Eco Nanny post

A rusty steel water fountain jutted out of the sand and soft surfaces of the playground. One day I watched a toddler girl run under it and bump her head on the horizontal portion. She crumpled to the ground and held her hand to her head as tears rolled down sandy cheeks. Her nanny came running over and swept her up. The L-shaped fountain was meant for water play, but its sharp edges needed repair, and it looked out of place among all the plastic play structures.

A few Latina nannies I polled suggested replacing it. I took their request to the City Council via my friend and councilman, Richard. He immediately set plans into action to remove, renovate, and replace the fountain in the interest of safety. When it was completed it looked almost exactly the same except for fresh paint and sanding and blunting the sharp corners.

I asked a few nannies what they thought of the new fountain. Better, said one, but another was less enthusiastic. She noticed that it was too high for the ages of the children here, who were too short to drink from it but too tall to run underneath without getting clipped. She never let her client children play with water because she believed it to be wasteful. She continued that we should conserve resources due to global warming, and neither play in nor waste water. In her country, Mexico, “We always think about it and conserve, because we never have enough.” She thought children here should be taught more about energy conservation, and noted that both the children and the parents she works for lack awareness and frequently leave the lights on, let the water run, etc. She suggested a school or community program to teach young children conservation at a young age.

As green practices spread to all sectors of the economy and all strata of consumers it is useful to consider that lower/middle class immigrants may have brought simple measures with them to this country. I recalled how Lourdes’ mother made soap out of ashes from the kitchen fire. I found it ironic that my ambitious fountain repair actually exacerbated the sort of water waste this nanny identified. However it empowered the nannies to create positive change in their work environment.