Parenting pet peeves #1

This post will probably be the first of many, haha, thus the "#1."

The other day while talking to someone, the subject of me not cooking with plastic in the microwave came up. It's just something I don't do, I try to limit my use of plastic all together, but this is one of my firm rules. The other person's response was that our food is in contact with all sorts of plastic in the process of it getting to our house. I then replied with something along the lines of "yes, there are things I cannot stop from happening, so shouldn't I limit exposure when I can?"

I just don't understand the notion that our kids will be exposed to bad things, so there's no sense in putting up safeguards at home. My girls will certainly be exposed to alcohol at some point in their adolescence, but I'm not going to be the one offering it to them. There will be people out smoking on the streets, exposing them to second hand smoke, but I'm not going to allow people to smoke in my home. I don't get how someone can't see that plastics are the same way for me. It's not really a matter of debating the safety of plastic, but rather a matter of protecting our children from things that we don't think are safe. My children will be exposed to plenty of things that I don't deem okay or safe, so isn't it my job to limit that exposure when I can? Obviously, with the task of also educating them on those dangers. Protection without education won't do that much good in the long run.

So there is one of my big parenging pet peeves. I will continue to protect my children from things that I see as dangerous, even if there's no way to stop them from being exposed to those things outside of our home.