Easy Organizing Tips - Make Organizing Your Home a Breeze

The new year often brings the desire to improve our lives and get more organized. This article will help you start to become more organized.

What you will need are (1) Large 3 ring binder (I have a D-ring binder myself) (2) index cards (colored ones but you can color the tops of plain ones in whatever color you like-that's what I did) (3) tabbed divider pages and blank tabs (4) printer (5)envelopes (6) paper clips and the most important thing- a few hours to sit down and do the notebook.

First off you will need to print off seven blank daily schedule pages from whatever website you like the best. There are numerous ones be sure to find one that fits your needs best. Fill one out as to how you would normally spend your day. Now sit down and look at critically-see where you could arrange things for more efficiency, ease or what have you. This is probably the hardest part. Now that you have tweaked your schedule fill out five of the pages (Monday through Friday). The last two are for Sat. and Sun - fill them out how you would like.

Take the tabbed dividers and place about a dozen in your binder. (we'll label them later). Place a daily schedule behind each tab. Now take your index cards and make six equal stacks using one card for each room each day( I have three bedrooms, two baths, kitchen, living room, laundry and deck cards {it may sound like I have a huge house- don't I have a 3 bed/2 bath apartment lol!} On one set write Monday on the back, Tuesday on the next set and so on until you have done six sets. Place the Saturday set aside.

On top of the cards write a room i.e. Master Bedroom, Master Bath, Kitchen, Den, etc. Now decide what will be done in each room each day. For example my Master Bedroom cards read as follows:

Monday- Dust furniture. Vacuum
Tuesday- Blank
Wednesday-Vacuum
Thursday-Wash windows, sills and door frames
Friday- Vacuum
Saturday-Carpet clean

Set the cards up the way that would work best for you. Now place these in a small card box along with the cards that you will create for Saturday.

The Saturday cards are for the first Saturday. This day is when all the "heavy cleaning" is done-carpets cleaned, fridge and stove moved to be cleaned behind, etc. Trust me that when I say it's worth it. On this day we order pizzas.

Now type up a simple page for each day that tell basically what will be done that day.

My Monday page says that it is vacuum/sweep and mop day. Tuesday is bathroom day, Wednesday is Laundry day etc.

Speaking of laundry day-definitely set aside a day for that chore. I do all laundry related things on Wednesday-wash, dry, iron, mending, etc. That day's dinner is done in the crock-pot-one less thing for me to worry about. I will do a load on other days if the need arises-it usually does with four active children.
Put these behind the daily schedule pages.

Print put a stack of blank menu pages-fill them out Saturday night for the upcoming week. Place this on the fridge where everyone can see it. That way there will be no surprises when it comes time to eat.

I also have a section entitled "personal" this is where I have printed a sheet and filled out with everyone's information-name, DOB, insurance, drs, medications, etc. I have a section entitled "contacts" that have our friends and family information so we can contact them if need be. Arrange your notebook however fits your life best.

Phone Numbers With Rightful Owners

Being a parent with all the technology out there today can be overwhelming if you are not properly prepared. Kids seem to be getting younger and younger by the time they OWN their very own cell phone. According to a Google search the average first cell phone call is 11.6 years of age; I know their are many of us who have experienced our children using that technology a lot sooner than that. Eleven and twelve years old isn't exactly the age where any deductive reason is taking place so it is important to talk to your children about the numbers they may see.

We are always connected and available to each other, which in turn can end up being a good thing--knowing where your child is at all times; or it can be a very bad thing--your identity gets stolen and your credit gets ruined. It is very important to be aware of the numbers your children come into contact with as well as your own to prevent any malice practices. Mobile privacy is an issue that gets overlooked very easily--it's a walking hand held computer that can get viruses and spyware just like any other device.

I've been reading up more on this subject so I decided to run some tests on my teenage daughter's phone calls because as a parent I thought it was my duty to monitor who she's been talking with. You wouldn't believe what I found out about some of these people with just their telephone numbers! The internet is such an amazing and vast OPEN web space. Information gets filtered, stored, and filed every day. The tools are out there to help prevent anything from happening. Problem is that most of us will wait until something bad happens and then decide to do something about it.

If you are skeptical like I was then I suggest you try a phone number search yourself. You will see the useful applications of a phone tracer first hand. The programs make it rather easy to do; just type in the numbers and then any information associated with that is spit back out. Most will come back with personal information such as a name and street address. Often times criminal records and social media contacts such as Facebook can be discovered. All this information can help you carry out the preventive measures to keep your family phone lines free from cyber predators.

Eat Healthy, Sleep Healthy

Just as eating healthy foods is good for one's body, bad sleeping habits can lead to a toll on your body and overall health, according to Deborah Pedrik, sleep expert and founder of the Family Sleep Institute at Stamford, Conn.

According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), sleep is absolutely necessary to a person's well-being. The problem, however, is that surveys conducted by the NSF between 1999 through 2004 show there are at least 40 million Americans who suffer from more than 70 different sleep disorders. Furthermore, between 50% to 60% of adults report having sleep problems on average about a few nights a week.

Another problem we face in America is that most of these "sleep problems" people have, go undiagnosed and untreated. And over 40% of adults experience daytime sleepiness! Unfortunately, this feeling of falling asleep interfered with usual daily activities, minimally a few days each month

Environmental factors and behavioral factors can affect a persons sleep. Sleep with a comfortable pillow! Do not drink coffee in the evening!

Influences such as a noisy or too brightly lit room or one that is too hot or too cold are environmental factors that can be sort of a barrier to a good sleep. Disturbances or interruptions from other family members, for example children, can also interrupt or disrupt sleep.

The comfort and size of the bed, pillow, comforter, etc. and habits of your sleep partner are other influences that one should pay attention to. It will more than likely become your problem too if the person you sleep with snores, has difficulty sleeping, or has different sleep preferences!

Traveling, especially across several time zones, also disrupts sleep. This can upset your biological or "circadian" rhythms.

Things to stay away from so you can get good rest and sleep are drinking alcohol or caffeine during the evening or afternoon. Also, stay away from exercising close to bedtime. Following a scheduled morning and night are always good indicators you are on the right path of getting a good nights sleep. But working or doing other mentally intense activities before or right after getting into bed can disrupt sleep.

Stress in the number one cause of short term sleeping difficulties according to experts. Things such as school, work, family problems such as a marriage problem and a serious illness or death in the family. One good thing is that usually the sleep problem disappears when the stressful situation leaves or is no longer there. However, if there are underlying sleep problems or other sleep problems such as insomnia, they must be resolved otherwise if not managed properly from the start, they can continue long after the stress has passed.

Positive Discipline Techniques

There are a few steps that help to reinforce positive discipline. There are many cases where parents have gotten away from the positive aspects of discipline and use a negative approach. Positive reinforcement in order to discipline a child will go a lot further than negative ones. Discipline is what parents can use to teach their children positive behavior to ensure that their children grow up to be responsible, well behaved adults.

Parents can begin by guiding their children in the right direction. One good way to do this is by setting a good example for them. I believe that children learn what they see, sort of monkey see, monkey do. It would be hard to teach a child to act in a particular way if they are being shown the opposite behaviors. It's also very good to provide guidance to children by giving them the information that they need in order to behave.

As an example, if you do not explain to them the consequences of misbehavior, they will have no reason to want to behave the way they should. Therefore, guiding them toward the direction that you would like them to move toward is the way to go.

Another great technique of positive discipline is by supervising your children. If a child feels that they have no boundaries, they are more likely to misbehave. If they know that they have that constant support, then they are more likely to behave even when they are not being supervised.

These first two techniques cover ways to prevent your child from misbehaving. Your child will, at some point, misbehave. When this happens, you will need to explain the consequences of their bad behavior. If they are not corrected, how would they even realize that what they did was wrong and will more than likely continue doing it. There are ways to give punishments without them being negative. For instance, spanking is not always the best option. There are other ways that the point can be made just as effectively.

