Pesticides and Birthday Cards

In the ongoing battle to not buy Chinese made products, I have discovered two unlikely items to be leery of, pesticides and greeting cards.

I discovered the pesticides while helping my mom do yard work. I was getting ready to apply weedkiller around her pool (something which the environmentalist in me was not pleased to be doing) when I noticed that the pump nozzle for this weedkiller was made in China.

In this particular case, I was spared from having to return the product (if that is even possible once you've opened it) because my mom was the one who paid for it, and despite my best efforts, she is, to say the least, disinterested in boycotting anything made in China.

What would she shop for, she asks me? I am cynically thinking that she wouldn't be able to shop for much!

At any rate, I had never considered that we would be unable to buy pesticides, or have to check the packaging of lawn care products prior to purchase. This was never an issue for us when we lived in Chicago and unfortunately, it does not get us out of yard work at my mom's.

When I pointed out to her where the nozzle was made, she told me, "Well, I bought the stuff, not you and I don't boycott stuff made in China, so go down to the pool and spray it on the weeds!"

Wow, it's tough to find compassion in this protest.

Apparently it is also necessary to check the origins of the greeting cards you are about to purchase. A friend of Luke's had warned me that an increasing amount of printed materials where being outsourced to China, but I must confess that until this particular day, I don't recall flipping over the card I was about to buy to see where it was made. Now it appears I will have to.

Good thing I did not put off buying that birthday card until the absolute last minute...I think I had about five minutes left to find a card before I had to leave the store and fortunately there were a few decent "Made in America" cards to choose from, so the birthday was not ruined.

(Aren't you happy to know about the effort I put into your birthday card, honey?)