Braving the Boycott

Shopping with my four children is a nightmare at the best of times. Just getting them out of the house is like herding sheep without a dog, whistle or stick. Every time I think I’ve got them all dressed, fed, watered, shod, toileted and in one place, they all disappear again. Kieran will have wandered off to play on the computer or Emma discovered a hair out of place. Meanwhile, Fergus will have got something unspeakable all over himself and Carys will have snuck upstairs to change into a spangly fairy concoction, utterly unsuited to the weather outside. At which point I completely lose it and they lurch into the car saying “Ooooh, STREESSYYY!” Well, the talking ones do. Fergus just flutters his eyelashes in that innocent way that toddlers have when they know they have just hidden your door keys.

When we get to the supermarket, the older ones hurl unauthorised and expensive things into the trolley whilst Fergus simultaneously hurls breakable and expensive things out. Just staying sane and avoiding judgmental comments by people who had children too long ago to remember what it’s like is a major feat in itself. Then try explaining to a 14 month old why he can’t have the brand of cartoon character yogurt he is screeching for, with the whole of the supermarket tutting in unison. Or tell a six year old why we don’t buy those sweets in a tube, without inducing a hissy fit. “I don’t care what they do to babies,” Carys yelled, from her prone position on the floor. “I just want to eat $&*%*?@!”

It’s at moments like these (when I’m not wondering why I didn’t have my tubes tied in puberty) that I wonder why I bother with boycotts. Parents don’t have time for ideals, do they? And it’s cracked to think that one family’s shopping budget makes any difference to multinational companies, isn’t it? And they’re all just as bad as each other, aren’t they? So why bother?

Yet I continue because becoming a parent did something to me – apart from adding several stones and lots of grey hairs, that is. I’m no longer able to watch children suffering on the news with detachment. Hell, I can’t even watch someone else’s child crying in the park without wanting to intervene. “Every man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.” Parenting is the utmost involvement in mankind and by buying products made by companies whose practices damage human health I would be condoning and funding those practices. We might not change the world alone, but with others out there we can make a difference.

I might have raised a tribe of junk food munching telly addicts, but my children know they have a say and a responsibility to others on the planet. Emma, 12 going on 45, understands the Nestlé boycott, chooses to follow it and tells her friends and teachers about it. As for the others, well, they are getting there.

“We don’t buy those,”

I overhear Carys telling a bemused shopper reaching for a packet of cereal, “because they are made by bad people.”

“Yeah, “chips in Kieran,

“but it’s all right because we hate those anyway.”

According to Baby Milk Action (BMA), Nestlé, the world’s largest baby food company, increases profits by promoting artificial infant feeding in violation of the World Health Organisation’s International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

To find out more about the Nestlé boycott and to see a full list of Nestlé products, visit the BMA website www.babymilkaction.org