..I’m The Best Wife Ever
Yea, I am so glad that someone has addressed “using the earth as a garbage can”. I swear I feel like I am saying this phrase myself once a week. My son also knows to either hold onto his garbage or hand it to me. It is disrespectful to the earth and quite frankly shows zero manners. We live in Oregon, so it happens everywhere.
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