Learn to say „No“ and teach your kids why you do not like certain things or toys.

It’s a learning process and it takes some time to get used to it, but it’s worth it! It helps to prevent cluttering your flat and your kids‘ rooms! And it’s really better for our environment.

We are already pretty good at it, my kids rejected some plastic rubber ducks and the women of the Stadtwerke München couldn’t understand it at all (we have already rubber ducks from before our plastic diet, we won’t need more). However, my daughters came home from a birthday party with these colorful Loops. Why the hell do all the new inventions for kids… (now these Loops, years ago the Scubidoos) always include so much artificial material, colorful, fancy? Not sure what we’ll do with these, will my kids use them? I do hate these, these tiny things get everywhere, we saw these little things already at the beach at Lago di Garda. Animals could eat these, and I am not even sure whether or not these things are healthy on the skin of my kids. 

Buy less, buy better stuff! Buy less plastic stuff.

Also, let relatives know about it.  By far too often, well-meaning relatives will give something which nobody in your family really wants or needs. Maybe now – after the Easter holidays –  would be a good moment to talk to these relatives?

And when it comes to birthday parties, we stopped to hand out (plastic) bags with all sorts of other plastic toys in them. Kids get a paper bag with a picture from the party. And guess what: No child ever complained, they all seemed to like a group picture of the party!