What is Crunchy Parenting?

Welcome to a Crunchy Parenting Blog! But just what is Crunchy Parenting you wonder? Crunchy Parenting is not something one can summarize easily. There are so many different parts to it and yes, it looks a bit different in every home. I will though try to list some of things crunchy parents do to give you a better idea of what being a little crunchy means. My little crunchy family does not live by all of these mind you, but many of them do apply to us. Lets see if your a little crunchy too!

What is Crunchy Parenting

 Some Crunchy Parents are into:

  •  Attachment Parenting
  • Co-Sleeping
  • Baby Wearing
  • cloth diapering
  • Elimination communication
  • natural birth
  • home birth
  • water birth
  • delayed cord clamping
  • breastfeeding
  • extended breastfeeding
  • eco-friendly products for Baby
  • delayed vaccination
  • selective vaccination
  • vaccination exempt
  • holistic medicine
  • alternative health
  • Veg/Vegan
  • Tree Hugging drug free Hippy Mama
  • Homeschooling/Unschooling
  • Natural Products
  • Toxin Aware
  • Plastic Free
  • No Cry It Out
  • No Spanking
  • Peaceful parenting
  • Minimalist
  • Teaching Emotional Intelligence
  • Free Range Children
  • Child Led learning
  • TV Free (Not my family!)
  • Limited Media
  • Eco-Friendly Home
  • Buy WAHM
  • Buy Small Business
  • Buy Local
  • Travel Green (On foot or Bike or bus)
  • Organic Gardening
  • Buy Organics First
  • Poison Free Homes
  • Midwife Care
  • No Circumcision
  • Teaching Kids To Nature Lovers
  • Handmade
  • Activism
  • Human Rights / Animal Right
  • Active Parenting
  • Respect for Nature
  • Out Door Learning
  • Sustainable Living
  • Respecting Nature

Thanks to everyone helping to add to our Crunchy Parenting list!

  • Squat birth
  • Breast-crawl
  • Montessori schooling
  • Placenta encapsulation/eat
  • Mason Jar Love (this one makes me giggle!)
  • Baby food making
  • Toxin Free Mattresses
  • Very health aware
  • Essential Oils
  • Kombucha  Drinking
  • Yogurt Making
  • Car seat specialists
  • Wool and Yarn Lovers

       Every Crunchy Parenting home is different!

Most people find they are a little crunchy actually! 

So are you a little crunchy too?

    This is not the entirety of Crunchy Parenting and living. Not everyone does it all, how could they? This list doesn’t mean anyone who does these things or doesn’t is any better or worse than anyone else! This list and blog doesn’t intend to put down any other kind of parenting. Notice the title of this blog? A Little Crunchy, it is just that. I think most people are a little crunchy and don’t even know it. These are fantastic topics and I have met some extraordinary people inspiring me to live better and raise my children the best I can. When we know better, we do better. Again though, what is better? That is up to you dear reader, not me! Your reading this and that makes you special in my book. You care and that is what will make you so much more crunchy than you know!
we co-sleep and breastfeed
  Our Crunchy Parenting journey started before we got pregnant with our oldest daughter over 20 years ago. We were making plans based on the experience and outcomes we wanted for our future children and our family. We had no idea then what Crunchy Parenting was and it was still a few years more before I finally found my Mommy Tribe in a forum that will always be dear to my heart, Mothering.com While that forum is no longer active the heart of it, the courage, the love, has stayed strong in many of us Moms. Finding connection with one another in other areas though can be hard as a lot of the Crunchy Parenting choices are not mainstream parenting choices. I hope you can feel a bit more connected here and supported!

47 Comments

  1. Jelli

    You know, I’ve never really seen “crunchy” defined before, but I just high-fived my hubs because unbeknownst to us, we’ve apparently created a pretty crunchy lifestyle. 🙂

  2. Debbie Walter

    Interesting! I have never heard of crunchy parenting. Definitely some good ideas.

  3. Thanks for the list… I guess I am more crunchy than I realized, in fact I never really knew there was a name for all of this, lol.

  4. Angela Solis

    I guess we are a little crunchy lol. I am extended BFing and cosleeping and a few others on that list. I never heard of it before though.

  5. Jessica Houston

    So crunchy means the family is really healthy and kind of hippyish???

    • LittleCrunchy

      They try to be healthy and hippyish as in tree hugging and putting people before things yes. No illegal drugs of course. Crunchy is about trying to live as naturally as possible while being good to people and the planet.

  6. Maria Iemma

    I kind of disagree — when my kids were little getting into Mom and Dad’s bed was a treat — we needed the rest and privacy. We do try to live as green as possible and be kind to all

    • LittleCrunchy

      It has been shown mothers who co-sleep get more rest than mothers who don’t. As for privacy…. I am not sure I would have had children if I had a big need for that. Most people know mothers hardly even get to pee alone. Couple privacy when co-sleeping just has to get creative!

      • While my boys sneak into bed with us at times, and it’s wonderful, I love knowing that they are each in their beds, and that daddy and I have alone time. Quite frankly, by you saying that “Couple privacy when co-sleeping just has to get creative!” sounds to me like you and your husband have sex with the children in your bed. I don’t think you and sure hope you don’t, but that is the vibe it gives off.

