This spring the kids are taking the beginning golf lessons every Tuesday from SkyHawks. It is a two-hour lesson with lots of running besides learning driving, putting, and chipping.
One Tuesday after we came home from the lesson, I told Nosaj to take a shower and Einnob to have the ice cream drumstick first before taking shower, because she was the last person to have the sweet treat. Jason said: “I want to take a bath today.” When I pushed on, Nosaj declared: “I don’t want to be green today. I want to take a bath!” I was amused by his response and realized my going green attitude does have an impact on my kids. Therefore, Nosaj took a bath, and Einnob took a shower, though longer than five minutes – our goal, because she had to wash her hair today.
The first day my blog went green was also Einnob’s first day taking a five-minute morning shower. I wonder which way is greener in saving water and energy, getting her into the American way of taking daily shower, or taking showers when it is necessary, say every other day or less. There is also concerns of washing away human skin’s natural oil if showering too often. Same effect could happen to the hair making it drier and easy to break.
We used to take a one-hour shower once a week during the college time over twenty years ago. It is one of the best schools in China, has the best resources the government can provide for educational institutions, and is located in China’s capital city, Beijing. Can you believe that? I survived and still memorized those old good times… I tried to spread this way of shower to my southern hometown folks. They thought the northerners were barbarians!
It is said that every two minutes you save on your shower can conserve more than ten gallons of water. The average bathtub faucet flows between three and five gallons of water per minute. Thus, taking shower is not necessary to be greener than taking a bath. It all depends on how much time you spend in the shower room or bathtub and how much water you use. Jason, it is fine for taking a bath and being still green.
Jennifer Aniston said she takes a three-minute shower because she found out that every two minutes in shower uses as much water as a person in Africa uses for everything in their life for a whole day – drinking, bathing, cooking, and cleaning … everything! When you become aware of all the things you do, and the effect those things have, you want to make a small changes. Like with water. It is very interesting to me though it might not work to Einnob and Nosaj. Therefore, my practically green ideas of shower/bath for the green kids are:
Take a five-minute shower.
Plug the drain in the bathtub before turning on the water.
Use less shampoo and conditioner.
Use less body wash liquid soap.
Pause the water while soaping.
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