Rewarding good behavior is always a big part of positive discipline. If you find your child is behaving really well, then surprise them with a small treat. It does not need to be extravagant or over the top. In fact, it can be something like taking them for ice cream or letting them do something they really like to do.

As you can see, positive discipline can help you to be a better parent. Try to incorporate these into your style of parenting and hopefully more times than not, you will see a change of behavior of your children.

Single Parents and Children

Being a parent is never a cakewalk but being a single parent is a tremendously difficult job. For the most part, single parents must hold a fulltime job, chauffer the children to and from school, extracurricular activities and sporting events.

Many receive financial help for parents without adequate income while others live just barely above the income cutoff. Regardless of the financial situation, the parent child relationship can be incredibly strong and able to last a lifetime.

This help for parents without partners' article will show you how to secure and safeguard your child parent relationships and keep your kids on the straight and narrow path to a successful life.

Dealing with the Dreaded Question

The bane of the single parents universe is when their kids ask the painful question "Who is my Daddy", "Where is my Daddy", "Who is my Mommy" or "Where is my Mommy". As painful as the truth may be, widows and widowers have it easier than those who don't know where their kids' other parent is or worse, if they are in jail or simply do not want anything to do with the child.

Answering these questions can be upsetting for both the parents and children. It would be wise to consult your child's pediatrician or social worker. They will be able to offer parenting help in dealing with these difficult to answer questions.

Playing Both Roles

Being a parent is tough but having to play the role of both mom and dad is beyond anything that most people can even imagine. As mom, you have to nurture, kiss the boos and make sure that the homework is done and the rooms are clean. As dad, you need to be rough and strong and be the person who will lay down your life for them.

Being a parent is a fulltime job but if you need to be a single parent, it is like two fulltime jobs and when you add in your paying job, the average single parent is doing the work of three people!

To ease your burden, the Big Brothers and Big Sisters programs offer parenting help without partners. Both parents and children benefit from this great volunteer group. The kids get to spend quality time with adults of the same gender so that they can teach them things that a parent of the opposite sex would not be interested in such as a girl learning to do her hair and nails or a boy learning how to play hockey or change a tire.

Start with the Scouts

Single parents and children have special relationships but the parent should reach out to reliable organizations that are happy to offer help for parents raising kids on their own. Scouting is a great thing for parents and children. Boy scouts can be a great asset for single moms hoping to find a strong male influence for her son while the girl scouts is a wonderful organization for single fathers to utilize for his daughters. Both organizations are beneficial to parents and children alike.

Take Time to Talk

Parents and children must always openly communicate with each other, especially when there is only one parent available to the child. Simply talking allows a child to voice his cares, concerns and fears that would otherwise be kept deep inside of him. His emotional health depends upon the time that you are willing to dedicate to talking and conversing with each other. Strong parent child relationships truly rely on the ability to communicate with each other.

Standardized Tests - Behind Closed Doors

Some may say that standardized testing for 9-11 year olds is just a test of basic skills. But is it really? What is really behind the standardized testing veil?

This article will cover the reading component of standardized testing for grades 3-6.

If you believe that reading is basically fundamental, why do so many children miss the mark?

Reading, as you know, is more than just attacking words strung together in a complete sentence. For many elementary students this is a task mastered.

However, there is a component of reading that offers a huge challenge for children in this age group - it is called comprehension.

Under the umbrella of reading comprehension there are many skills that must be mastered. One of those skills is called "inference". Inference is a highly tested skill on the elementary standardized reading assessment. If your child is missing the mark in reading, this is probably one skill that could be the culprit.

The definition of inference states:
Inference -conclusions drawn from factual information that could
include experiences, images, words, numbers; plausible based upon
careful thought and knowledge about the world; directly connect to
the observations of facts and details

Let's take the story of Little Red Riding Hood. On the standardized test your child may see a question that reads like this.

As Red Riding Hood traveled the forest to see her grandmother what do you think the weather was like? Give a detail from the story to explain your answer.
Seems like a easy question? Here is an example of an answer that would receive full credit.

The weather was probably a little chilly and it could look like rain. It could not be hot because in the story it says that Red had on a cape with a hood. If it was a hot day she would not wear a cape over her clothes. She would use her hood for the rain.

The student answered the first part of the question about the weather. A detail from the story was used to explain why the weather would be a little chilly and why it could look like rain. It did not say explicitly in the story that it was a chilly day but, the student relied on experience and details (clues) from the story to arrive at the right answer.

These questions are especially difficult for students because the answer is never stated anywhere in the story. The story may not ever mention the weather at all. You, as the reader must look for clues. Clues found in the story. Not from facts learned from Disney or the History channel, but directly from the story. For instance here is an answer that would not receive full credit.

Wrong answer:
The weather was probably chilly because forests are usually shady and chilly.

This is probably in fact true but the question states use details from the story

Here is another inference question your child might find on the standardized test.

There is a picture of two children building a sand castle on the beach on a sunny day.

The question reads.

Why is the setting important in this picture? (setting will be discussed in a later series)

Answer:
The setting is important because you need sand to build a sand castle and the beach is the only place where there is sand.

Here is one last example of an inference question. It is generally known as a sub-set skill of inference called drawing conclusions.

In a reading passage it talks of two girls finding a snake in their back yard. One girl wants to keep the snake as a pet. The other girl moves away from the snake and replies "snakes are not good pets"

Question: How do the two girls feel about the snake? Give details from the story to explain your answer.

Answer:
One girl likes the snake because in the story it says she wants to make the snake her pet. The other girl does not like the snake because in the story it says she moves away from the snake and says snakes are not good pets.

Again, in the story, it does not explicitly say how either of the girls felt about the snake. The answer lies in the details written in the story,

For the elementary student this type of questioning can be quite difficult because a right answer depends on a child's own experience and how they themselves would connect with the details. Although these questions are difficult this is what is expected of your child on standardized testing. This is a test of your child's high order thinking skills.

So how can we, as parents, help our children to prepare for these types of questions? Here are some suggestions.

Teach your child to notice details at home. Instruct them to interpret body language from family members, when someone speaks and when they do not speak. A look from you can mean many things to your child. Have your child verbally interpret your looks. Look at pictures and ask your child to draw conclusions about what is happening in those pictures.

Here is a game you can play with your elementary child.

Make up index cards with feeling words written on them; for example, happy, sad, angry, scared etc. Tape one card on your child's back, but do not let your child see what the card says. As other family members participate give clues about the word. For example - you felt this way when __________________. You looked this way when ______________________. Give many clues until your child can guess which emotion is on their back.

As your child gets good at this game they will learn to clarify their own feelings and also make better inferences

How to Survive the First Year of Being a Mother

Being a mother for the first time can be overwhelming. They are so many things to learn to be able to perform the role effectively. Not to mention that parenting and motherhood are some of the hardest jobs in the world. It takes time and experience to know the things that will make a good parent. With the responsibilities that come with being a mother, first time mothers may experience difficulties dealing with such especially during the first year of motherhood.

The first year of motherhood is the time when mothers are just learning the things that they should be doing as a parent. During this time, they learn some of the things that are good for their babies as well as those that are not. Moreover, it is also the time when the emotional, physical, and mental well-beings of mothers are tested. Babies are known to be the bundle of joy of couples. They bring happiness and gratification to couples. However, taking care of babies can also bring frustration, exasperation, and anxiety. New mothers have to deal with the fussiness, mood swings, and feeding problems of their babies. Surviving the first year of being a mother may be difficult, but they are still ways to ease this difficulty.

