Can a Child Be Ecofriendly from Birth?

As people use the resources of the planet with no thought for tomorrow, the environmental situation is going to reach crisis point eventually. Parents have a great responsibility to try to encourage their kids to become more aware of how we are using resources, and to help them to understand why we need to live more eco-friendly lives.

With so much pressure on young people from an early age to have the latest designer clothes, electronic gadgets and toys and to eat fast, easy-to-eat junk food, turning away from that and starting your child on a path of being more environmentally aware is a real challenge. To have any chance of success, and to try to establish sound ecological and environmental values in the next generation, a child needs to be eco-friendly from birth.

Start in Pregnancy

Or before... the first and probably the most important step in raising an eco-friendly child is to have a full commitment to environmental principles yourself. If you don’t buy ethically, recycle, practice energy saving behaviour, understand what it means to be eco-aware, you won’t be able to lead by example after your baby is born.

When planning for your baby’s birth, it is a good idea to explore ways to make the baby’s early furniture – such as the cot or crib – and their first toys as eco-friendly as possible. Cots, particularly high quality wooden ones are expensive but last well as they are only in use for a few years. Saving money and committing to recycling could mean that a second-hand cot, perhaps one handed down within the family could be a good solution. There is an expanding market in environmentally sound toys that are suitable right from birth – make your decision to raise an eco-friendly child known and ask only for presents that fulfil these requirements.

Early Childhood

As well as buying eco-friendly toys and furniture, start your child on a healthy way of life by buying organic, local fresh food and try to steer them away from fast and processed food as far as possible. Try to make them aware of recycling, buying things without excess packaging, buying things second hand where possible, making do with less, and being energy efficient from a very young age. Take them shopping and explain about buying things that don’t hurt the Earth and then adapt your message and conversations as they get older.

Try to show your child the beauty of nature, by exploring the countryside and introducing your child to walking and hiking as soon as they can walk a reasonable distance. This is also going to be good for them from a health point of view, as enjoying walking can become a life-long way of getting healthy exercise. Encourage them to switch lights off – but be aware that many children are afraid of the dark and may need a night light until they are ready to sleep in the complete dark.

The Challenge of Adolescence

The pre-teen and teen years are generally the most challenging when it comes to raising a child to be environmentally conscious. The lure of electronics – computers, Facebook, Playstation, mobile phones – means that they will want all the gadgets their friends have. It is impossible to deny all of these things but as a child gets older they will also be more able to understand complex issues about the environment. Much more effective than just telling is to make them involved in the decision making process. Choose TV programmes on the environment that you can watch together, buy books suitable for their age range and get the family to eat together and discuss issues that are raised. Get them thinking – even though they might be resistant, the knowledge will be there to build on as they become an adult and start to face their responsibilities in the real world.

Volunteering and the Environment

At college, many students in the UK doing A levels are encouraged to join and complete the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. One aspect of this is volunteering and you could offer to volunteer with your fast-growing son or daughter and help out at a local environmental clear up project or something similar. This may start them on a life-long quest to help to sort out their local environment.

Many of these strategies might seem to fail at the time – you will be met with blank refusal to do some of the activities you encourage but giving your child a good basis for understanding why it’s important to protect the environment is all you can hope to do.