Common Mom

A group I’m in, Dine In Divas, had another meal swap last night - woo hoo! More food in my freezer for those days when I just don’t want to cook. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, 7 women each make 6 meals you can freeze. It may sound like a lot, but really, for a few hours one day you just feel like a lunch lady - and who says you can’t even make a couple extra of your own meal to freeze for yourself? Anyway, then we all get together and swap food . . . so each person goes home with 6 meals to put in their freezer. Then when you don’t feel like cooking, you can grab one and voila, instant yummy meal. We try to swap at least once a quarter, which is great! Last night there were a couple women who couldn’t make it, but we went home with lasagna, pizza style meatballs, chicken and corn chowder, creamy penne with chicken and mushrooms, and tamale bake. I can’t wait to try them!

The women were giggling last night because we all had the same story. When we left for the swap, our husbands said “Bring home something good.” And we’re all like, um, I’ll bring home what they give me This was our third swap, and we’ve haven’t gotten a “bad” meal yet - but really, as far as I’m concerned, any meal I don’t have to cook is a good one!

Has anyone else formed a similar group? If you haven’t, it’s so totally worth it - I highly recommend it.

We spend many weekend days at the pool during the summer. We lather our kids up with sunblock and watch them every minute. At a busy pool, I don’t feel confident that the lifeguards can see all that happens. And besides, they’re MY kids - they’re MY responsibility. I need to keep them safe.

Never once did I even consider this potential safety hazard at the pool - especially not in the baby pool…

Accident at the Pool Article #1

Accident at the Pool Article #2

Of course we shouldn’t over-react and never let our kids swim again, but I definitely will be taking a look at the pool drains the next time we go to the pool!

Green Parenting

I saw this article on Parent Center and thought it was great. Who knew that baby wipes were so awful! My kids are long past the diaper stage, yet I still keep a container of Wet Ones in each vehicle. I’m going to put a container of hand sanitizer in there for us to use when we just want to sanitize hands and don’t need to wipe off dirt. That’s my first “green” step.

What do you do to be green?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of chaperoning my daughter’s preschool class on a trip to the zoo. The class had earned the trip by making good choices throughout the school year and filling up their jar with buttons. Each chaperone got assigned 4 to 5 kids for the day. I will be the first to admit that my daughter is no angel . . . she is a very loving, sweet, kind, smart little girl . . . but she is also very stubborn, strong-willed, and driven. However, after every event I attend for school, whether it’s attending Muffins with Mom, watching my son’s class read their country reports, or chaperoning a field trip, I’m always so proud of both of my kids. While they act like kids as much as any other 4 and 6 year old, they are courteous to adults and their classmates and they listen to direction (most of the time). Most of the kids on the field trip were very well-behaved, but I’m still always stunned by how much disrespect kids seem to have for any adult, whether it be the zookeeper, the chaperone, the teacher, or even their own parents. Some are quietly direspectful, testing you at every turn, trying to see how far they can push you (not very far with me as they found out). Others are loudly disrespectful, hitting their parents and actually yelling at teachers and sayin “No” to them! I’ve never told my children they can’t say No to adults, because they CAN say No to adults when necessary. However, we’ve also made it very clear that disrespecting their teacher, a chaperone, other parents, and their classmates is totally unacceptable. My daughter can attest to that . . . she lost pretty much every privilege she had the entire month of February for being disrespectful to Ms. Jennifer (her teacher). We made it very clear that was not acceptable, and the problem is solved.

When did we start allowing our children to be so disrespectful of grownups? I know the argument you’re all going to throw out there . . . “there are so many crazy adults out there, my kid shouldn’t have to be respectful to them.” Of course not . . . that’s why you never tell them they can’t say No to an adult - they can and should say no in certain situations. But, on the flip side, being disrespectful to teachers, grandparents, other kids’ parents, your own parents . . . those people that you’ve put your trust in to help your children through life? OMG if I ever thought of disrespecting someone like that I wouldn’t have seen the light of day for months!

Are you teaching your children to hold the door open for others, especially women and the elderly? Are you teaching your children to say Thank You to their soccer coaches, teachers, grandparents, friends’ parents, etc. just for being there and helping your child? Are you teaching your children to offer their seats to the elderly, whether on the bus or waiting for a table at a restaurant? All of this, of course, is better taught by your good example than by simply lecturing to your children that they should do these things.

I guess this is just one of those topics that’s always bugged me since I’ve been spending more and more time around kids after having two of my own. And after what I saw at the zoo yesterday with the gaggles of kids there on field trips, it really struck a chord.

Dan and I have always said that Jason did not need video games, Gameboys, etc. I mean, he’s 6! He should be running around outside playing with the neighborhood kids . . . which he does every single weekend. It’s great! When he begged for a Webkin we said no . . . so he came home from school one day with a folded piece of paper that he’d drawn on. He gave me a detailed explanation of what exactly he was holding . . . he had drawn a screen on the inside with the URL for Webkinz and the entire Webkinz screen, as well as a keyboard with all the letters, spacebar, shift, Enter, etc. Basically, he’d made himself a laptop with Webkinz on it! He then informed me “It’s a Dell.” That just about made me run off the road. Queen Taunya was nice enough to get him a Webkin for Christmas (he loves it, and actually, it’s not a bad site.) When he asked for a Gameboy, we said no - he did not need one. He’s good about not begging for stuff - no means no. However, he did come home from school with, you guessed it, a piece of paper on which he’d drawn his own Gameboy!