Ask Advice

Since new mothers may not have all the knowledge about parenting, they can seek the advice of experienced mothers. They can be their friends, neighbors, and relatives. If they want, they can also seek the help of health care professionals. They can give them pieces of advice on how to take care of the baby, to bathe them, and to feed them. They can also share some tips on how to cope with various problems that are commonly experienced by infants as well as on how to raise a responsible children. However, new mothers should be willing to accept constructive criticism. They should weigh things up and always choose the advice or opinions that they believe is best for their children.

Expect and Embrace New Changes

Being a mother changes the lives of women in so many ways. They may no longer do the things that they used to enjoy when they are still single. There are certain sacrifices that they have to make and changes that they have to embrace to dutifully perform they new role. They have to make adjustment in their lives to accommodate the needs of their babies. It is also important that they take time to adjust to this new situation and let go of their former self and life.

Stop Making Comparisons

No mothers are the same. Each of them has her own way of taking care and raising their children. They use different parenting styles, strategies, and techniques. For this reason, it is not appropriate that mothers compare themselves with other mothers with regards to their parenting styles. Mothers should be able to trust their instincts and follow them when necessary.

Likewise, it is also not a good idea to compare their babies with other babies. The baby's development varies. Some babies may take longer to crawl or sit than other babies. Instead of making comparisons, new mothers can just enjoy every change and development that is happening in their babies as time goes by.

Have Some "ME" Time

Motherhood may take most of the time that mothers have in a day. Aside from their other duties, mothers have to constantly monitor their babies. However, it is important that mothers take some time for themselves. They can use this time to do the things that they love doing or to pamper themselves. It is also important to rekindle the romance that they have with their partners and somehow lessen the strain brought by motherhood on their relationship.

Have Enough Rest and Sleep

Aside from the "ME" time, it is also important that mothers have enough rest and sleep. Performing the duties of mothers can drain one's energy. It can also deprive mothers the sleep they need. Mothers should understand that having not enough rest and sleep can affect the way they manage their lives. They can impair their judgment, which can result to making poor decisions.

As much as possible, mothers should make the most of their free time to rest and sleep. It would be better if they pattern their sleeping schedule with their babies' sleeping schedule. This way, they are also energized by the time their babies wake up. It would also help if they ask the help of their partners in taking care of the baby. They can take turns so that each of them will have the time to rest.

Motherhood is challenging especially during the first year of the baby. But, it is also a rewarding experience. Since babies do not remain babies forever, mothers just have to enjoy every moment that they have with their children.

How To Be A Dad Today - Offer Words of Affirmation

Sometimes words of criticism come easier to our lips than words of affirmation. When a child does something we disapprove of, we are quick to jump all over them. However, when the same child does something good, we seldom say anything. If we do say something, our words of praise in no way measure up to our words of criticism. Think about that. If you are going to criticize, shouldn't you make sure that the intensity of your criticism matches the intensity of your praise? Yet how often do we go overboard in our disciplinary language and barely squeak out our words of praise.

"Well my kid never does anything right." One Dad told me this. Of course that is nonsense! There are no absolutely bad children. Would it shock you to learn that your children are behaving, at least in part, in the manner you have conditioned them to behave? It's true. If the only attention they ever get from you is negative attention, they will choose negative behavior. This is simply because no child will choose to be ignored! If you ignore their good behavior, there is no motivation for them choosing that behavior. Isn't that how you behave at work? If you constantly do right and are productive, but you are never recognized, praised, or promoted for doing so, how long do you think that behavior will last? Not long, I am sure!

The truth is, that you signed up for that job to work, not to be praised, but you still expect to be noticed for your effort. Your children, on the other hand, did not sign up to be in your family. They are not employees, or robots. They are your kids, and it is up to you to affirm the behavior you want. You must do this purposefully and consistently if it is going to be effective.

So today, you are going to make an effort to offer words of affirmation and praise. These words may sound something like this:

• Hey buddy, I sure am proud of you for how you finished your dinner.
• I really like the outfit you are wearing today.
• Do you know what? I really like the imagination you showed on that project.
• Thanks for doing your homework so quickly! I really noticed how hard you worked!
• Etc.

It's not hard, it just takes looking on purpose. Here are some additional things to help you do this today.

• Consciously keep your criticism in line with your praise.
• For every criticism or negative, find a positive to equal it out.
• Be purposeful in your praise. Look for anything you can find to praise them for.
• Don't expect an immediate reaction. Your kids may not be used to that behavior from you, so give it a little time.
• Realize your children are children. They are not adults. Don't apply adult standards to them. That isn't fair, and they can't live up to them.

Effective Consequences Series: Loss of Treasured Items

Whenever a teen breaks a rule or fails to help around the home, they will lose a treasured item, such as their cell phone or laptop. Because teens value these items so much, they will be much more likely to comply with rules so that they can continue to enjoy using these items. Many children are simply given things without restriction and begin to feel a sense of entitlement towards things that their parents have worked really hard to provide. Implementing loss of treasured items can help teach your child that their benefits are dependent on their behavior and input around the home.

What Items Can be Used as Consequences?

Any item that your teen really values can be used as an effective consequence. The more they value the item, the more likely they will be to avoid losing it. Here are some suggestions of treasured items that you can use as an effective consequence:

• Cell Phone
• Laptop
• Gaming Station
• TV
• Internet Access
• Home Phone Access
• Pocket Money
• Make-up
• Use of Car

It should be noted, for most teens, any item that allows them to see their friends or acts as an extension of their social life will be highly valued by a teen and therefore a very effective consequence. Many parents feel guilty taking their child's treasured items away from them, but it's important to remember that these are luxuries that you are providing your child with. Your child should only enjoy such benefits if their behavior and attitudes deem them deserving. If they are failing to help around the home or behave well, then they simply do not deserve these luxuries until they their behavior improves.

How Long Should my Teen Lose Their Items For?

This depends a lot on the severity of your teen's contract violation - if it is only a little mistake, maybe your teen could just lose their treasured item overnight. If it is a very severe violation your teen might lose a few items for an extended period of time. It's important that you ensure you are as fair as possible when taking a treasured item away from your teen. It is also a good idea to sit down and discuss the loss of the item with your teen, explaining how long they will lose it for, why they are losing it and with clear information as to when your teen will get it back.

Have you used a treasured item as an effective consequence before? Did you find it motivated your teen?

Does Your Child Steal, Cheat, or Lie? Dealing With Your Child's Inappropriate Behaviors

Stealing, cheating, and lying are some of the behaviors that an individual may possess. In fact, individuals might have stolen something, cheated, and lied to someone or about something at one point in their lives. These behaviors are common in young children as they do not yet know how to distinguish right from wrong. Likewise, children are also beginning to explore the boundaries or limits of acceptable behaviors.

Stealing, cheating, and lying are inappropriate and deceitful behaviors. Some children steal because they want something that they do not possess, cheat because they do not want to fail or lose, and lied because they do not want to be blamed. Although these behaviors are normal in some children, it does not mean that parents will not do anything about them. They should make sure that these behaviors do not become a habit. It is important that parents have a better understanding about these behaviors. They should be able to differentiate what is still normal and what needs professional help.

Stealing

Some children do not steal on purpose. Most of them do not really understand what stealing is. Sometimes, out of curiosity or excitement, they will just grab a thing at a department or grocery store. In other instances, children steal because they want to fit in with their classmates or friends. They believe that stealing may be the only way for them to have the thing that most of their classmates already have.

To deal with this issue, parents need to determine the reason why their children steal. It is not a good idea to call their children a thief. Instead, parents can carefully explain to their children that taking something that does not belong to them is wrong. They should also teach their children the importance of ownership and respecting other people's properties.

Cheating

Most children want to excel in everything they do. They want to achieve the best grade in class or the best player in school. Unfortunately, some of them tend to cheat just to achieve this. Children cheat by breaking or not following the rules of a game or copying the answers of their seatmate during a test.

