Your Children Are Listening: Nine Messages They Need to Hear from You

“We’re a green family.” Whenever the girls are doing something wasteful, such as leaving the bathroom faucet running, we remind them that “we’re a green family” and that “the Earth wouldn’t be happy.” At around two anda half, Catie surprised us once while we were recycling by saying, “Are the trees happier now?” Our girls understand that our admonitions to, for example, turn off the lights, are tied to a larger message about the Earth—for which they care deeply.
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    CATCHPHRASES FOR EARTH
     
“We’re a green family.”
“Mother Earth takes care of us, and we take care of Mother Earth.”
“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”
“Green is keen.”
“Save, don’t waste.”
“I love nature!”
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    Not surprisingly, given its nurturing quality, “Mother Earth” is common among catch-phrases for the environment. Steve and Caitlyn use “Mother Earth takes care of us, and we take care of Mother Earth” as a reminder to their twins when an opportunity arises to act green. Similarly, Jake’s catchphrase for his two sons is “Let’s help Mother Earth.” He likes his catchphrase because it is collaborative and active; there are things he and his sons can do together to assist Mother Earth.
    Jonah and Lucy want their two children to focus on what they can do to help Earth stay healthy, so their catchphrase is the popular three R’s of waste, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” They feel that the strength of their catchphrase is that it tells their children what they can actually do to support their planet.
    Blake says that he tends to come up with corny ideas, and he admits that his catchphrase for Earth is as corny as it gets: “Green is keen.” But his three children always get a kick out of his saying it with a funny voice and goofy expression on his face. His children love the rhyme and add a tune to it when they use it. Though Blake has fun with the catchphrase, he also makes sure that his kids get the message by connecting it with the green activities in which they participate.
    Marcy is an organizational efficiency consultant, so she is hyper-attuned to waste both at work and at home. She and her husband Cameron try to make their home as efficient and waste free aspossible, for the sake of the Earth and their wallets. And they want to send this message to their children, Sami and Jessie. Their catchphrase is “Save, not waste.” Whenever Marcy or Cameron see waste occurring around the house, for example, lights left on or water running for too long, the children simply tell their children “Save, not waste” and the children get the message and stop the waste.
    Tanya wants to instill the same love she has for nature in her son and daughter. So her catchphrase is simply “I love nature!” (said with enthusiasm, of course). When she is outside with her children, whether they are walking, skiing, gardening, or playing, she spontaneously announces “I love nature!” Before long, her kids learned to yell out the catchphrase after she did. Clearly, the message was getting through.
ROUTINES AND RITUALS FOR EARTH
     
    When Catie and Gracie were very young, Sarah and I created routines that taught them about environmental stewardship. For example, they are expected to throw their waste into one of three recycling bins in our kitchen (compost, paper, and plastic) after meals. On Monday evenings, they help me take the recycling from the kitchen and deposit it in the big bins outside, which we then roll out to the curb for Tuesday morning pickup. One of our longest-standing rituals involves eating an orange together after dinner. It is my job to peel the orange, and it is Catie and Gracie’s job to take turns bringing the rinds to the compost.
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    ROUTINES AND RITUALS FOR EARTH
     
Participate in recycling.
Pick up trash while walking and hiking.
Walk or ride bikes when running errands.
Celebrate “Green Day” every week.
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    Tanya created two rituals for her son and daughter about picking up trash they come across. Once a month, they walk the length of their street with trash bags and collect the many bottles, cans, and assorted trash that accumulate on the side of the road. She thinks of it as a kind of “adopt-a-highway” without the official imprimatur. Their neighbors often come out to greet and thank them, providing another conduit to reinforce her message of environmental stewardship. She and her children have been big hikers ever since her kids could walk, and Tanya saw a great