Before our vacation to Puerto Rico, Dan and I (reluctantly) decided to get him a Gameboy for the 6 hours we’d be spending on the airplane. We eBayed and won an auction for a Gameboy Advance SP and 50 games for $60! Woo hoo! We didn’t give it to him until we got on the airplane. He was ECSTATIC! And he did great learning how to use it on his own and putting it away before we told him he needed to take a break.

Now comes the hard part . . . how do we regulate the use at home? If it were up to me, I’d tell him he can’t ever use it - he’s only 6! But I know that won’t fly . . . especially now that he knows it exists. Dan thinks we should give him access to it like we do the computer . . . he has to ask if he can use it first and then we’ll give him some sort of time limit.

Again, if it were up to me, he wouldn’t be playing any video game type things, but we’ve given him access to the computer and WE were the ones who bought him the actual Gameboy rather than making him continue to draw his games

How do you regulate your child’s use of computers/video games/Gameboys? Any and all advice is appreciated!

One of the many decisions my husband and I made regarding our children early on was that no personal items leave the house with them. No matchbox cars, dolls, stuffed animals, or any other toy leaves the house. Not even mimi (their favorite blanket).  This made leaving the house when they were smaller SOOO easy. We grabbed the diaper bag and were gone. No whining about which toy they can bring, crying when said toy got lost at the park, or throwing a fit when mimi got dirty at the mall and had to be washed before bed time. Now that the kids are a little older, it’s great! They never ask to bring anything, and my car is squeaky clean

 What’s your best tip for painless outings with the kids?

Thanks to the best baby advice I ever received, my husband and I have enjoyed uninterrupted sleeping since our kids were very small . . . Jason was 10 weeks when he started sleeping through the night and Keira was 14 weeks. Our kids go to sleep anywhere thanks to our daily routine. That routine consists only of the following:

• Putting on jammies
• Reading a couple books
• Reading Reciting Goodnight Moon (who doesn’t know that one by heart!)
• Singing their song - You Are My Sunshine (really, what’s cuter than a 2, 3, 4 year old singing You Are My Sunshine!)

No matter what, these 4 things happen every time the kids go to bed - we even did it before naps when they were little (except for the PJs). Anything that happens before this (baths, games, etc.) is just part of the “day.” It’s actually quite amazing. They can be going a gazillion miles per hour through the entire time they put on their pajamas and we read books, but as soon as we do Goodnight Moon, they slow down and just hang out, getting their backs rubbed (or in Jason’s case, his feet tickled). Then they crawl into bed and we sing You Are My Sunshine. Goodnight hugs and kisses, a sleep well and have sweet dreams, and we’re out of their rooms, with lights out (except Jason - he’s allowed to stay up an extra 30 minutes if he reads, which he always does). We’ve been doing this exact same routine from the first day we brought each of them home. And it works EVERYWHERE - Grandma’s house, hotels, even on late airplane flights. I guess I’m figuring it works since both of our kids, who have very different personalities, respond the same way to it.

Moving on to the present, now we’re having a different kind of sleeping through the night issue. Keira (4) has decided to get up at 6:00 a.m. and come in to our room. Jason knows he’s not allowed to come in to our room until 7:00. Keira, however, thinks that if the little hand on her clock is even remotely close to the 7 that means she can come in by us. Um NO! So today I’m off to get her a digital alarm clock - that way she can actually SEE the #7 in the first position on the clock so there won’t be any more early rising. Keep your fingers crossed for me - I need that extra 30 minutes of sleep in the a.m.!

What’s your early rising child tip?

Have you ever heard someone say “There aren’t any manuals for babies!”? I have, and I totally disagree with that statement. With the multitude of books (Girlfriend’s Guide, The Baby Whisperer, What To Expect…), Web sites (babycenter.com), and live classes available, how can anyone say there aren’t manuals for babies? When we got pregnant, our insurance company even sent us a book to help guide us through the first year! I was eager to read every word of every book out there. Even after all those hours of reading and being absolutely positive my husband and I would be the most prepared new parents ever, the best baby advice I ever received came from my sister-in-law.

About a month before our due date, she said “The only unsolicited advice I’ll ever give you about babies is to establish that bedtime routine from day one.” I cannot even begin to tell you how much that advice saved my life! I am a person who needs her sleep - without a good night’s sleep, I’m not so pleasant to be around. Of course signing up for motherhood certainly wasn’t going to help me in that department! But, I took my sister-in-law’s advice and from our very first night home from the hospital, we established a bedtime routine. 6 1/2 years later, we STILL go through the same routine every night with both of our kids.

What’s the best baby advice you’ve ever received?