What will New Age Families be facing in the years ahead?  Demographers estimate that by the year 2020, a scant 10 years from now, 20 billion people will live on the earth’s surface.  The current population is more than 6.5 billion.  Already, the earth’s resources appear to be at their breaking point. Generational living dictates we look at this situation.

It took all of recorded history, up to 1850, for the earth to accumulate its first billion citizens.  By the 1930s, 80 years later, the population had doubled.  People lived off of, and were tied to, the land.  There were still not enough of us for “waste disposal” to be a problem.

In 1959, the earth had 3 billion humans on its crust, now damming the rivers, depositing nuclear waste in the oceans, buying packaged foods, and removing trees and filling land to provide housing.  Our minds had the notion of “sprawl”—if things got too crowded, we could just spread out.  Getting arrested for “littering” was a joke, immortalized by Arlo Guthrie in the song “Alice’s Restaurant.”  There was still no apparent need to teach ourselves, or our children, to care for our planet, Earth, any differently than we had throughout history.  The next 30 years brought 2.1 billion more people, then even more. 

We, and our children, must learn to maintain a different relationship with the earth than those who lived before us.   Responsible mothering and fathering suggests that it is time we teach ourselves and our children to honor the earth, our mother, as part of our daily living.  The current trend to living green is a start, but learning on a daily basis to refrain from littering, conserve resources such as water, gasoline and electricity, and purchase items not covered with wasteful packaging are other habits we and our children must develop.  The basis for that is an attitude of reverence, appreciation, gratitude and love for the earth upon which we live, and from which we take sustenance.

The Wonder of Growing Things

The earth supports us by replenishing our supply of food.  It is a wondrous thing.  Tiny seeds are placed in the ground, kept warm and moist, and peas, corn, spinach, even watermelons, mature from them for our consumption.  Few children today relate to this wondrous event.  They believe strawberries come from the store, milk from a carton.

Grow something with your children.  Regardless of whether you live in an apartment, a house, or a single room, obtain a pot of dirt or a small plot of ground, and show your children how the earth works to supply us with food.  Or, grow a garden together.  Radishes grow the fastest.  Spinach is easy, and can be picked and eaten for dinner.  If your family likes sprouts, wash and drain alfalfa or clover seeds twice daily in a glass jar; after five or six days their tender leaves and stems are ready to eat.  Talk about our mother, the Earth, and how she gives us food.  Express gratitude and appreciation, together, for her gift.  Take your children on field trips to find out how compost is created, where milk comes from, what happens to your garbage, and how toxic waste is disposed of.  All of this will equip your children for living more lightly and lovingly on the earth.

You can also obtain Farm Trails maps for growing areas near where you live, so you can visit growers during harvest season.  Pick your own apples, strawberries, or peaches, in addition to your Halloween pumpkin.  Visit someone who grows your child’s favorite food.  If you can, plant a tree together to help Mother Earth replenish oxygen.  Together, learn the wonder of growth and how the various systems work together to replenish the earth and the people on it. This focus on generational living will benefit your child.

Littering

There was a time when people could drop their trash and the wind would blow it away.  With so much territory, it would never be seen again; but that’s not so today.

Are you raising a conscious person, or a “Future Litterer of America”?  Model using trash receptacles.  Make it a joyful experience for your little one to hand you his or her candy wrapper, enabling you to throw it away.  Make it a game to pick up and throw away trash, even if it is not yours.  Praise each aware act.  Try saying, “Mother Nature must be happy to know you want to help her stay lovely and clean.  I am happy, too.”

Recycling

Most parents now have a wonderful opportunity for involving their children in the project of recycling.  In addition to participating in curbside recycling, visits to the local recycling center can be scheduled for children as young as three of four.  Young children will enjoy putting cans in the collection bucket, helping stuff newspapers into containers and smashing cardboard for pickup.  And all the while, parents can talk about what the child is doing to help the Earth, exploring together the joys of being stewards of the earth.  When the Earth is presented as a loving mother who gives us whatever we need to sustain our lives, little children will enjoy giving Mother Earth “presents” in appreciation.

A New Consciousness

Our children--tomorrow’s adults--must have a new consciousness about the earth and their relationship to it.   By starting in early childhood to enhance the image of Earth as “our mother,” we can instill a love and respect for Earth that can help humans to have a reciprocally nurturing and responsible relationship with the planet on which we all live, thus allowing us to leave a lasting gift to our children and their children. 

©  Ilene Dillon, M.S.W., El Sobrante, California, March 2010