Johnson & Johnson - Cleaning Their Baby Soaps?

Picture Source: somethingblue2.blogspot.com

When I was in my early 20's I worked as a bartender, I loved my job.  One of my favorite times of day was after the huge lunch rush had died down and the place was empty, you could hear the chatter of the wait staff sitting at the table in the back all waiting for dinner service to start up.  While they were chatting, I was still up front of the house tending to my bar, and it was at this time that I got the bar in order including washing all the glasses that had been used.  As I was waiting one day for a load to go through the washer, I had just placed dish soap into the machine and as I often do I leaned back against the counter and started to read the bottle.  As I was reading I was also drinking from a glass that had been washed with the same soap.  In mid sip of my drink (it was soda) I paused, eyes widened when I read in plain English but in very little text "This product may contain a cancer causing agent"  May? What the hell did they mean may?  and Oh My God, why would they even have to tell you that? Why would they even put that in there?  I had a lot of whys go through my head, but as a 20 something year old with no real cares in the world, I chose never to drink from a restaurant glass again and I casually brought it up every now and again in conversations where I wanted to seem intellectual :) Ahh to be 20 again.  Anyway, it wasn't until many years later when I was now expecting my first baby that this knowledge came back, only this time, I was about to have the biggest care in the world become my responsibility and I no longer just avoided bar glasses, I read every label and looked up every ingredient I wasn't familiar with.  Thanks to my bar tending days I was that much more aware.

It baffles me that in today's world, where we are relentlessly fighting against cancer that there are products on the market that include carcinogens (cancer causing agents) Many of these products are things we apply directly to our skin, and we don't just put it on, we rub it in, shampoo containing carcinogens are rubbed into the scalp, your head!!!!!!!! and people wonder why so many people have cancer. Depending on what products we use, as we shampoo and condition our hair or moisturize our bodies, we may be covering our hair and skin with dibutyl phthalate, one of the family of phthalates which have been found to disrupt the endocrine system, potentially cause liver cancer, and cause reproductive system damage (according to research published in the journal Pediatrics) Does anyone else see a problem with this?

Well apparently, and thankfully, they do, and Johnson & Johnson who is a huge distributor or such products is making changes. It was announced today that after years of pressure from many activists, personal care giant Johnson & Johnson finally reformulated its flagship baby shampoo without the use of formaldehyde-releasing preservatives. (more details here)

Now, on the flip side, I don't want to live my life constantly worried and angst about these things all day everyday, but I do feel that as a consumer, when I spend my money on products that those products should be safe, both in the interim and long term effects.  I don't need my shampoo or soap to suds up to feel clean, the chemical that creates those bubbles although found not to be a carcinogen (according to wikipedia)  is still a chemical, and its usually the second named ingredient on all products which means its one of the most used ingredient in the product, if it doesn't actually do anything other then give the perception that your product is better, then its a lie, you are lying to me as the consumer, you are putting a chemical out there that does nothing and its still a chemical, that I am putting on my body, and I am not OK with that, not being lied to or rubbing chemicals into my body or my children's, sure you say its safe now, and in a few years we find out you were wrong. How about you just remove it all together and its one less bad thing that's out there.  OK I guess my flip side quickly flopped back.

I am so thankful to those activists who have worked on making this happen.  This is a great gesture by J&J to make their products safer, however I'm sure they can do more.   The plan from what I heard is not to change all of the products, right now the focus is on the baby products, which thank goodness because if I have to choose between no more tears or no cancer for my baby, I think I will take a few tears.

This is definitely one to keep on top of.

Everyday Mothers. How Do They Do It?

