The “green” blogger on the Observer’s [1] MomsCharlotte.com isn’t even a mom; he’s a dad.  As a child, [2] Rhett Stephens grew up on a 10-acre fishing resort in northern Minnesota, where he spent much of his time outdoors. When he was 10, his parents moved the family from their outdoor haven to half a block from the freeway in Los Angeles.  “Suddenly it was all gone,” said Stephens, who lives in the SouthPark area. “It was really traumatic for me.”

He traces his whole “green sensibility” back to the move. Before going green became so chic, Stephens was using yogurt containers for his leftovers instead of Tupperware. In lieu of plastic bags, he brought his groceries home in a backpack.
Drinking glasses? A peanut butter jar does the trick.

When he was single, Stephens started paying attention to the amount of trash he produced.  Since he didn’t purchase much packaged food and was a diligent recycler, it took an average of three and a half months for Stephens to fill up one tall kitchen garbage bag.

Now that he has a wife and three small children, the garbage can fills up a bit quicker these days.  While Stephanie, his wife, heads to the law office each morning, Stephens spends his days changing diapers — yes, he uses cloth diapers and cloth wipes — folding laundry and teaching his children a thing or two about being responsible enviro-kids.  “I don’t feel like I’m missing anything in terms of being in an opposite-gendered situation,” he said. “It hasn’t felt awkward or uncomfortable, and the reception from people has been lot easier than you might imagine.”

“It was a real simple math equation,” said Stephens about choosing to be a stay-at-home dad.  Before he became a father, he worked as a journalist and an English teacher. “It was really important to both of us to have somebody stay home with our kids.”

From growing his own produce to making yogurt and granola from scratch, this eco-friendly dad shows his children the ropes. “We’re going crazy with food lately,” Stephens said.  They spend part of their outdoor time growing vegetables from seed, watering them daily with run-off from the shower and, finally, eating the fruits of their labor.
But what about the costs associated with going green?
Stephens said: “The more you change your lifestyle as a whole, it becomes more economical to be green than to not be green. Everything is sustainable once the system is in place, and the quality of the food is so much better.”
He doesn’t know any other stay-at-home dads in Charlotte, but Stephens has a network of mommy peers. When the family moved to Charlotte a year and a half ago from Los Angeles, they knew no one. But two weeks later, he was approached at a coffee shop by two local moms who invited him to a play group. “Connecting with people has always been a driving force for
me.”