A Sad Goodbye

If I have learned one thing about motherhood in eight years doing it, it is that nothing should surprise me.

But yet, I am so surprised at how emotional I am about one thing in particular. My sister says it’s the hormones.

For 13 months, I have personally nurtured my baby girl with a gift only her mother can give. And now, that door is about to close. We are both growing and moving on.

When the boys were infants, I worked hard and did what I was supposed to do and went through the motions of nursing them because I had to and at six months, they each were done. They were too busy to sit still and just nurse. They had other things to do and couldn’t be bothered. And truthfully, it felt to me more bothersome than anything else. Finding the time and place to get it done seemed so much more impossible then. It was a chore and I pushed on as far as I could and when that chapter ended, I knew I did my best and gave them what I could and we moved on to formula and on with life. It was matter-of-fact. They needed to be fed and I fed them the way I was supposed to for as long as I could. And then I was free.

But now, feeding my baby isn’t a chore. It’s a bond. In fact, it’s a gift. And it’s ending.

We have survived sinus infections, flu, mastitis, pneumonia, and business trips. I have pumped in cars (parked and moving), in bathrooms, in airports, in offices, and in the Louisiana swamp. I remembered vitamins and counted ounces of water intake and measured and timed alcohol consumption. Whenever we left the house, I would keep an eye on the clock and a part of my brain would constantly be ready to alert me as to when it was time for the next feeding. My nursing cover was always ready to whip out, no matter when or where my baby needed to eat.

We plowed through The Great Incident wherein a certain very important person who shall go unnamed accidentally left an entire month’s worth of frozen pumped milk in a hot car and ruined it. I have never felt so devastated - as if I experienced the death of family member or the loss of a limb. And yet, we powered through and pumped and restocked the supply and soldiered on. Perhaps one of my proudest accomplishments.

Because it was that important. Not just for her consumption, but for our bond. Our thing that only we could have and only I could do for her. I am the only person who could give her the nutrition she has needed to live, to grow and to thrive. I alone have provided her with that, and all from within the cradle of my arms. But now it is coming to an end and so is this unique bond we share. And with it, I say goodbye to this life stage of mothering infants.

And it’s just so surprisingly sad.

Going Green Yet?

I got a wild idea this past August and decided to take two classes this semester. Damn you, ambition! Luckily, I thrive on stress (and sarcasm).

One of said classes is about communicating sustainability (a.k.a. "talking green"). I find this class quite interesting, not only because my professor has appeared on Oprah twice along with a slew of other top-tier media outlets (a.k.a she knows her stuff), but also because there is a wealth of debate surrounding green consumerism, which is somewhat fascinating to me as a marketer. And as you probably know by now if you've listened to any of my spiel, moms are making 85% of household purchase decisions, so its imperative that green consumerism embrace moms. Does a “Green Approved” stamp on a household product make it more attractive to the general mom consumer population? Can established household and baby brands actually encourage moms to go green with them?

As moms, we are attractive targets for many brands because we're part of a lucrative $2 trillion market. Clorox knows us very well. Recently, I’ve gotten to know Clorox a little better.

Did you know that Burt’s Bees (a popular organic brand) is owned by Clorox? Yes, I’m talking about the same Clorox that pumps bleach into our water system. Clorox purchased Burt’s Bees at the end of 2007 for nearly $1 billion (yes, with a “b”) because, according to the New York Times, “Big companies see big opportunities in the market for green products...Analysts say there is far more growth to be had by it and its competitors as consumers keep gravitating toward products that promise organic and environmental benefits.”

In other words, "green" could be a marketing cash cow ready for the tapping. As a student I'm pondering the chicken-and-egg issue with green marketing to moms: Could it be that mom consumer behaviors are actually spurring household and baby products to go green? If more and more household and baby brands with some degree of established brand equity offer green products to moms (Huggies, are you listening?), will more moms decide choose “green” over those “other” colors?

It’s nearly impossible to talk about going green as a mom without mentioning the great diaper debate. I read an article claiming 200,000 trees each year are used to manufacture disposable diapers for U.S. babies, and it takes several hundred years for disposables to decompose in our landfills. Yuck.

What if Huggies, Pampers and Luvs offered a "green" option, the way Clorox offers a “green” line? I was a baby of the 70s who wore cloth diapers and plastic pants, but I am somehow confused by the idea of using cloth diapers on my hawklets. I couldn’t tell you the name of a cloth diaper brand or, frankly, even how to use a cloth diaper (do you just toss in the washing machine? What?), but even before I was a mom I was very familiar with Huggies, Pampers and Luvs. If these brands offered me greener options, of course I would support them with my pocketbook.

This just in: Target sells organic cotton baby onesies? Why wasn't that marketed to me when I was pregnant and spending (and registering at Target) like a crazy woman?

Does green consumerism need to start leveraging moms’ established brand equity to capture more market share? I think the folks at Clorox would say, “Yes!”