Why Green Grandma?

You may be wondering why I chose the title "Green Grandma." After all, I'm not really old enough to be a grandma, am I? Alas, the calendar doesn't lie and the grandma part of the title is actually overdue.

My husband and I have a slew of daughters, with the oldest about to turn 33 next week. But it was our baby who gave us our first and she was 24 at the time! After Laura was born, I predicted a domino effect and imagined Christmases to come with a houseful of young 'uns. Ten months have gone by since the lovely little Lady Laura made her debut and there have been no more baby showers to plan...yet. Perhaps next year at this time it will be a whole different story. We can only hope.

So, although I was not eager to be called Grandma, the title now suits me well and I wear it with honor. That takes us to the "Green" end of things.

Aren't you absolutely sick and tired of hearing the word 'green?' I mean, seriously. It was under the guise of 'green' that brought about the Cash for Clunkers debacle. Yeah, baby, let's fill up the landfills with perfectly good vehicles so we can save a few miles per gallon....don't even get me started.

Maybe if the tag word for the environmental movement was blue or yellow, I wouldn't even be blogging about it. After all, it would be difficult to come up with a catchy name. Maybe "Yellow YaYa," but what would that say? No, green fits. I like the alliteration. I like how it works with the song by Kermit the Frog (one of my favorites in Jr. High). Besides, there's a certain 'coolness' to being called "Green Grandma." I feel socially relevant, unlike how I felt when my own children were young and I was a SAHM -- see even stay-at-home-moms now have identifiable initials to set them apart. Not so a couple of decades ago. Back then I was "just a housewife."

There was a certain stigma attached to staying home and raising kids.

"Maybe she's uneducated," I could hear the female business managers I met saying as I told them I didn't work. It was like I was confessing a hidden world of pornography or something. They'd gasp and back away....afraid perhaps of catching whatever it was that was ailing me. Now I realize I may be exaggerating a bit...but just a bit. Staying home and raising kids is just not as prestigious as furthering our careers. But, oh, it is just as important, if not more so.

Unfortunately for my daughter, she has to work. Not for a fancy car or a $400,000 house. She has to work for benefits. My precious grandbaby has VSD (ventricular septal defect), which may or may not mean some hefty doctor bills down the road. Fortunately, I'm available to help out and have been blessed to watch Laura through the many changes in infancy. The rewards come when this precious child reaches for me in delight when she sees me. She doesn't understand that I'm 'green.' But she will someday.

Because, the bottom line is, I'm doing it for her. Every time I choose a greener way of life, I invest in a future I won't be a part of. There's really little benefit for me. But a world of difference for her.

Choose green. Do it for Laura and all the other little ones out there who are counting on you.

Keeping it green,

Hana