The Not Quite Crunchy Parent will be hosting this months Green Moms Carnival on January 12th.
Whoo Hoo!
Our monthly carnival brings the best posts from the top green mom bloggers out there on different topics and lets the world ...or at least our slice of the blogsphere, know what we think
You can participate too either in advance by sending a link to your blog post to:
greenmomscarnival at gmail dot com
or on or after January 12th by submitting it in the Mr. Linky box that will be on the Carnival Blog Post.
This month's topic is Global Warming.
As a group we decide on the monthly topic, but the host gets to decide how to interpret it. I'd like to leave it open. You can write a post tackling the big picture issues: what you like to see the government or industry do to attack global warming this year; what you see as the outcome of a new administration or other macro topics.
Or you can write about how you do your part to prevent global warming or your concerns about specific animals or areas of the world impacted.
Or you can write a poem, or post some pictures or muse about where we've been or where we are going.
You decide then write your post and send it to:
greenmomscarnival at gmail dot com
Please include a link to the Green Moms Carnival Homepage
and to the blogpost for the January Carnival on this site.
Then let your friends know and Tweet it! We'll be tweeting it ourselves at:
http://twitter.com/Greenmoms
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Saturday, January 03, 2009
Green Moms Carnival Coming January
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Hasbro Bait and Switch - The Non Response
So, here's the response I got when I wrote to the PR department at Hasbro about their plastic Tinker Toys.
If you read my post of a few days ago you know I'm a bit perturbed about some garishly colored, all plastic Tinker Toys my son received, in what I consider a very poorly marked package.
So, I called them to whine, then I wrote them to whine. Then finally I got this response.
FW: Plastic tinkertoys
Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate your taking the time to share your feedback with us regarding our plastic TinkerToys.
Please be assured we have forwarded your concerns to our management team so that they are also aware of your views.
Please be advised, the product does not have a manufacturer's defect and our packaging states plastic TinkerToy set on the label.
If you do not wish to return your product to us, you may return it to Toys R Us. We want to assure you that we are dedicated to maintaining quality products and service.
We hope you and your family will continue to enjoy our products for many years to come.
Pretty exciting no? this was after I had called customer service who informed me I could take them back to Toys R Us - always a pleasure without a receipt!
Or I could mail them back to Hasbro, at my expense and receive an item of similar value. I don't want an item of similar value, I want my wooden Tinker Toys!
Anyway, pretty pro active PR department, don't you think. Right on the ball there. I even mentioned in my letter to them that I was a Mommy Blogger. I even mentioned that I would be blogging about this. I even offered to tell their side of the story...so I have... here it is.
Guess, mommy bloggers just aren't very important to them..
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Monday, December 22, 2008
Hasbro Bait and Switch
Look at this barrel of Tinker Toys. Can you tell that this contains not one wooden TinkerToy, but rather a collection of plastic pieces? Plastic rods, plastic discs..plastic, plastic, plastic.
Neither could I, neither could my friend Juice who generously bought this barrel of Tinker Toys for my son as a holiday present.
When he eagerly opened it, both of our jaws dropped. While my son began happily building various structures, Juice immediately grabbed a few stray wooden pieces from sets we already had and tried to fit them into the plastic pieces from the new set. They fit...sort of. That is some of them fit, some slid out.
That's not why she purchased them, to be used separately.
As a marketer with 20 plus years of experience in various corporations, I looked closely at the container. Yes, it actually did say that the pieces were plastic, but, was it obvious to the consumer. Apparently not as both of us missed it when we first looked at the package.
Even when we closely examined it - it wasn't obvious.
I'm wondering if the size of the letters indicating that this is a plastic product is legal? I'm wondering if the fact that it so similar to the wooden version is cause for concern. I rather think that it is.
As a green mom, I want my child to play with natural toys as much as possible. As they grow older, this becomes more difficult. Though the plastic Tinker Toys bear the CE mark indicating they meet the higher, EU standards (which means the no BPA or phthalates) ...that's not really the point. for me anyway.
So I ask you...what do you think?
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Magical Books
One of the things I like about blogging around the holidays is getting to do my favorite toy lists.
I did quite a few last year, and see no particular reason to reinvent the wheel, but I am going to include some reviews of various toys and books over the next month.
Here are some great options if you're looking for high quality books this year!
Herb the Vegetarian Dragon
Secret Mountain Books
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Sunday, November 23, 2008
Dear Mr. President – All I want For Christmas Is Some Green (Standards)
While that is true that I would like some green for Christmas…as in the currency kind, I’d also like to see some changes next year.
So, since the Green Moms Carnival hosted by Diane at Big Green Purse this month, I'm going to include my wish. Always a deep thinker, Diane proposed the following topic:
What recommendations would you like to make to the Obama Administration to encourage them to adopt a "prevention agenda?"
Diane has a discussion going on ning which is worth a read and if you’re a mom, you’ll all about prevention, so feel free to graze…there’s lots of things to worry about and lots of work to do to prevent even more.
The choice of topics was easy for me since I received an email from my friend Mary with this update of her recent trip to Greenbuild. She laments the lack of direction. She laments the progress, or lack thereof. She laments the fact that…hmmm…no one really seems to want to step up to the plate and be in charge or agree that someone should be in charge or do anything to get the ball rolling. (O.K., the ball is rolling, but ever so slowly.)