Parents should explain to their children the different types of cheating. Some children know that what they are doing is not right but they do not assume that it is a form of cheating. It would also help if parents relay to their children the possible consequences of cheating. As much as possible, parents should encourage their children to be honest at all times and praise their efforts to be at their best in an honest way.

Lying

Trust is hard to earn again once it was broken. Lying is one of the main reasons for breaking the trust. Children lie for various reasons. Most of the time, they lie because they do not want to be punished or to disappoint their parents. Younger children may lie because they do not yet understand the difference between deception and truth.

One thing that parents can do is to be a good role model. They should prevent themselves from telling lies especially in front of their children. When children lie because of the fear of becoming a disappointment to their parents, the best thing that parents can do is to praise their children for the efforts that have exerted especially when they know that they children have done their best.

Stealing, cheating, and lying are inappropriate behaviors. As parents, it is their responsibility to teach their children good values and mold them into better individuals. Children often need the love, support, and guidance of their parents to help them become the best children that they can be.

Parenting 101: Encouraging Girls to Develop Positive Friendships

Do you have a daughter who is aged seven to twelve years old? If yes, how can you describe the circle of friends that she has? Is your daughter the type of girl who flits from one group of friends to another? Or has she been loyal to a friend who she's known since she was a young girl?

At this age group, your daughter is already venturing out into the problematic teenage years. This is precisely the reason why as a parent, you need to do everything that you can to help your daughter develop positive friendships - if she hasn't already done so.

What Parents can do to Encourage Girls to Gain More Friends

No matter what style of parenting it is that you have, the one thing that you need to make sure of is that your daughter has that proper support system around her - which she will find in the form of loyal friends. During her preschool or kindergarten days, you may have noticed how your daughter has magically developed an instant friendship with another girl. This is definitely a good thing, although it's part of the nature of young girls to develop an affinity with their best friends during this age.

As your kid grows a bit older, she may find it difficult to form new friendships. What if her kindergarten best friend suddenly moves? To prevent her from experiencing such a big loss, it is a must to encourage your daughter to have as many friends as she can.

Here are a few tips on how you can do just that:

• Be observant of your daughter's social habits.
Does your daughter have a huge circle of friends, so much so that your house gets a bit crowded during sleepovers? Or does she only have one or two best friends? If the latter applies, then do not force her to get into friendships that she may not be comfortable with. Your daughter may not be that outgoing, but the fact that she has one or two loyal friends means that this is the setup that she likes based on her personality.

• Be a role model.
Don't expect your daughter to put any value to lasting friendships if she does not see the same thing from you. If your own best friend happens to live in a different state, show your daughter how you still keep in touch. Tell her about stories of the adventures that you had when you were still kids, and how your best friend has been with you through some of the most important events in your life.

• Do something to help your daughter boost her self-confidence.
One of the reasons why kids may hesitate to develop friendships with other children is a lack of self-confidence. If your daughter is afraid of getting teased, she definitely will not come out of her shell so encourage her with words and actions so that her self-confidence will be given a boost.

• Organize activities to encourage her to gain more friends.
Finally, you can open up your home as a venue for study groups, sleepovers, baking lessons, pizza or movie nights - events which will encourage your daughter to gain new friends and deepen the bond that she has with her existing group of friends.

By keeping these tips in mind, you can get your daughter to open up to other girls and hopefully develop lasting, loyal friendships with them.

Making Eating Healthy Fun and Entertaining for Children

You may be aware of the alarming obesity statistic currently affecting more than 33 percent of all U.S. adults, but what you may not have known is that 17% of our nation's youths are also currently obese! The frightening thing is, unless children are explicitly taught about the importance of taking care of their bodies and eating nutritious foods, this statistic will only get worse over time.

Depending on how old your children are, and the types of food and snacks they eat on a regular basis, it may or may not be easy to get your children to eat in a healthy manner. Just as a child will continue to eat candy if given access to it, the same will happen with unhealthy snacks such as chips, cookies, and donuts. If we permit children to eat unhealthy snacks and also provide them with those options, then we are essentially to blame if our children become overweight, or obese.

From my experience as a teacher at an elementary school, I've noticed a wide range of snacking items students bring to school to eat during recess time. Unfortunately the majority of the choices I have seen are very detrimental to the health and nutrition of a child's developing body.

I always had students bring bags of potato chips, donuts, and cookies. Thankfully our school recently took a giant healthy leap forward and banned these options no longer allowing students to bring these types of snacks to school. Prior to that, I would have some students bring a bag of Takis Chips (basically spicy hot Cheetos) every single day and when I frustratingly asked them why, I would get a response such as "Cause they taste good and my mom buys them for me!"

The sad part about the whole situation is the students didn't even realize that those snacks were unhealthy.

If you are in the process of developing a more healthy life, and want to get your children to do the same, one way to get them interested and excited about this is by making the healthy snack fun and intriguing. Granted the effectiveness of this whole process is dependent on your child's age, but you may find that if you show enthusiasm and devotion to eating in a more healthy manner, they will readily jump on board.

Healthy Snack Options
====================

The presentation of the snack will be the biggest selling point to get your young child(ren) gobbling up the healthy stuff. Creativeness and ingenuity will be valuable assets in this process.

For instance, have you seen those fancy fruit delivery baskets by Edible Arrangements that are in essence fruit cut-outs on a stick? You can easily do this yourself (or with your child) by simply using various cookie cutter shapes and kabob sticks and then put various types of fruit shapes together. By doing this, you have the opportunity to get your kids to eat various fruits such as watermelon, oranges, pineapple, grapes, and apples. Literally anything that can be sliced and diced is a possible option to experiment with to see if your child will enjoy. This is a fun way for children to enjoy the colorful display and eat a nutritious snack too.

You can even put fruit pieces in jello, let harden, then use the cookie cutters to make a giggly healthy snack. Kids love jello!

Also think of combining snacks such as strawberries with low fat flavored yogurt. Or cereal such as Grape Nuts, Special K, and Cheerios with flavored yogurt also make a great combination.

When first giving these snacks to your child, make it as visually appealing as possible. For example, put the yogurt in a circular shape on a plate and then place small piles of Grape Nuts to make it look like a giant cookie. Or a snake shape out of yogurt on the plate and it's spots, eyes, and smile made of cereal. You can also put the yogurt in a mountainous shape (maybe have to freeze for a bit) with a trail of Cheerios spiraling around and up to the peak where you place a miniature flag.

Whatever it takes to make the snack entertaining and enjoyable for your child is what counts!

Fruit smoothies are other options you should definitely look into since there are so many different flavors and options you can create. Experiment to find out which types your family enjoy and keep those recipes handy. You can even garnish the fruit smoothie with a small tropical drink umbrella or even one of your cut-out fruit creations to spice up the visual presentation even more.

To top it off, come up with creative names for your smoothie creations such as "The Orange Blast" and garnish with a curly twist of orange peel, or the "Pineapple Perfection" with a star cut out slice of pineapple on the edge of the glass. Soon you may have your child saying, "Mom/Dad, let's have an Orange Blast!"

Build and Maintain Your Arsenal of Healthy Snacks
======================================

Keep a small kid-friendly recipe book in the kitchen where you add each of your healthy snacks that were successful. Pretty soon you will have your child looking in this book to see which healthy snack they want for that day. In essence this is what you ideally want, your child(ren) opting for healthy snacks all on their own without needing you to force it upon them.

By focusing on the presentation of the healthy snacks, you will make the experience all the more appealing and memorable for your children. You will delight in their excitement and enthusiasm towards the healthy change and find that those bags of fattening, artery clogging potato chips are a thing of the past.

