Stardate: March 12, 2014
8th Day of Lent
In which the daughter reminds me of the good and simple things
I think this Lenten practice must be paying off, because when I picked up my daughter from school today, our conversation went like this:
Kid: Mommy! It's a beautiful windy day! Can we go fly my kite?
Me: ...yes! Yes let's! What a great idea!
K: Oh my gosh! You said yes! (do I really say no that often?) OH. BUT MOMMY. My kite is made of plastic.
Me: Yes it is.
K: And plastics are bad. (she's noticed! An aspect of lived parental experience has transferred! Granted, she's to the extreme...but she noticed me!)
Me: Well, no, not exactly. Plastics that leach poison are not good, and it's not good when we can't recycle plastics into other things. But plastic can be a good thing. There are many things we need plastic for.
K: Like my kite! You can't have a kite without plastic.
Me: Well, um, no, remember Mary Poppins? They used to make kites out of paper and sticks.
K: But paper and sticks break too easy--my kite can fall and not tear or break.
Me: That's true, but if it does break, it's harder to fix.
K: But my kite can be recycled! That's good!
Me: Actually, we don't know what type it is, so we don't know if it can be recycled yet.
K: But I like my kite and I want to fly it! (and she starts to get a little upset here).
Me: Baby, no one's said you can't fly your kite. Let's go home, change clothes, get a snack, and go fly that kite.
Which we did, to great fanfare, until it got boring, at which time we watched the river.
Score one for childhood memories and acceptable parenting skills!
Ah, so my darling has noticed mommy's recent obsession with plastics, and it looks from the outside like I'm a real negative nancy, hmm? Well, that might be so. Note to self: stop assuming the worst. (Counterpoint: assuming the worst is a survival skill. You're also pleasantly surprised more often.)
The internal argument at this point becomes distracting, and lessens my credibility as a sane person, so we'll leave it here.
What sort of plastic is that kite? And does it recycle?
Well, this is a 2013 Marvel Ultimate Spiderman 8yrs+ model kite the girl-child got as a recent party favor. It probably cost $1.50, that's my best The Price Is Right guesstimate. I was disappointed that no where on it's frame or skin is a recycling number, although I see that it was made in China and distributed by Greenbrier International Inc, product number 186432-23285-013-1310. A quick internet search revealed...very little. I thought the cool code would pull up something, but nada. I found some similar items for sale on Ebay, and the only clue of note was that some of the Ebay ads and items listed them as Poly-Delta. Also, they were selling from $3.50 to $40, so the only way I'd win my Price is Right round is if I'm everyone else bid too high.
So I did some additional exploring of the kite. The 'skin' of the kite is a sturdy, opaque plastic that was printed upon for the image, and smells like a new shower curtain. This actually might be another good clue that this plastic is Polyvinyl Chloride, or PVC...which actually is a 'bad' plastic coming in at #3.
Thanks go to The Learning Channel and Planet Green for another quick recycling summation you can read in its entirety here:
"#3 - PVC: Vinyl or polyvinyl chloride is a bad, bad plastic. Soft
PVC often contains and can leach toxic phthalates, and can also off-gas
chemicals into the air. It's used in some cling wraps (yikes!), many
children's toys, fashion accessories, shower curtains, and detergent and
spray bottles. To top it off, PVC isn't recyclable, either."
Awwww, criminy. So that's why it smells like a shower curtain, it's busy off-gassing phthalates--and a lot of them too, given how many need to be added to give the plastic flexibility. So I'll have to tell the kid that yes, this plastic doesn't recycle, and no, you shouldn't put it in your mouth.
Does Jesus Care About My Kid's Kite?
Yes.
Ok, I think there should be the usual, "Jesus care about the kite because he cares about the kid", but that's sort of obvious, and probably wouldn't improve or ruin anyone's life. Since that's the standard I've created for myself--ruination or improvement-- let's dig deeper.
It's problematic that so many toys, particularly the cheap ones, are made with substances that in different times might be labeled poison. Something I haven't learned yet is whether one can handle these items without concern, or if simply being in continued presence 'counts' for a contact high. Kids rely entirely on their parents and society as a whole to create sustainable, livable environments, and as such are part of the marginalized groups who are at the mercy of the majority groups--kids don't get to purchase their items, they simply absorb the environment around them. When cheap toys are made so readily available, we have to ask what their presence is teaching our children. I can tell you that I have NOT sat my daughter down to explain my Lenten practice; she's just figured it out by observation; kids are smart like that. If observation teaches kids that even 'bad' plastics are acceptable if they are convenient, then they have already drunk the Kool-Aid. But I don't envy the kid whose mom won't let them play with toys because of the plastic.
But also, how important was it that I take some time today to follow the wishes of my kid? We flew kites, and you know what, I was glad I put aside the work for a few hours. It was a ton of fun, and she was right: if we'd made Mary Poppins Kites, we'd have broken them and been in tears in under an hours. This way, we were able to play rough with the kite and keep it for the future.
So maybe here is a really GREAT question for the future? At what point does the renewable resource of paper become less valuable than the disposable reource of plastic? Meaning, can I find a cost-benefit analysis of plastics vs. paper products?
Aside: after a melt down from removing the kids straws, my mom found PAPER STRAWS--in the scrapbooking secrtion no less!--at a craft store. They seem to work pretty well, but now my skepticism can't just ENJOY them, I've got to ask what are they made of, why do they look like this, is it glue? Is it water soluable? Do paper straws get recycled?
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