So, I want to talk about standards, Mr. President! (Doesn’t it seem slightly weird to be saying “Mr. President after months of ‘Obama,Obama’?” And yes,I know, it's still "President-elect")
Anyway, I’ve written quite a bit about how buying a simple package of granola bars requires a law degree and/or an “in” with the FDA or USDA or some other agency that regulates labeling and packaging.
So, all I’m asking you to do, Mr. Obama is use your bully pulpit to set a new standard for um…standards. It’s not like it’s just consumers asking for some sort of guidelines…it’s major manufacturers and small entrepreneurs. It’s moms and money managers…it’s well…everyone.
To tell you the truth, I’m not sure if this actually requires a budget increase. I think it just requires someone in authority (that would be you) to stand up and say, “hey, let’s get some clarity around this issue.”
Believe it or not, this really is one of those issues where the free market will make it happen. Major manufacturers will fall all over each other to meet whatever the new standards are…and smaller firms and advocacy groups will one up them to create even better ones. It won’t be perfect but, it will be better than what we have now!
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Thursday, November 20, 2008
Babywearing Isn't Painful - The Power of Motrin Moms
In case you missed it. Check out this ad from Motrin. It created a stir when Blogger Jessica Gottlieb published this post on EcoChild's Play
The power of Crunchy Parents!
I wrote about the marketing impact here that led Motrin to pull their ad.
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Saturday, November 15, 2008
Best Toys For The Holidays 2008
Last year I spent a few weeks writing about some of my favorite toys. That is, I wrote about them when I wasn't busy keeping up with all of the recalls!
This year, I'm going to add to the list. Mostly I will be doing that on the FamilyTime blog at PriceGrabber.
I'm also going to be adding some here, but first let me call your attention to the ones I slaved over wrote last year.
Best Toys for The Holidays Part I - Blocks
Best Toys For The Holidays -Part II- Dolls
Best Toys for The Holidays- Part III – Books
Best Toys For The Holidays - Part IV Cars, Trucks and Things that GoBest Toys For The Holidays Part V - Arts and Crafts
Best Toys For The Holidays Part VI – Action Figures or “Boy” for Doll
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Saturday, November 01, 2008
It's Not Christmas Time - It's Recall Time!
Those of us in the mommy blogsphere heaved a collective sigh of relief around January last year. It seemed that we were constantly scrambling to keep up with the spate of recalls last year. It became a bit of a running joke on emails that we traded back and forth.
"We're changing the names of our blogs,"we joked.
"I really never thought I'd only be writing about recalls," we sighed.
And now a year later, recalls are no longer top of mind. Will parents still be leery of anything made in China? Will they eschew lead toys in favor or wood and natural materials?
Not so fast. I say.
The one hazard that still exists and will always is the choking hazards of small pieces. Once again there have been recalls of small pieces that present a choking hazard to young children.
Unfortunately, the choking hazard...umm, hazard exists in an odd place in the legal wilderness. Toys labeled as for children 3 and under that have pieces smaller than a child's windpipe, are in violation of regulation of the toy industry and must be recalled and brought into compliance. The manufacturer hopes this is before a child is hurt and they face lawsuits.
However, if your two-year-old chokes on a toy intended for an older child...well...you were warned. On the package it clearly says, "Not intended for use by children under 3 or 4 or 5".
Unfortunately, as we careen from metal (oops lead poisoning) to plastic (BPA and phthalates) to natural wooden toys, the choking hazard follows us.
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Sunday, October 26, 2008
I’m Thankful Each Day
I fully intended to write a post for this month’s Green Moms Carnival that would detail all of things for which I am grateful. This month’s theme is, of course,” Gratitude”
As I pondered how to structure my post, though what kept running through my head was the phrase:
I’m thankful each day for the blessings I see…
Do you recognize that? I didn’t at first. Had I seen it on a card? Is it a line from a poem I learned long ago? Why does it strike me as something I should remember?
Then while cleaning out my son’s room, in preparedness for the new deluge of toys, books and clothes that will arrive in boxes and bags during the holiday season, I found it. A book by P.K, Hallinan, appropriately titled: I’m Thankful Each Day.I’ll give you a few more lines here:
I’m thankful each day for the blessings I see
And for the all of the gifts God’s given to me
And counting the stars at the edge of the sea
I can’t help but feel they were put there for me
A small board book intended to be read by parents to their small children, it has become a Thanksgiving favorite at our house. There are over 20 different things for which the main character, a small boy, gives thanks including sunrises, autumn leaves, harvests and snow, family and friends.
The focus on nature and the exultation of nature is unusual in a book written in 1981; it is perhaps a precursor of the ecological movement that has reached prominence in this decade. And so, this little book remains or perhaps regains popularity in family homes.
I know we’ll use it this Thanksgiving, reading and re-reading it as we take time to remember for what we are truly thankful.
Visit this month's Green Moms Carnival for more posts from green moms on gratitude.
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Friday, October 17, 2008
Reviews, Reviews, Reviews
OK- I have a bunch of reviews up today.
I've been pretty busy lately - so take a look.
K'NEX Sesame Street Oscar Building Set
Probugs- A Better Yogurt Drink For Kids With Probiotics
Bubbles and Doodles In The Bath
As always, I my reviews are based on products I have actually tested and are as honest as I can make them! You can see my review policy here.
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