Adjusting To The Kids School Run

For many parents getting up in the morning isn't only about getting their children ready for the school day, but also for getting themselves ready for a full day of work. As a result there are parents across the country who are up in the early hours of the morning making sure they've got everything they need for the day ready before they even think about helping their children.

Getting children ready for school is an entirely different matter altogether. Children never want to get up out of bed, and they need more sleep than adults as they're growing all the time, but for school they need to be up in time to work with mum or dad's morning. Children need to be washed, clothed and fed before parents even think about checking their school bag for the day, putting in the books they need and taking out what they don't.

Once parents have mastered the art of coping with all of this every morning, they need to master driving to school and dropping the children off before driving on to work or back home. For parents who don't work, school runs are a lot easier, as a lot of stuff for the next day can be prepared the day before, such as lunches and school bags. For parents who work there is precious little time in the evenings to prepare anything for the next school day, as parents also want to spend time with their children, not only doing things for them.

New parents don't need to learn to adjust their mornings to the school run for a while, but learning to cope with having it in a morning is a hard process. Firstly parents need to learn to get up in the morning much earlier to be up before their children. Then parents need to learn what their children need and make sure they can manage it all before they need to leave to go to school.

To help them adjust to needing to do the school run, some parents offer to do the school run for other parents before their children go to school. This helps them to adjust to the early mornings, and also gets their own children into the routine of getting up early and being ready for going out in the mornings. This helps parents to realise exactly what they need to be doing when their children start going to school, and it also helps other parents by taking away the need for them to drive their children to school, as well as saving money on petrol.

Warning Signs for Parents to Watch for With Their Troubled Youth

Virtually no mother or father wants to brand their child as a disturbed youth. Parents aspire to see their children be successful and productive adults. Yet, many adolescents and teens continually make choices that restrict their potential.

Experts state these are critical times for teens. They are faced with serious decisions and influences which may lead them to making poor choices. They can abuse substances, act out violently or passively, endure self inflicting pain or a variety of other issues...

But you already knew that. Your family is struggling to come up with solutions. Is it time to get further help? Do you foresee things getting worse or is this "just a phase?" How long will you give your child to get their feet back under themself? Perhaps the following list can help you decide if it's time to move forward with a more aggressive plan of action:

Look at this list objectively. Determine if there are enough warning signs to seek further help.

Education and Interests:

Has your child ever:

had their grades drop? been truant?been expelled?been suspended?

Is your child in danger of dropping out of school?

Has your teen lost interest in activities they once enjoyed? Such as sports, hobbies, or childhood friends?

Behavior:

Does your teen:

severely lack of motivation? seem depressed/withdrawn? display outbursts of temper?lack self-worth and self-esteem?

How about appearance or personal hygiene, has it changed? Think about the "normal" teenager and how far have they drifted from that typical standard?

Family and Friend Relationships:

Does the teen associate with a peer group that could be suspected of unwanted behavior?

Do you as parents, feel powerless?

Does your child defy established rules regardless of the consequences?

Troubled teens often tell lies regarding their activities? Do you notice this happening more and more, especially when you check up on your child?

Do you have difficulty having family rules and expectations followed, including basic household chores and homework?

Does you have to pick your words carefully when speaking with your child, so as not to elicit a verbal attack or even rage?

Is your child:

verbally abusive?

deceitful and manipulative?

having problem with authority?

Dangerous Actions:

Has there been problems with the law?

Has your child ever cried for help by displaying any evidence of suicide?

Have they been caught stealing money or personal items from family?

Do they display violent behavior?

Is your teen sexually promiscuous?

Do you suspect experimentation with drugs or alcohol?

No matter what the issues may be, sometimes parents become desperate when trying to deal with their troubled teen. Parents need to step forward and seek help now otherwise the problems may escalate.

Don't give up!! Have hope!

There is an array of custom made programs to fit the requirements of your child. Programs for troubled youth are there to help.There will be something to help you and have the potential to stimulate change in your own child's life. These programs range from boot camps for children, residential and therapeutic boarding schools, and wilderness camps. There is hope, your research starts here.

Answers to Some Breastfeeding FAQs

One of the most exciting moments for any married couple is that day when the stork finally arrives. There's no feeling quite like looking in the eyes of your newborn and appreciating the miracle of creation. His first cry would seem like music to your ears. You would even get a camera ready just to capture that moment when your baby is ushered into this world.

As a mother, there are tons of chores and responsibilities you will need to perform to properly raise your child, and these responsibilities start right at that moment your little one comes out of your womb. To make sure your baby is well taken care of, you need to know how to nurse and feed him properly. Here are answers to some FAQs in terms of nursing basics if you're a first-time mom:

When do you start breastfeeding? - Experts say that the minute your baby is delivered, start breastfeeding him. After delivery, your body will produce a special type of milk called colostrum. Even though you produce only small amounts of it, it will help in protecting your little one from infection. Don't worry if you're only producing small amounts of it: it's perfectly normal. Besides, your newborn's tummy would still be small at this time, so he won't need huge amounts of milk right away.

How often should you nurse? - Although, there's really no ideal number as to how often you should breastfeed, you can target within the range of 8-12 times for every 24-hour period. Whenever there's a chance, breastfeed your baby. The more frequent you do so, the more amounts of milk you will produce. Every time you see your newborn showing signs of hunger like increased alertness, that's your cue to nurse him.

What if you can't be around all the time to breastfeed your baby? - If you're a working mom and you can't be available to nurse your baby whenever he gets hungry, the solution is to pump your breast milk and store in a feeding bottle. This way, you can still work and have the assurance that your baby still drinks your breast milk even when you're not around. You may need to use a breast pump to stimulate your milk production.

Is there a specific diet you need to have while breastfeeding? - There's no special diet for breastfeeding moms. A normal diet is good enough for it. But you have to make sure that your diet is well balanced. You may feel a bit more hungry than usual while you breastfeed, so make sure you eat healthy snacks between meals so you can sustain your energy.

Your goal is to provide your baby with as much of your breast milk as you can, especially during the first six months after his birth. This is to ensure that your little darling gets the right amount of nutrients and is protected from certain health risks.

Honoring Life, The Conscience 6

Becoming a better man will definitely take into account the sixth commandment,

Thou shall not kill

When life is looked at, it is truly precious. From the moment of conception to birth, from infancy to adolescence, from teen to adulthood, we can see the miracle of life. In Psalms 139:13-14 David states, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made... ;"

It's obvious that God is the creator of life, and it makes sense that he does not want us to destroy what he has created. Hence the sixth commandment, Thou shall not kill. Our conscience bears witness with this commandment that we are to honor life. When we hear of someone being murdered, especially someone who represents innocence, our consciences are pricked, and we know that a grievous evil has been committed.

Life is sacred and honorable. As the scripture states, we are ALL fearfully and wonderfully made! Unfortunately, throughout history and even today we see examples of this simple thought process not being followed. I believe the root of murder, in fact, the root of all evil is selfishness. It is selfish to look at my needs, my desires, my life as significant and someone else's life as insignificant.

To be real men we must respect the dignity and life of every one. It is a sad and little person who does not respect and honor the life of his neighbor. What right do any of us have to take the life of another? It's purely selfish, cowardly, and evil for one to not value the life of his fellow man.

I believe that the true mark of a real man is love. I'm not talking about a romantic or platonic kind of love. What I'm talking about is an Agape, Godly love. This is a type of love that respects and honors the dignity and life of all people. This must be the overriding and commanding spirit in a man. A spirit of murder and malice cannot live and thrive in a heart that is filled with this kind of love. Again, when this kind of love is the commanding force in a man, murder and malice won't find any space to occupy in his heart.

