By Rachel Pomeroy
Being a first-time parent comes with not only a lot of love, joy, and responsibility, but also a lot of hopes and dreams of what you will do to be the best parent you can be. Working to be a sustainable parent can be a daunting task when you are now trying to keep yourself and another human alive. What every parent wants are to have a healthy and beautiful world for their child to grow up in and we all want to do our part. We can work together, starting out small, to ease into a way of living to make this dream happen. Starting by looking for small ways to help ease into all the new adjustments.
Let’s start out with some tips for surviving the 4th trimester and working to be a sustainable parent.
1. Look in your area for buy nothing groups
Many areas will have local buy nothing groups online or on social media websites like Facebook. Here you can scroll during late night feeding looking for something like a swing that might help you take an uninterrupted shower, one day. Larger bottles for your growing baby that you didn’t think could drink so much. This is also a great resource when asking for something you realize you now need. Baby gates are a well-known resource for parents to use to keep not only children away from hazards, but also furry family members away from your bundle of joy. These products are often bought and used for short periods of time. It is useful to find one needing a new home and keep it out of a landfill. Most families will go through many bottle sizes the span of a year. While not on the expensive side, many homes do not give a second thought about picking one up, instead of looking to neighbors that have ones to be recycled. You can find your local buy nothing groups here:
https://buynothingproject.org/find-a-group
2. Ask around for hand me downs or buy used.
All parents love the cute outfits that you are given when you first have a baby. It is fun to dress them up and get the ooh and ahhs of every passing stranger. Many of these pieces will end up unfortunately being stained by a blow out or not even given a chance to see the light of day as the first couple of months fly by getting use to your new normal. Many outfits maybe outgrown before the tags come off. Asking friends for hand me down or visiting a local consignment shop can help you find some of those same outfits and toys that may have not even been used and give them a second chance before entering a landfill. This is also a great opportunity to see if an item such as a bouncer will work for your child. Some consignments will even buy back or give parents credit towards their store to spend on future outfits or things to try out. Children are fickle and what works for one, may not work for another or for long. It helps your pockets and being more sustainable by looking into good conditioned used items to try out before you overuse by buying brand new.
3. Join local mom’s meetings or social media mom groups (such as Facebook) in your area to ask questions 
Many online groups are full of people that are willing to give advice or are looking for some. They can be very helpful in finding what has worked best for their own child before you go out and buy 10 new different pacifiers in hopes one will work for you. At a time when you are most exhausted and are willing to buy anything to help you get those couple hours more of sleep, look to others that have been there and see what worked for them. This can help you from purchasing extra baby items that will clutter your house, ultimately end up in your partners trunk on its way to goodwill for a month, or in a landfill. You can also look online for local mommy and me workout groups, Gymboree classes, or apps like Peanut that will help you encounter more moms face to face or join groups to make friends and ask advice.
https://www.peanut-app.io/
Working to live sustainable is a large task to undertake for anyone. It does not have be a huge enterprise as you are entering your new stage of parenthood. Take it easy on yourself and do small things at first to work toward a sustainable living. Bringing another human is this world is a beautiful thing that requires all of their own belongings. By changing small habits of consumption, we can learn to think and live differently for our planet and everyone’s future.
