The Paper Plate Society Backstory

I left the workforce when my oldest child was two-and-a-half, and threw myself into the SAHM life. Hard.

With great enthusiasm I did things like make laundry detergent, bake bread, sew clothing, and host play dates. I was so Pinterest its embarrassing. I prepared hot meals  almost every night, and never, ever, ever bought convenience foods. Breakfasts were things like eggs or oatmeal from a big canister. I MADE peanut butter, for goodness sake.

I cut out all wasteful convenience items, out of conviction for the planet, but also because my grocery/household budget was $125 every two weeks. So out went disposable diapers,  paper towels, napkins, sanitizing wipes, and of course, paper plates. I washed and put away the real dishes, three times a day, every day.

Three years and two more kids later, I returned to work.

At first I was exhilarated. I felt like myself again. I had a definable purpose, and measurable achievements and I liked that.

Then, slowly, I began to sink under the weight of all my household responsibilities. Those things still existed, I just had half the time and none of the energy to handle them. I tried to get up early and stay up late, but soon my sink was full of dishes, the laundry pile was large enough to lose a toddler in, and my jeans were getting tight from all the pizza and cheeseburgers that I was bringing home to avoid cooking. My husband pitched in more than before, but he had his own job and school schedule. Together, the two of us did not equal one stay-at-home mom.

I cried a lot, torn between a job that I LOVE and a household that clearly needed much more of my efforts. It was rough. I didn't have any working-mom friends, and I didn't know who to go to for support. On top of that, my busy new schedule left basically no time to maintain friendships with my core group of SAHMs that I had grown close to during the play date era.

On a particularly rough day, I asked a coworker of mine for advice. She had a teenage daughter that she raised as a single mother from the beginning.
"How do you keep up? I mean, there is a pile of dishes in my sink that is 3 days old and growing!!"

She responded with a shocked "Why are you using real dishes??"

I had so many responses. The planet. The waste. The MONEY!

She answered me with the single most life-changing advice that I have received as a mother.

"Buy the paper plates!" she said. "What are you coming to work for, missing your kids, busting you a$$ all day, if you can't buy paper plates?"

It was as though the gates of heaven opened and a soft breeze of relief came down. Someone had given me PERMISSION to stop trying to be super mom. To spend $6 on a frivolous convenience item and to not feel guilty about it.

That was it. I bought the paper plates. And later, the napkins, Clorox wipes, paper bowls, plastic cups, and disposable  forks/spoons/knives.

The paper plates weren't the thing. Simply cutting back on dishes did not change my outlook on being a working mom. It was the acceptance that I'm a better mom, wife, and business woman when I cut myself some slack. I can't be 100% in every aspect of my life all day, every day. So when I find ways to cut corners, I cut those corners. And I don't feel guilty about it.

When one of my play date friends returned to work, she asked me how I manage to balance it. I replied,

"I buy the paper plates."

I watched the relief dawn on her face.      


And, unofficially, The Paper Plate Society was born.

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Justine Green is a wife of 10 years, mother of three, hair stylist, and makeup artist residing near Charleston, SC. When she's not at the salon or traveling to weddings and photo shoots, she is serving meals to her family on paper plates. Sometimes those meals are homemade.