here are the ways in which people were more environmentally friendly when we were growing up:

The popularity of SUVs is surging and these petrol guzzlers are one of the earth’s worst enemies. When we were growing up these vehicles were only just starting to become popular in the U.S. The humble Ford Escort was the top car in our day.

Air conditioning in cars is also becoming the norm where we would have been satisfied with winding the window down. On one particularly hot drive through Italy our parents gave us water sprays to spritz ourselves with and that did the trick!

How many of your kids toys are electric or battery operated? One things for sure, there’s a lot more than we owned when we were young. While most of us had TVs and some kind of computer there was one per household and they stayed firmly in one place. With tablets, phones and other hand held devices they can be used whenever and wherever and they all use up energy.

Do kids today get more dirty than we did? I think not. For one thing there’s much less venturing in the woods or playing in the fields; so why the need for a bath or shower every evening? We always smelled fresh didn’t we?

Now I know some people live too far away to make walking possible or there may not be a safe route however it is a fact that more kids walked before than do now and it’s the environment that pays the price.

Back in the day the phrase ‘Today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper’ rang true. Now not so much. I don’t think our kids would be too impressed with the print marks that would inevitably be left on their fries. Since when did burning off some energy mean using up energy in the form of electricity, for example using ‘Wii Fit’ or ‘X box Fitness’. It’s great to get some exercise but if we wanted to stretch our legs we’d have kicked a ball around, shot some hoops or went to the park?

Written by Jennie-  Irish mummy blogger and staff writer at www.familyfriendlyhq.ie
Check out her own blog mummyvstheworld.comor like her onfacebook