Green Is A Popular ... Color

So my company is going green. It’s quite proud of the fact that its new building is carbon neutral. In fact, there was an article in the paper about it recently.

Going green is a good thing, and I’m all in favor of it. But some of it seems a bit hypocritical.

For example, apparently our clean desk policy is green. Yep, the fact that we can have no paper on our desk at the end of the day or if we are leaving our workspace for more than 2 hours apparently makes us green.

I finally decided it’s because the paper collects dust if it sits on the desk, which necessitates the use of cleaning products which aren’t green. Forget the people who throw things away only to reprint them the next day.

And I learned tonight when a friend of mine was over that apparently the building gets power from appropriate sources, which means that there is a lack of power. So for the multiple thousand of people who work there, we have six microwaves. They’re all in the cafeteria, and when I was there for the first time today I saw the long long LONG line. But apparently we have enough power to have flat screen tvs throughout the building everywhere brainwashing us about how great the company is.

Surprisingly, the cleaning materials tend to be more harsh chemicals, too. I know this simply from the smell, let alone the containers that I can see them using. The interesting part of this to me is that Illinois recently began requiring that all school use environmentally friendly cleaners, so you know they’re out there.

But there are good things that they’ve done, too. Although the office is further from home for just about everyone I know (meaning more miles driven in traffic), they’re also incorporating working from home for many more people, which somewhat offsets that.

The cleaning staff also cleans during the day vs at night, which is a bit odd to see people polishing and vacuuming (and somewhat distracting when on a call but that’s ok) as you’re working, but no lights are needed for them to see at night to clean.

And in the cafeteria, there are no disposable plates or cutlery. It’s all white china – and sadly, I like it and am tempted to ask where they got it for when my current dish set needs replacing – and regular silverware. Less in the landfill, yay! They actually separate out the china from the paper (napkins, wrappers, etc) from the food waste. The food waste is recycled and utilized for something – sorry, I forget if it’s compost or animal food or what – and the paper products are also recycled.
But I still go back to the clean desk policy being green. It’s an audit requirement, people. There’s spin, and then there’s flat out silly. But hey, if someone can come up with a good way that no paper is green, I want to hear it!

At Least Something's Sinking In....

I try to teach the wee ones right from wrong and about how they should behave and the like. Actually, what parent doesn’t try to do that? Of course, some parents have different definitions of right and wrong, but everyone tries at least.

Minor rant: Parking at Little Miss’s preschool is somewhat scarce. You can park along the main entrance, the 8 or 10 parking spots behind the school or on the street, which is actually closer to the entrance than many of the 8 or 10 parking spots. So where do moms choose to park? In the handicap spots and between the handicap spots where the yellow lines are. And they don’t do this just when all other parking spots are full; there are parents who are sometimes one of the first there and still choose to park illegally in the handicap spots. Granted, the likelihood of someone truly needing a handicap spot during dropoff and pickup is slight, but it’s the wrong thing to teach your kids, and it drives me nuts! I won’t even go into the fiasco that was polling day …

Back to teaching my kids….

Every once in awhile, I get an unsolicited please or thank you, and it really makes my day. The wee ones know “the look” when they’re forgetting a please or thank you, and usually I don’t have to ahem to get it.

Sometimes, they even put their dishes in the dishwasher unsolicited. That’s one of their jobs, but generally I have to remind them to do it. And I always have to remind them to hold it level. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cleaned up crumbs from the floor that they spilled on the way to the dishwasher. BUT they won’t learn unless they actually do it, so I just take a deep breath and get out the broom.

I also have a series of books called Help Me Be Good that teach basic concepts like interrupting, lying, overdoing it, cheating, etc. Well ok, to be fair, they teach about them and that those behaviors are wrong. The wee ones love the books, and we read them frequently. Both of them can tell me what each kid in the book is doing that’s wrong and how it makes others feel. Translating that to their own activity though is a bit more of a challenge.

Tattling is Mister Man’s biggest downfall. I get that he’s the big brother and he knows the rules, but he gets a real thrill out of pointing out what she’s doing wrong.

Mister Man: Moooooom, Little Miss is singing at the table again.

Me: I’ll take care of you. You worry about eating your dinner, please.

At that point, we discuss with Little Miss appropriate dinner conversation. It generally doesn’t sink in, but she usually stops singing, probably to laugh at me for trying to explain the whys behind the rules. And what happens thirty seconds later? Mister Man breaks into song. And never gets the irony.

The same thing will happen with popping out of the chairs. Little Miss has a hard time sitting still, but for her own safety, we try to keep her seated in her booster – we generally no longer “get” to buckle her in. As soon as I start hearing the reports that Little Miss is popping up or out or turning around in her chair, I can start the countdown until Mister Man has only half a cheek on the chair or had to go run check something in the other room.

My other favorite is:

Mister Man: Moooom, Little Miss is stepping on the books again.

Me: I don’t need to hear it from you, Sweet Pea. Tattle only when she’s in danger, remember?

Mister Man: But Mooooooom, she’s getting in trouble.

Me: I’ll take care of it. It isn’t your job.

Mister Man: Little! Miss! (with his face all scrunched up in his best imitation of authority) Do not step on the books. That’s a no-no. You’re being naughty.

I try as hard as I can not to laugh, of course. And stepping on books is something we don’t allow, although half the time Little Miss is just oblivious and not trying to do the wrong thing. The other half, well…. And two minutes later, I’ll catch him walking across books to get to something he wants to play with. Needless to say, that’s usually about the time I realize that Daddy hasn’t had them picking up toys after playing with them and it’s time to crack that whip. Fortunately, singing is allowed while cleaning, but if I hear “Everybody clean up, clean up, clean up. Everybody, everywhere. Clean up, clean up. Everybody do your share” I think I have a cleaning switch that automatically turns on now. It’s supposed to work on the wee ones, I know, but I thought I’d be exempt.

As odd as their interpretation of rules is, at least I know something is sinking in, right? And hypocrisy is completely unintentional at this age, isn’t it? Please, please tell me that this changes….