Galatians 6:9 states, "Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap." If you sow love and life, you will reap love and life. If you sow murder and hatred, you will reap the same in this life, and death and destruction in the life to come. Well you may be thinking, I have never murdered anyone, so I've got this one covered. Well, Jesus opens up the spiritual nature of this commandment in Matthew 5:21. Let's look at his words. "You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court. But I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart) against him shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court." What Jesus is saying is that if you are angry at someone without just cause, if you have malice or hatred in your heart, you're just as guilty in God's eyes as if you had committed murder.

I think one of the things Jesus is teaching us here is that God looks at the intentions of our heart. All of our actions begin with what's in our heart. Malice, hatred, and an absence of true love can lead to the unthinkable. However when agape love is present in our hearts, it directs us to respect the dignity and value of all people, and leaves no room for the seed of malice and hatred to take root. That's what real men do. They cultivate this love in their hearts. Look at the great men of the past like Marin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln. They were not perfect, but out of the love in their hearts they changed their own world and ours for the better. They are great and held in honor because of the lives they touched and the love that they spread.

Now look at a couple of the tyrants of the past. Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin. They did not cultivate love and life. Out of the hatred in their hearts, out of their selfishness they caused pain and suffering. They were anything but examples of real men.

If we as men would cultivate the love of God in our hearts, then we would change not only our own lives for the better, but also the lives of countless others. This is what real men do. They cultivate and spread godly love and compassion like lights shining from a city on a hill. When we cultivate love and compassion in our lives, the only direction we can go is up. With love in our hearts, there is no choice but for us to become better men. May we all follow our conscience and keep murder, hatred, and malice from our hearts, and men, we can change the world.

Parenting, Do We Love It or Do We Secretly Hate It?

It is no secret that the relationships we have with our children, teach us more than any other relationships we have. When it comes to evolving as a person, nothing provides a steeper learning curve than parenting does. Much of this is due to the attachment we feel for our children. The love that a parent holds for their child is it's own, unique kind of love and it is true that you cannot know or learn from that kind of love unless you become a parent. But just because we love our children more than anything on earth does not necessarily mean that we love parenting. And disliking parenting does not mean that we do not love our children.

Universally, the parent child relationship was designed to be a relationship of contrast. It is a relationship that is meant to show us what we do not want and thus inspire us towards what we do want. As an infant (even if we are born to the best of parents) we still have to deal with the experience of being dependent on someone else. We have to experience being physically out of control of our own wellbeing. That is not an enjoyable thing to experience for any being. It is contrast, contrast that inspires us to desire autonomy. Staying focused on and lining up with that autonomy is what causes our physical structure to age and begin performing autonomous actions like walking and using utensils to feed ourselves.

As parents, we experience a great many things that are not enjoyable to experience. Things like changing diapers, cleaning up throw up, trying to train our children to get along in a society that we don't even like most of the time, being responsible for another person's physical well being, not being able to go somewhere on a whim at eight o-clock at night because we can't leave our children at home, and listening to a sesame street song so many times in a row that it is now keeping us awake at night (the list goes on and on). There is a reason that parents have often felt like once they have children their life is over. It is because when we opt into the role of parenthood, we are opting into all of the lessons that go along with that. We are choosing the fast track. Every time we experience those unenjoyably parts of parent hood, it causes us to give rise to the idea of what we would prefer both for ourselves and for our children. For example, when we feel resentment because we have to take care of our children instead of do what we really want to do (like go dancing), we desire our child to be autonomous. Which is a desire that they, themselves share. And our desire for them to achieve autonomy is creating their autonomy. In essence, we co-create the experience of our children physically aging so they can become autonomous.

Childhood isn't supposed to be purely enjoyable; neither is parenting. If it were purely enjoyable, there would be no expansion born from the experience. There would be no forward movement. You wouldn't be inspired towards anything. You wouldn't desire anything new and as a result, you wouldn't create or become anything new. As parents, we have been cultured to believe that the role of parenting is sacrosanct. We are cultured to believe that if we admit that we do not like parenting, that we are somehow betraying and abandoning our children. This is not the case. In fact (though there are always exceptions) most people, who are parents, don't actually like parenting. What they love is the connection they have with their children. What they love is those magic moments when their child falls asleep on their chest or takes their first step or enjoys some part of life. When people say they love parenting, what they actually love is feeling valid. Being responsible for someone's well being and being needed makes us feel validated. That is what we actually enjoy, not the actual act of changing a diaper. For people who do not derive their value from being needed, parenting can feel more like torture. But this does not mean that we will be terrible parents. It does not mean that we made a mistake by becoming a parent. And it does not mean that we do not love our children as much as those who are actually validated by their role as parents do.

It is human nature to personalize everything. That is why we have a very difficult time differentiating between parenting in general and the actual child we are parenting. While some children are more difficult than others to parent, disliking parenthood has nothing to do with one child or another child. Instead, it is a dislike of the role that we are playing. This differentiation can easily be explained by looking at the example of marriage. You can love a person intensely and still not enjoy marriage in and of itself. When this is the case, it is not because of the person you married, but because there can be some very unenjoyably aspects of trying to stay in harmony with another person all the time. After all, for most of us, it is hard enough to stay in harmony with ourselves.

We perpetuate the lie that we all love parenting because we are so afraid of what it means about us as people if we admit that we don't. We fear that it makes us a bad person. We're afraid that other people will think that we do not love our children, and think that we are a bad person because of it. We're also afraid that our children will personalize it and think that it is their fault that we do not like parenting. But we suffer when we perpetuate the lie that we all love parenting. We feel intense guilt, we feel as if we do not deserve our children and as if we are somehow defective because we don't enjoy parenting. And the truth is, it is a rare, rare parent who does not secretively feel the same way. We just don't want to admit it to each other.

It is OK for those of us that dislike parenting to admit it. We do not have to love parenting in order to love our children, just like our children do not have to like being parented in order to love us. Who does like being told what to do? Who does like being disciplined? Who does like someone else dictating what you will and wont do today? The answer is: no one. If we admit that we do not like parenting, we are admitting to where we are. We can only move to where we want to be, once we have admitted to where we are. And we can use what we do not like about parenting to re-define parenting. We can re-design our role in our children's lives so as to experience much more of what we do love about our relationships with our children. Just because society has defined what parenting is, doesn't mean that definition is correct. In fact, much of what we consider to be good parenting may not actually be good parenting. It is time to ask ourselves if the idea that we have of parenting serves us, or causes us pain. It is time to ask ourselves what we want parenting to be like and start heading in that direction. Great parenting is not the result of doing things the way they have always been done. Great parenting is the result of change and innovation.

The time has come to differentiate between loving people and loving the roles we play for other people. It might just benefit our children if they grew up understanding the difference between loving a child and loving the act of parenting in general. Culturing this understanding may just allow them to grow into the role of parenthood with eyes wide open, and with full knowledge that it will be a relationship of contrast. The moral of the story is that it is enough to simply love your child. You do not have to love parenting to unconditionally love your child. And you do not have to love parenting to be an amazing parent.

Tips to Have a Well Dressed Kid for Less

As a parent of three, I've tried many different techniques to save money on my children's clothing. I have shopped in the larger discount chain stores because of the significantly reduced prices they offer, only to find that the quality of the clothes didn't hold up over time, or that they were limited in their selections and styles. And while I love to have my sons and daughters dressed in fashionable, high quality clothing, I didn't want to have to take out a small bank loan every time it was time to update their wardrobes. The following tips are ways that I've discovered to keep my children on the best dressed list with family and friends while keeping my budget under control.

1) Wait out the new collections - While you may be tempted to buy the newest lines as soon as they hit the store racks or websites, waiting as little as one to two weeks after they become available can offer significant savings, as much as 20-30 percent.

