I remember breaking up with my first ‘steady’ boyfriend as clear as if it happened yesterday.
I was 14 years old and we had been “going out” for around 8 months. His parents thought it was time to part ways before things potentially got serious, so buckling under their pressure, we split. He broke the news to me while we were watching the local footy grand final match between one of the nearby country towns and our school side (that my future child hood sweetheart was playing in funnily enough!). He told me at half time so I had to hold it together for the second half.
Like any 14 year old girl would be, I was devastated. I pretended I wasn’t, but I was hurt. Badly.
I couldn’t eat my dinner that night I was so upset. I didn’t want to lose face so I tried to keep it from my family, but naturally they knew something was up. In fact I’m pretty sure I lost my appetite for a couple of weeks my stomach was churning so badly. This guy, sorry, boy, had gotten under my skin and I really didn’t see the break up coming.
Breaking up is hard to do.
As I learned a few years later, when I was almost 20 years old and decided I needed some space from my childhood sweetheart, breaking up is even harder to do when you call the shots. He had been my world for almost four intense years and I was now hurting him, badly.
I wanted to branch out in the world and discover new things, by myself, but I still needed the comfort and security of him. He understood me more than I understood myself and that scared me.
I made my decision, but I was in conflict with myself for months, years if I’m to be honest. On many occasions I wanted to go back but out of respect for his next partner, I couldn’t.
Breaking up is hard to do.
Then there were the relationships of my early twenties.
While the intensity of my teenage years had vanished, breaking up was still hard to do. Many relationships were on again and off again. We had fun, were compatible, but not compatible enough.
It was easy to go back.
It was often too easy to go back.
Breaking up is hard to do.
It’s not just breaking up with our loves that is hard to do. It is hard breaking habits, particularly life long ones.
I grew up in a household where there was a cleaner for every cleaning application. Mr Sheen, Mr Muscle, Domestos, White King, Morning Fresh, Dynamo – you name it – they all lived with us.
Some of these break ups, like that of my first boyfriend, were swift, while others, like those of my early 20’s dragged on. It wasn’t always easy but I broke free.
I have learnt much over the past ten years in particular about breaking up with chemicals and would love to share my five step process with you.
On Wednesday 4 June 2014 I will be running a FREE Webinar entitled “5 Steps to a Chemical-Free Home.”
I’ll also be sharing the three “must-have” natural products you need in your green cleaning toolkit.
If you need a helping hand to break up with chemicals click here to register for this event.
Even if you can’t attend in person but wish you could, I still encourage you to register so you’re emailed a recording of the event afterwards.
While breaking up is hard to do, it is so much easier to do when you have support.
Allow me to support you.
About the Author: Laura Trotta is an ecoceptionalTM mum, environmental engineer and founder of Sustainababy. She is passionate about helping parents lead a sustainable lifestyle. Laura lives in regional South Australia with her husband and two young sons.
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Laura Trotta is one of Australia’s leading home sustainability experts. She has a Bachelor of Environmental Engineering, a Masters of Science (in Environmental Chemistry) and spent 11 years working as an environmental professional before creating her first online eco business, Sustainababy, in 2009. She has won numerous regional and national awards for her fresh and inspiring take on living an ‘ecoceptional’ life (including most recently winning the Brand South Australia Flinders University Education Award (2015) for the north-west region in SA and silver in the Eco-friendly category of the 2015 Ausmumpreneur Awards). With a regular segment on ABC Radio and with her work featured in publications like Nurture Parenting and My Child Magazine, Laura is an eco thought leader who’s not afraid to challenge the status quo. A passionate believer in addressing the small things to achieve big change, and protecting the planet in practical ways, Laura lives with her husband and two sons in outback South Australia. 