I read.....alot.  I still enjoy a good book, technology will never replace that for me, in the words of my 8 year old daughter, there is nothing like the smell of a new book.  Over the years with the Internet being the tool it now is, the amount of reading I do has gone beyond numbers, but what has also increased is the disappointment and distaste I feel in some of the material I do read.  Take for example a layout I just read in Today's Parent magazine.  One of their main articles is about Jessica Seinfeld.  I am sure Jessica is a wonderful mother, I would never take that title from anyone, I am especially not going to form a judgemental opinion about someone I don't know, keeping in mind that for all the amazing mothers in the world there are also many who are probably not so great.  This is a discussion that can go on forever.  My judgemental opinion today, if you would like to call it that is actually towards the publication. 

In the article, the magazine shines a light on how Jessica handles being an author and mother of 3 and a wife as well as her contribution to charity.  I agree in giving a cheers to her.  However, and yes the however is coming. It is very easy I would imagine to do anything you want when you are married to someone like Jerry Seinfeld who is worth millions of dollars.  With the financial stability that the Seinfeld's have what opportunity could someone not take advantage of?  How does she do it?  SHE HAS MONEY!  Yes money isn't everything but it sure as hell helps.  Instead of spotlighting someone who has the means to pursue a writing career and charity work because of who they are married to, why not praise the everyday mom?  These are the mothers who really need to share insight as to how they handle family and work and a life of their own.  Ask my girlfriend who is raising 3 children on her own while working full time how she does it? Actually I have two girlfriends in that situation.  Ask my sister in law's best friend who when she was pregnant with twins found out she had terminal cancer, chose to save her children and give them life, while ensuring she lost hers just months after they were born.  Ask the mother who is quickly approaching her return to work from mat leave how she gets through her day looking at her baby and wondering exactly how good the daycare she has found is gong to take care of her baby.  Ask the mother who balances activities for her 2 children, balances the accountability she has to her kids to help them with homework, after she has come home from work at a career, in which she has donated her lunch time to help with a charity,  started dinner, done the homework, gotten the kids washed up for bed and sleeping and then finds time to have meaningful time with her spouse. Ask the mother who balances the families budget pay cheque to pay cheque because she is trying to give her children all the opportunity she never had.

These are the mothers you should be showcasing, these are the mothers who also have dreams of writing books, and doing more to help society but are so far stretched some days they can't even see straight, but they do it everyday because its who they want to be, and most of the time no one even has a clue just how much they have on their plates.

Maybe if you showcased these mothers there would be many more useful books published, because these are the women who have tips and advice that are worth sharing and that the majority of your readers could relate to. Try showcasing a Canadian Mother in your Canadian magazine for goodness sake.   I apologize for sounding like a total bitch but who the fuck cares how Jessica Seinfeld does it? Really,  I don't because if I had her money suddenly everything I did would be important too.

If I had the option to raise my children until they were in full day private schools where the amount of money I was paying that school was ensuring the establishment was held accountable for providing proper teaching, I wouldn't have to spend over an hour each night teaching my daughter things she should have learned in school, but didn't because the teachers really only care about their summers off, unfortunately that is the reality of our public school system.

If I had money to outlast my lifetime and my children's I wouldn't have the stress that comes with paying for daycare which is equivalent to a mortgage payment if not more.  If I had that kind of money I wouldn't have much worries at all, so please forgive me if I don't stand and applaud how Jessica Seinfeld does it?  It's a stupid question, because the answer is in her last name alone.

I would now like to take this opportunity to applaud all of the everyday moms who do it all and don't have a magazine shining a light on them.  So I am going to shine a light on you, because it is you who amazes me,  it is you that I admire and shake my head in amazement, because I know who you are because I am you and you are me.

I would love to hear from all types of mothers who do it all, send me your stories and pictures, your insight and wisdom, and once a month I will randomly, not selectively pick someone and shine a spotlight on you, and the title will be "Your Name! How does she do it?  Because its the everyday mother that I want to get to know, not someone who is so out of my reach, and to whom I would have to pay money to read her book so that I could "Know" how she does it. 

As for Today's Parent, hey everyone has their bad days and makes poor choices, on the most part I enjoy your magazine, but maybe you should take a step back and realign your priorities, that's just my opinion.