2) Go back for price adjustments - Most stores, including high-end retailers, offer price adjustments for clothing that has gone on sale within a specific period of time from your original purchase. Learn the policies of your favorite stores and leverage the knowledge of the sales clerks regarding upcoming sales. If I see an item that I think is too nice to pass up, I will ask about future reductions, and I time the full price purchase within the window that I can get an adjustment, usually 14-30 days post initial purchase. Again know the rules of your retailer, some may require that you only bring back the receipt, others may require you to bring back the actual items in order to get your reduction. This works for both brick and mortar and online stores. And remember if they can't adjust the price, you can always cancel/return and repurchase.

3) Join Rewards Programs and sign up for email lists - Some stores like Gymboree offer member Rewards Programs. By signing up, at no initial cost, you will earn points toward future discounts that can be used toward the purchase of any item in the store. Some retailers will send you coupons in the mail when you have achieved a certain point level. Joining email lists also is a no cost way of receiving discounts or being alerted to sales. Many stores will even give you a coupon/promo code just for signing up.

4) Know the Retailer's Sales/Promos schedules - Many high-end retailers offer yearly sales or ongoing promotions to help make their products more accessible. Nordstrom's, a high-end department store, has twice yearly sales for children's clothes, where they drastically reduce their prices. And if you know the date of the sale through their mailings and want to avoid the crowd, plan on shopping a couple days early, and go back in after the sale is over for those price adjustments.

5) Premium Outlets - Over the past decade, many designer outlets have sprung up across the country. No longer do they just offer overruns or manufacturer defects. Instead, designers like Tommy Hilfiger, Polo, J.Crew, or NauticaKids offer their lines at 15-20 percent less than their regular price. In addition, stores like Gap or Gymboree offer last season's clothes at significantly lower prices. Many times I've re-purchased a favorite outfit for my daughter at the Gymboree outlet a year later in a larger size. Also, high end retail department stores like Nordstrom's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus offer their same clothing lines in their sales outlets: Nordstrom Rack, Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, and Last Call Neiman Marcus. You may have to search the racks a little more to find what your are looking for, but the resulting savings are worth it.

6) Browse for Coupons - We're not alone in trying to find bargains or savings for our kids. With the advent of sites like coupon cabin or retail me not, people all over share and post promo codes that have worked for them. Whenever I shop online, just prior to checking out, I search for promo codes on my favorite websites or through search engines like Google. You can sometimes find 10-30 percent off discounts and/or free shipping promotions that can help you save big.

Having your child look good and feel good about the way they dress doesn't have to empty your wallet. The savings are out there if you just know where to look.

Suicides Caused by Cyber Bullying - Signs to Look For

Bullying is at epidemic proportions in our community. Our headlines are filled with stories about young people who commit suicide from being bullied. There are different types of bullying. In this article I will give a brief explanation of cyber-bullying and provide signs to look for.

What is Cyber-Bullying? Since the internet and mobile web we have become a part of our lives, bullies have brought bullying into these areas as well. Commonly called "cyber-bullying," bullying by electronic communication is a serious, yet often dismissed problem. However, statistics show that in fact, it may be worse than traditional bullying.

Suicide: Over 14% of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7% have attempted it. Girls between the ages of 10-14 years old may be at even greater risk of suicide. That risk goes up exponentially when the victim is taunted over sexual orientation: gay, lesbian, and transgender students are far more likely to be bullied into a suicide attempt. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year.

Parents and caregivers can only actively prevent suicide attempts if they know that their child is in emotional turmoil. Below are several signs to look for.

• A sudden change in behavior or temperament. There may be any number of things that could cause an otherwise healthy child to "turn on a dime" and become like someone else. Changes can be a warning sign of youthful thoughts of suicide, despondence, or drug addiction. Regardless of the reason, sudden alterations in the child's sense of self should be noted and examined.

• An unexplained preoccupation with death. It is perfectly normal for children to be fascinated by death after their first real experience with it, be it the loss of a grandparent, the family pet, a classmate, etc. However, an unhealthy preoccupation with morbid interests may point to a darker motive than mere curiosity. Understanding why your child holds these interests is an important step in assessing his or her emotional health.

• Preparing "final arrangements" for their pets or belongings. If a child you know is writing out a will or suddenly giving away cherished possessions, something is going on to disturb the child's emotional state. Though it is a terrifying notion for any parent to consider, this is a major sign that a child or teenager feels he or she has nothing to live for. Ask them why they suddenly feel the need to rid themselves of their belongings. If your child indicates that he "won't need these things soon," get immediate mental health care from a qualified professional.

• Suicide threats. There is a terrible misconception that people who intend to kill themselves won't talk about it; but that simply isn't true. Many people-suicidal youth included-will express their feelings of despair through either verbal or non-verbal means. They may write a suicide note, but tell you it's just a poem if they are confronted about it. They may make direct or indirect statements to the effect of having nothing to live for or a longing to die. If you hear or see any such threats of suicide (especially when combined with other signs), take them seriously; they may be indicators that the child is seriously contemplating removing themselves from this world. That's not a risk any parent should be willing to take.

Parenting Classes Can Offer Much Needed Guidance and Resources

As exciting as it is to become a parent, have you ever taken the time to look at how tired and worn out some parents look? Parents have a lot of responsibilities to handle when it comes to raising children. It doesn't matter if you are becoming a parent or have been a parent for some time, sometimes a little help can go along way. Parenting classes are a great resource. They offer plenty of help and assistance for those who feel they are in need of some personal time or guidance.

There are a lot of sacrifices you have to make for the wellbeing of your children. One of those sacrifices is your personal time. When you have to work, maintain a household, and look after one or several children, it can become very easy for you to lose your sense of self and freedom. This can cause you to neglect your appearance and may even affect your sanity at times. You don't have to feel as if you are at the end of your rope. Just go to some parenting classes and let them provide you with some relief.

Bring your children with you if you can't find a babysitter. There are plenty of activities for them to participate in while you are relaxing and mingling with other parents. You can make friends and even get a massage or participate in some fitness classes. You can learn a new skill or simply learn some useful parenting skills. While you are getting some much needed rest and relaxation, your children are socializing with other kids their age. They get a chance to burn off some of their seemingly endless energy.

Of course parenting classes offer more than some free time for everyone. If you are struggling and need some help, you can find it here. If you can't afford or are having trouble finding clothing for you or your children, the staff at the center can provide you with some options. They can also provide you with information for other places that have easy to access clothing for you and your family as well. The same goes for food and even financial assistance. You don't have to struggle or feel overwhelmed while you are trying to raise your family.

Parenting classes can also provide some help when it comes to co-parenting. Everyone knows that raising a child can be tough. It can be even more challenging when you have to share that responsibility with someone else. In order to help reduce the amount of disagreements and negative factors that can affect a home's environment and relationships, parenting classes can teach you and the other parent how to effectively work together to create and foster a happy and positive environment for your children. By giving your children a healthy environment to live in, you can provide them with an exceptional quality of life as they grow up.

Pretty Princess Party Treats That Will Best Complement Your Royal Fiesta

Your pretty princess birthday party would be incomplete without some savory food that any little princess would daintily enjoy. The cute guests dressed up in pink gowns, wearing little white gloves and tiaras, and holding scepters in their hands deserve a royal treat and you as a host should make all efforts to ensure your guests are satisfied with the menu. Here are some food ideas that are great choices for princess theme parties.

Princess sandwiches

The ladies in your party would love relishing miniature sandwiches having strawberry jelly, cheese slices, fruit slices, and other royal ingredients. To give them a whimsical look, cut them in the shapes of stars and hearts using cookie cutters.

Princess wands

Let the princesses enjoy some royal treatment by relishing the edible wands that you can make using marshmallows, rice cereal and pretzel rods. Melt the marshmallow, mix it crispy rice cereal, press it, and use a star-shaped cookie cutter to shape it. Insert the pretzel rods into each star and decorate them using edible sprinkles. You can also wrap them individually and give them away as party favors.