        • Kimberly Storms

          Wow the place your mind jumped too! I think most people understand that the bedroom is not the only place a couple can be together. Your the first that has mentioned their mind going to such an inappropriate place so hopefully I don’t need to go back and be more clear about it. 🙁

  7. Sarah Hayes

    Im so glad Im finally learning the meaning of crunchy lol. Ive seen it all over and had no idea what it meant. I wish I had done more of these but I just didnt know at the time 🙁 A lot of these are great though

    • LittleCrunchy

      It is a sign of a really good parent when they admit they would have changed things had they known differently! 🙂

  8. Wanda Tracey

    I used to share one night a week with my three children.they would each have a turn sleeping with mom because dad worked the night shift but they never or very seldom slept with both of us.

  9. kaitlin

    I always hear people using this term, but have never really known what it meant! Thank you for explaining it. I don’t have children yet but this seems like something I would fall into.

    • LittleCrunchy

      I am glad to know I helped clear it up! I think most parents end up doing many crunchy things as they are rather natural and in our nature. Thus, a little crunchy! 🙂 Ok, so I am really a lot crunchy but I don’t think anyone could do everything that is considered crunchy!

  10. Laura Lane

    About half crunchy I guess here.

    • LittleCrunchy

      Thus the blog name A Little Crunchy! 🙂

  11. Jessica Roth

    I have become a bit crunchier with each child. LOL! I definitely don’t do the majority of those things but I am currently bf my 22 month old…longest bf record for me! We also co-sleep, baby-wear, buy local and a few more. We want one more child and I really want to try a water birth 🙂

  12. Katrina

    Yep – I am new to the ‘crunchy’ term. But apparently we are quite crunchy! Living in the bush, running a business with loads of up-cycled baby products (Splat Mats from advertising!), getting things done locally wherever possible, co-sleeping, making our own baby food, living chemical free with no tv. Love your blog!

    • LittleCrunchy

      Thank you so much! I wish I could say my little crunchy family was TV free but alas, my husband and I are geek parents so our house is often full of tech. It is a really interesting mix!

  13. C. McPheeters

    I was a little crunchy when mine were little ones, but wow that’s quite a list! They’re grown now, so I’m a semi-crunchy empty nester! I recycle, I Terra Cycle, and try to be actively Buying Local, taking part in personally relevant Activism, Human Rights / Animal Rights.

  14. Khadijah Sachok

    I like this description,
    I can consider myself “a little crunchy”
    I have convinced most of my friend’s to Terra Cycle,
    My siblings and I are all Vegetarian, although with my family being so into video games our house lacks the tv free aspect also.

  15. desiree

    i am the one who is the mos t active with the kdi and the kid here

  16. Kristina L

    I have never heard of crunchy parenting before! When I look at the list I guess I can say we are a little crunch too! hubby is asleep so I will high five myself. 😛

    • Kimberly Storms

      I think more people are a little Crunchy and they just don’t know it yet! 🙂 -high five-

  17. Karly

    Well huh! I don’t think I have ever heard of being a little crunchy before!
    I was a c-section goer for all four of my babies and a mostly-bottle-feeder, all for health reasons that I neither regret nor apologize for (I wouldn’t be here to write any of this without modern medicine!), but otherwise I dabble just a wee bit in almost everything else.

    Constantly evolving, I suppose, as I learn, become aware, and make even healthier choices for myself and my family.

    And I don’t think I could survive without a TV, ha ha ha, but I do adore getting to watch the shows I watched as a kid with my kids now. It’s cool seeing their reactions, and remembering my own.

  18. D Johnson

    Wow…I had no idea what crunchy in this sense meant before! I practice(d)/try to practice a lot of the things you mentioned above, and am usually meant with arguments that I’m “wrong” or “weird” for doing them. All in all I guess i’m about 75% crunchy 🙂

  19. Pingback: What is Crunchy Parenting?

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    • Kimberly Storms

      I am so glad to find other blogs that are a little crunchy too!

  21. Nicki Nethery

    I love this! Found your site because my doctor told
    Me I was too crunchy for her, I’d heard it before but never knew what it was, google brought me here and it describes my family pretty perfectly! Great summary 🙂

  22. Laura

    Semi Crunchy. I prefer natural, the more natural the better, but I like to make medically sound decisions and wise decisions. Having done broad spectrum health care, some decisions we make, can give a lifetime of benefits. So I propose that being sort of crunchy, and medically sound is a solid way of making good decisions for a child.

    • Kimberly Storms

      Thank you so much for adding my link to your page! You certainly are a little crunchy too!

  23. Nick Borelli

    So….hipster parenting?

    • Kimberly Storms

      Some might consider that but I think it is markedly older and in all my parenting years I have seen very few Crunchy parents that are hipster.

  24. Counterculturalist

    I guess you’ve added to the list the last I’ve checked 🙂

    You forgot

    “Squat birth”
    “Breast-crawl”
    “Montessori schooling”
    “Placenta encapsulation/eat”
    “Mason Jar”
    “From Portland”

    But other than that, wow I must say I am thoroughly impressed! I even saw minimalism! I hardly ever see anyone talk about that. And I also saw plastic free, which is also something I rarely see. Wow, you sure know your stuff. Honestly, I’m not one for labels, but I do like to see people embracing their inner ‘crunchiness’ lol.

  25. Amelia Farica Sisman

    Thank you for explaining this and the lists.. Now I’m finally understand 🙂

  26. Sarah Hayes

    i do a few of these and would love to do even more. cloth diapering and buying local are on the top of my list

  27. Michelle L

    I’m not a parent, but I love your blog

  28. Michelle L

    I’m not a mother but I’ve glad I found your blog.

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