I let my daughter eat dirt.

I don't feed it to her with a spoon. But I let her explore and, like everything, it ends up in her mouth. I'm fine with this. We primarily container garden and I know the contents of my dirt. But I do worry when the dirt is outside our little corner of the earth.

I figure there is little regret in letting children explore and get dirty. However, keeping them clean and not letting them be free to develop their inquiring minds could end up a regret. True, laundry is getting harder these days, but I think it is worth the trade off.

We walked past a lovely field of dandelions yesterday. This made me smile, not just for the sunny yellow, but because I hope it means our park doesn't spray for weeds. Herbicides, like all chemicals, really scare me. I constantly try to keep chemical exposure minimum for our family. I have read lots of articles about Monsanto and studies about exposure to glyphosate (Roundup.) The study on lawn chemicals affecting dogs is reason enough for me to avoid chemicals. (Mother Nature Network explains it well here.) It is hard to really know the truth and who to trust. Google searches are very, very frustrating and lead me to believe the public is clearly not being told everything. Knowing that other countries have banned these chemicals, and knowing how lobbyists can control legislature in the U.S., I choose to not trust chemicals or companies making money from chemicals.

It would be easy to ignore.

It would be easy to be overbearing.

But parenting, and life, are not easy.

Instead of being nervous, I put that energy into doing my best to avoid chemicals.

Because really all anyone can do is their best.

My plant markers may not be very toddler-friendly...