Apparently, parents have to rejoice: Britain will open its first recycling plant for absorbent hygiene waste this summer in Birmingham. The plant will be targeting the million tonnes of absorbent hygiene products (AHP) which arises in the UK each year. It will treat  polymers, fibres and plastic: fibres can be used as fuel  or recycled while plastics can be used to make roof tiles, seed trays and other products for the construction industry.
Amongst the products treated at the plant will be disposable nappies. I think this plant will do a great job: finally the hygiene waste from bathrooms, care homes, nurseries, hospitals will be treated and recycled.
Where is goes wrong is when we are meant to believe it will solve the nappy problem. The Sunday Times wrote "The plant is designed to solve one of the greatest sources of guilt for any new parents with a green conscience: what to do with the binloads of dirty disposable nappies generated by a single infant each week".
Recycling is not about giving ourselves a good conscience and even better than recycling is using less.
We will still need to manufacture hundreds of nappies for each child and load them with chemicals or we could use a few dozens cloth nappies, made from renewable bamboo, for all the children of one family .

Talking about giving ourselves a good conscience, parents using cloth nappies should not have a "holier-than-thou" attitude: we can always do better: no tumble drying or 90oC wash (that's the easy ones). At NapNap we try to experiment: re-usable wipes, different buckets for wee/poo nappies. Maybe we are just obsessed and go too far but I am sure we could do better without much effort. And we might need help.
So that's a call to all the other nerdy nappy-obsessed parents: if you have a "truc et astuce" (that's a trick) to make using washables greener let us know.
And what about extending it to parenting in general? if you knit your own clothes, do not use suncream or have some other weird habit let us know and it might get a special mention on the NapNap website to encourage other, or just make them laugh and think "I am so not ready to do that".

Rural living? You'd think I'd be getting lots of bracing walks in now that I have moved to a village rather than living in a town. But it's the opposite. 7 months after giving birth to number 2 I am just about feeling normal again. But the closest I get to exercise is, you guessed it, doing Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes with my 2 year old. Double buggies don't negotiate country paths very well and I always seem to be in the car. I feared this would happen when we decided to move, having cycled and walked everywhere before but thought that somehow I would find a loophole. Alas, it is not so. I suppose I could run up and down the garden? But when you are at home all day with two little ones, I can't really manage much more than that. Any ideas anyone?

 In my house, now that we have finished hibernating and that summer is, hopefully, on its way, we find ourselves with renewed energy. What to do with it? I long for summery picnics and having the kids running and laughing in the fields…. Yeah, right, who am I kidding. The truth is that usually everyone wants to do something different. I could check the "what's on" section of local directories or I could check "The Idler" website. The lazy (sorry "idle") me always finds comfort in it and even though I do not agree with all its content, I wanted to share The Manifesto of the Idle Parent with you. Great food for thought and to put things into perspective.

THE MANIFESTO OF THE IDLE PARENT
We reject the idea that parenting requires hard work
We pledge to leave our children alone
We reject the rampant consumerism that invades children from the moment they are born
We read them poetry and fantastic stories without morals
We drink alcohol without guilt
We reject the inner Puritan
We don’t waste money on family days out and holidays
An idle parent is a thrifty parent
An idle parent is a creative parent
We lie in bed for as long as possible
We try not to interfere
We play in the fields and forests
We push them into the garden and shut the door so we can clean the house
We both work as little as possible, particularly when the kids are small
Time is more important than money
Happy mess is better than miserable tidiness
Down with school
We fill the house with music and merriment
We reject health and safety guidelines
We embrace responsibility
There are many paths
More play, less work