I like think of myself as a "crispy" momma, but depending upon which friend of mine you ask, my crispness varies.  To my more mainstream friends I am the crunchiest person they know!  Some are just waiting for me to announce that we are going off the grid or switching to only rainwater for household use, but to many of my hardcore crunchy mommas I am barely toasty.

It often seems in the world of crunchy parenting that it can quickly morph into this "how crunchy are you" competition.  Most get thrown into this face-off by making one or two crunchy choices, and all of a sudden, to their mainstream friends, they are "that mom."  You know, the crunchy, free-spirited mom flashing peace signs wearing tie dye and burning her bra.  For me, those choices were homebirth and breastfeeding past 12 months.  Once inside this world, I quickly realized to most I was just mildly toasty.


Over time my parenting has grown, morphed and shifted.  I have adopted a lot of the crunchy parenting ideals, but I am far from the perfect picture of crunchiness. There really are a lot of ways where I'm just as mainstream as anyone else.  Want some confessions?

I am crunchy but --

... We are big milk drinkers in our home! We go through milk like it's water.  REAL milk, from a COW!  GASP!!  I can feel the hard core crunchies trying to not loose their lunch right now at the mere thought of real dairy.  Yeah, we like that white stuff from a cow, and we go through a gallon every two or three days. 
I tried being a good crunchy and buying organic, but that lasted less than a month.  A regular gallon of milk costs an average of four bucks; we need one about every few days.  Organic milk runs (depending upon the brand AND store) $4-$6 for half a gallon!  That doubled the amount we were spending, and on a budget as tight as ours, we just can't afford that.

 ... We eat fast food.  I sometimes think it's frequent, but that's really all perspective isn't it?  We do some sort of fast food, usually McDonald's or Pizza Hut, once every two or three weeks on average.  If I am being 100% honest, we would probably eat out more often if finances allowed for it.  I know it's bad for you and part of the problem with America, but I also get very lazy in the kitchen.  After working in my office in my home, basically attached to the kitchen, and feeding faces all day every day inside of these four walls, sometimes the very last thing I want to do is cook and clean up after another meal.  And let's face it -- McDonald's fries are darn good!

... I also buy prepackaged foods.  I fully support transparency and labeling of products so I can at least try better to avoid GMOs and other "evil" ingredients, but for now, we can't afford to buy organic all the time.  I buy what I can when I can.  I try to be smart and read the labels, but sometimes I just have to close my eyes and pretend like I never heard of GMOs or partially hydrogenated oils or MSG.  There are some things I just don't make myself, such as spaghetti sauce and taco seasoning.  I cook from scratch and shop at farmer's markets, but I still buy Kraft mac & cheese.

There is so much more that the REAL crunchies could judge me on.  I don't homeschool.  I send my kids to the evil, state-run, mind leaching, identity stealing thing called public school and they love it!  I don't vaccinate, but I do medicate if there are some gnarly symptoms going on.  I don't boycott Nestle; In fact, I've used the evil powder in a can made by that evil empire because it's the only one that doesn't stink!  Oh yeah, I've used formula when sick or stuck working an extra hour and the milk supply in the freezer is gone.  We watch TV.  In fact, we watch Disney movies with princesses and heroes and bad guys.  We have gender role toys like trucks and dolls.  We cloth diaper, but I'm not afraid of a disposable.  I won't use momma cloth or family cloth.  I use Tide!  I haven't found another natural alternative that actually gets my family's grime out!  I wear deodorant and use fluoride toothpaste.  Should I hand over my natural parent card now? 

So really, you see, I'm not THAT crunchy.  Again, though, it's all about perspective.  Now hand over the french fries and green smoothie.  :)