A couple months ago, I received an invitation from Healthy Child, Healthy World to begin receiving their blogger newsletter. Usually I turn these sorts of invitations down, but I have a very soft spot for Healthy Child, Healthy World. As I’ve mentioned previously, their book revolutionized the way that Donald and I approach parenting. It is the only parenting book that I consistently recommend to fellow parents and it is the only parenting book that I will gift at a baby shower.
It is also the only book that I have ever loaned to someone and had come back to me with a ‘thank you.’ When you hand someone a Stephen King book, nobody brings it back gushing, you know?
That newsletter has been one of my favorite e-mails to receive - and not just because I ardently support their cause. I love reading their blogger prompts because they are always good food for thought – and I love reading the link-roundups that they put on their blog for each one. I love reading about petitions and political actions that Donald and I can participate in and I love being introduced to other causes, non-profits, and ideas.
But until today, I haven’t really done anything besides read the newsletter.
There have been a couple reasons for this. First, I simply haven’t had time. Second, I’ve been uncomfortable with writing on prompts. Third, several weeks ago Healthy Child hosted an organic gardening Twitter party that I volunteered to be a panelist for – and then completely forgot about. I know that sounds HUMAN, but I felt unbelievably awful and somehow apologizing didn’t make me feel any less ashamed. As a result, I’ve hesitated to become an active blogger because I’ve been concerned that I’ll just fuck it all up again.
It seems like screwing a non-profit twice, even if it is accidental, should send you straight to fire and brimstone, do not stop to collect $200 at go.
But I keep talking about the newsletter with Donald and I keep sharing the book with friends and I keep avidly reading the links associated with each prompt and I keep loving the newsletter. And last week, my life settled down enough for me to step back and think about what I want from this blog.
When I began BecomingSarah.com, all I wanted was a place to document daily life. But as I have evolved as a parent, I have found that I expect more of myself. Parenthood is increasingly complex the longer you’re at it – you think more, behave more consciously, have less tolerance in some areas and more in others. When I birthed my child, I felt like the hard part was over and now all there was to do was cuddle, guide, and occasionally spoil.
Now I feel like the hard part has yet to come. Now I look at this website and think about the voice I want my daughter to read when she’s older. So this weekend I opened the blogger newsletter and I read the prompts and I thought, well, here goes. Let’s write a post about GMOs. (The post should go up in a couple days, when I’m done fine-tuning it.)
I guess this makes me a Healthy Child blogger. Cool beans.
*** If you’re also interested in blogging on Healthy Child, Healthy World topics, click here. Oh, and check out their blog. It’s worth a visit, I promise.





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By Sara on May 23, 2011
Love this book! I read it cover to cover in two days (clearly, this was before Daisy was mobile!) and refer back to it often, hands down one of my favs parenting books. I look forward to reading all the posts which come from it!