I’m often complimented on my unique and memorable blog name “The Crunchy Mom Next Door”. It’s a playful title I came up with after we lived in a duplex and I giggled while imagining what our downstairs neighbors must think to hear me giving birth at home and then smelling the aroma of placenta cooking! Haha! My family calls me “the hippie” and I think it’s a funny nickname!
Sometimes I fear that my cutesy little name has pigeon-holed me and improperly defines what my blog is about. I guess that’s what labels do but it’s something I hadn’t considered when I finalized my title. My goal in life, and with my blog, is to make the most natural decisions that I can and ones which make sense to me. In no way am I nearly 100% crunchy and I never really tried to figure out where I am on that spectrum, if there is one? Just to give you more of an idea of me on a personal level, here are some facts about me:
- Babies #1 and #2 were hospital births with epidurals. Baby #3 was prenatal care at a birth center and born naturally in a hospital. Baby #4 was a homebirth attended by a midwife and baby #5 is a planned homebirth to be attended by a midwife.
But I support every type of birth. - I bed-shared (co-sleeping) with my last three children and plan to again.
But I support every type of sleeping (except maybe outside, please don’t put your babies outside! Ha!). - My first child was fed with formula. My second had both formula and breastmilk. My third and fourth were exclusively breastfed past a year.
I support all types of feeding. - My children are vaccinated mostly adhering to the Dr. Sears schedule. We do not currently do the flu shot.
But I support a parent’s right to choose whether or not to vaccinate fully, selectively, delayed, or not at all. - I prefer to wear my babies in carriers the majority of the time and I’ve been known to wear them for convenience even as they are toddlers and occasionally even my tiny preschooler.
- While I wouldn’t refer to myself as an “intactivist”, I am very against circumcision and do believe it to be a violation of human rights. That is likely the last you will hear about that topic on this blog, however.
- We extended rear-face our children in their car seats for as long as possible.
- I once consumed my placenta in pill form and due to not personally feeling any differently, opted not to do it again.
- We used cloth diapers for some of our babies and now we use disposable diapers.
But I support all forms of catching your baby doodie, be it with elimination communication or tushes covered in beautiful minky. - I think what we do now is called “baby-led weaning” but I’m not even sure. We feed ’em stuff at some point.
- We don’t eat organic but I often wish we did.
- We eat gluten but I never wish I didn’t. (Lol!)
- My husband and I make an effort to avoid artificial dyes in our food.
But I support everyone’s right to eat whatever they want, as well as labeling GMOs. - When our children are ill, we mostly combat the fevers with BeKoool Strips and they work like magic. Even I use them. When the fever won’t break, we use Tylenol. If it surpasses 101°F, we use Advil or Motrin. We recently discovered Hyland’s and have been trying those when the need arises. I am not against medical and medicinal remedies should we feel they are necessary.
- I’m trying to learn more about essential oils, homeopathy, and aromatherapy to utilize our most natural options possible.
On The Crunchy Mom Next Door, you will see posts about things I believe in and even things I don’t personally use but support those who do. I’ve mentioned handy tools for formula feeding here but I haven’t used formula in years. Sometimes I just think a product is really neat or would be useful for others! I’m planning to write about cloth diapering at some point because I love and miss it, plus I’d love to put resources out there. What I’m trying to say is that while I will strive to post more natural things on my blog, there will be times where it won’t be. You won’t always agree with me or a product I like but I hope you’ll stick around for all of the things we do agree on. I can’t please everybody 100% of the time but 100% of the time, I can please at least a handful of people! I’m weird but I’m versatile, I’m understanding and open-minded, and I hope to have readers of all shapes, sizes, and beliefs! I support you all and whatever you feel is best for your lives and families. You have to have a good sense of humor though, that’s the only thing I require of my readers!Less complicated titles I could have considered:
The Sarcastic Mom Next Door
The Oddball Mom Next Door
The Braless Mom Next Door
The Oversharing Mom Next Door
The Indecisive Mom Next Door
The Non-Coffee Drinking Mom Next Door: HOW DOES SHE DO IT?
The Mom With a Ton of Kids Next Door (Let’s be honest, people probably do call me this…LOL)
What about your title? What is it or what would it be, and why?
Love it! Those bottle covers could be for pumping mommas or mommas who got donor milk. They are covers for bottles not exclusive for formula bottles only.
However I still don’t get how you do it without coffee. Insanity! I drank coffee before kids I can’t adult without it.
Oh yes, I know, I just thought they were PERFECT for holding formula when you’re on-the-go and that was my favorite part about them!!