Articles by Christine Gardner

My bike and kids

The Bike-To-Work-Week gods had plans for me ... even though I don't actually work.

On Mother's Day, May 13, a wheel fell off my stroller.

Walking is my main mode of transportation, and I love it. Even with its distance limitations, pushing a stroller felt like a safe alternative to driving and less annoying than taking the bus.

My daughters, 18 months and 3, are too old for us to justify buying another stroller and too young to walk the two-mile roundtrip to downtown, the playground, or the library.

Since I gave up driving almost a year ago, I've ignored the advice of cycling advocates, both on the web and in real life, because I thought walking served my family just fine.

Now, without a stroller, it was time to buy a bike. And a trailer that hooks onto the back. And helmets. And test drive it to the downtown vegetarian coffee shop for a breakfast sandwich.

And finally this week, I strapped in the girls for a ride to the playground -- and they loved it. Why, I think, did I wait so long?

Can a mother survive without antibacterial wipes?

A few Sundays back, the newspaper seemed to spill an overwhelming number of cleaning-product coupons onto my living-room floor.

"It's like They know," my husband said. "They're on to you."

"They" are the companies selling household liquids and powders for a little spring cleaning. And the secret my husband thought they'd discovered? I had decided to purge my pine-fresh scents and 99.9 percent germ killers in favor of a few products our "great-grandparents used," as advised by green-parenting maverick MaGreen.

Dare this mom to change her life

Few things are less environmentally friendly than kids.

You know it's true. They stand as examples of our populating an overpopulated planet. They need a lot of stuff, or at least that's what other parents and Babies 'R' Us tell us. And nothing says "earth hater" more than the billions of dirty diapers now calling landfills home.

But here's the thing: Before kids, I wasn't much of an environmentalist.

Can a mom in middle America survive a month without a car?

Not 20 minutes after the Amtrak clerk said our train would be at least an hour late — “probably much more” — I almost caved. “We could rent a car and drive home,” I thought, and maybe even muttered. “Nobody has to know.” I had just hit my breaking point. Carolyn rides the bus. Photos: […]