‘With four kids she immediately belonged to the group with the most polluting ecological footprint’
Patricia van Liemt is a radio presenter, writer and mother of Maria (13) and Phaedra (10). Every Friday she writes striking, honest, funny and above all recognizable columns about her life and motherhood.
‘You can go all the way at the back’, a friend of mine was told when she told me during a sustainability session at work that she has four children. With ‘so many kids’ she immediately belonged to the group of people with the most polluting ecological footprint. ‘And I still work for a goddamn one fucking green company’, she raves on.
fucking green
My friend is one of those people who has been taking the staple out of her tea bag since the 1990s and sending a letter at least three times a week to the Foster Parent child to whom her parents have dutifully transferred a few guilders – and now euros – every month for years. The ‘adopted’ sister far away.
We sit at her round vintage kitchen table. She is upset and suddenly doubts everything in her life. I try to calm her down and praise her by giving the three different trash cans in the corner a place of honor in our conversation. “I can’t do anything right now.” She throws her head forward in her arms.
“I try to praise her by giving the three different trash cans in the corner a place of honor in our conversation”
Polluting offspring
Well, to start with, a child up to and including primary school will cost you at least 50,000 euros. That is a lot of money, but the ‘polluting’ is mainly in diapers, clothing (fast fashion) etc. Scientists have calculated that an average (western) child emits approximately 58 tons of CO2 per year. That equates to 36 round-trip transatlantic flights PER YEAR. Nowadays there is also a term for my girlfriend’s feelings namely; bar shame. Yoohoo. It’s crazy organized in the world. In Finland, a few years ago you still received 10,000 euros per child. There they were just waiting for polluting offspring.
love babies
Anyway. Four kids? Poe. It seems like quite a task. I’ve heard that four kids are easier than two. For the simple reason that as parents you just ‘let go’ of it all a little more.
Before I became a mother I had a romantic idea that all my babies should be so-called love babies and that I would like more than two. But then came baby number one and
I thought ‘holy shit, this is a lot of work’. And not only for me but also for my partner and my breasts. So soon it remained with two descendants. Tie around it, or in some cases, cut into it. Finished.
Organic wine
My girlfriend pours me some left-handed organic wine and takes a big sip herself. ‘What if I had washed all the diapers? Would my ecological footprint have been less then?’ I have to laugh at her and tell her to just enjoy her four kiddos to the fullest. Because stopping back is really no longer an option…
Would you rather listen to Patricia’s column? Which can. Every Sunday between 4 and 6 pm she reads it on Wild FM.