Princess cookies

Bake some homemade butter and sugar cookies in various princess themed shapes such as butterfly, frogs, crowns, stars, hearts, and many more. Apart from being a party food, such cookies would be a great addition to your treat bags. You can also use these cookies for some fun party activity. Ask the kids to pick a cookie of their favorite shape and decorate it using various edible supplies such as icing, sprinkles, small candies, chocolate chips, and much more.

Fruit tray

The royal ladies would love to be served with some fresh fruits such as apples, bananas, strawberries, grapes, and much more. Serve some strawberry-flavored yogurt along with this fruit tray and let them choose their favorite fruits. This healthy party food idea would be admired by your health-conscious guests.

Smoothies

Fruit smoothies served in champagne glasses are sure to add an authentic touch to your royal fiesta. Strawberry, peach, mango, and banana smoothies would be some of the best options to consider.

Princess cupcakes

These cupcakes will be the center of attraction of your pretty princess birthday party and therefore, should be very delicious and attractive. Bake some vanilla flavored cupcakes at home or purchase them from your nearby bakery. Frost them with white icing. Cut out tiara shapes from pink sour power strawberry belts and put them at the center of the cupcake. Now decorate the cupcake with edible sprinkles, stars, chocolate chips, glitters, etc. Refrigerate them for an hour.

To add excitement to your party food, used themed pretty princess birthday supplies such as plates, cups, napkins, etc. to serve your guests. This food menu is sure to appeal the taste buds of your guests.

The Difficult Role of Parenting

For years I have had parents come to me asking about how they can change their children or improve their own parenting skills. Unfortunately, they often have the illusion that they can control their children and therefore orchestrate the choices the young ones make in order to ensure that their own goals for the child are met.

The truth is that you cannot control another person and if you think that you can it will only lead to feelings of frustration and disappointment. As the child ages and continues to make choices that seem unacceptable to the parents, it can become more and more upsetting and the relationship will suffer.

Some parents blame the child when s/he is not living up to their expectations. Others blame themselves, thinking that they have lost or never had the ability to influence the child.

Even though caring for an infant is demanding, at least you can physically put the child in a crib or playpen to get a break once in a while. Their unrelenting dependence on you might nurture the idea that you will continue to be responsible for every single detail throughout the child's entire life. Not true.

In adolescence, a teen often is torn between wanting to live as a child and wanting to live as an adult. It's kind of like having one foot on a pier and one in a canoe. This can be confusing and difficult for both parent and child.

By the time the child has become a young adult, the parents can often feel that they are left out of secrets that the child seems to be harbouring, disrespected in their roles and quite helpless when it comes to getting their offspring on what they believe is the "right track".

Unfortunately, there is little training that will help prepare to become parents and none of it is mandatory. In fact, most parents do not look for help until a problem arises. As difficult as it might seem to be, there is a need for all parents to learn how to let go as the child ages and eventually merely serve as a support and resource only when the child requests advice.

The bottom line is that work usually needs to be done with the parents more than with the child at all stages of the child's development... Strategies to help the child enjoy healthy and safe, feel loved and at the same time learn boundaries that foster respect are best taught when the child is young.

In adulthood, however, it is usually the parent who needs to learn to not be taken advantage of, handle their emotions and focus on their own situation rather than the choices their child is making.

Detachment is a condition involving emotional distance between parent and child. At its extreme, they are not emotionally close but instead live very independent lives.

Enmeshment, on the other hand, is a term used to describe a situation where individuals interweave their lives and identities so closely that they cannot function independently.

Neither detachment nor enmeshment is a healthy parent/child relationship condition. In fact, a healthy relationship requires that the parent and child function in the space between detachment and enmeshment. Learning how to make this happen begins when the child is born and, over the years, requires wisdom and patience. Often, being the parent prevents one from having the distance in order to assess and change things in a positive direction.

Samuel Clements, the author of Tom Sawyer, humourously suggested that when you have a baby you should put it into a large barrel with only a small hole through which you would feed the child. When the child becomes an adolescent, you should seal the hole!

This is not appropriate advice but does remind us that parenting is easier if you remember to laugh and hold onto your sense of humour.

Oh, and remember, the brain does not physically quit growing until a person is twenty-four years of age. Perhaps that is why some parents claim that as their child grew older they seemed to think that the parents became smarter!

If you are having problems trying to figure out how to have a healthy relationship with you child, try booking an appointment with a psychologist who specializes in family work. It's good to have support and the perspective of a professional to help you through a difficult time.

Organizing Your Kids Rooms

Is your kid's room a disaster area right now? A lot of parents feel overwhelmed this time of year because the kids are cooped up with the cold weather outside and they just acquired a lot of new toys and clothes for Christmas. It's a great time to ring in the New Year right with some great organization tips for parents and kids. Teach children to organize their rooms and closets using children's hangers and other kid-friendly items.

Store Summer Clothes in Just a Few Inches of Space

If you haven't done it yet, it's a great time to get rid of old clothes and toys that have been outgrown and organize with the new stuff. Make sure that summer items are packed away and stored. You can cascade children's hangers from each other and hang summer clothes in long strings from one sturdy children's hanger. Then, put the clothes into garment bags and store them in the back of the closet. Several items can be stored in one garment bag, so it makes it easy to put everything away for the winter while only using a few inches of space on the hanging bar. Save those shelves for some of those new toys.

Get Creative with Stuffed Toy Storage

Does your child have about 20 cubic feet of stuffed animals? Did Christmas only add to the giant fluffy mass that has to go somewhere in your child's room? Create storage for all of your baby's babies with "pet nets". These triangle nets attach to the corners of the room and make an easy place for your child to toss in stuffed animals. Use extra nets to create net shelves to catch all of the stuffed animals in the room. Another great idea is to empty out an old bean bag and use it as a hidden stuffed animal storage bag. Your child can still use the bean bag for reading, video games, or reading, but the stuffed animals will be hidden away inside.

Make Room for Toys by Organizing Clothes

Is there a hard-fast rule that says dresser drawers must be used for clothes? Most people find that dresser drawers simply hide articles of clothing that you don't use very often and get crammed so full that you have to pull everything out to find what you need. Ditch the idea of using the dresser for clothes and use it to organize some of those toys. Get your child some childrens hangers that will help them to coordinate outfits, see what they have clean without digging, and make the best use of their closet space.

The Importance of Outdoor Play With Children

"Christopher Robin was sitting outside his door, putting on his Big Boots. As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was going to happen, and he brushed the honey off his nose with the back of his paw, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look Ready for Anything."

-A.A. Milne

As Christopher Robin and Pooh get ready to begin their Expedition for the North Pole, it reminds me that childhood is filled with opportunities for many grand adventures. For children, these adventures occur in the form of play, and, just as the North Pole is a thing to be discovered by Pooh, play is a time filled with discovery, growth, and creativity. Play is a natural and universal part of typical childhood development. It provides children with cognitive, emotional, physical, and social developmental experiences.

The benefits of play include:

• It facilitates growth and health
• Children develop an understanding of social relationships
• Children learn problem solving skills
• Children learn communication skills
• It increasing confidence, trust in self, and develop a sense of mastery
• Children develop a personal identity separate from the family unit
• It involves the body and movement
• It engages the senses
• Children learn friendships
• It is a creative experience
• It can be spontaneous
• It's exciting and fun!

Outdoor Play

Outdoor play is just as essential, if not more so, for healthy cognitive, emotional, physical and social development. There has been a significant decrease over the last few decades in regard to the amount of outdoor play time children take part in. Over that same time period there has been a significant increase in the amount of children's screen time, in the form of television viewing, internet/computer usage, and video games usage, to the point where many children spend forty or more hours per week engaged in such activities. Additionally, dual-income families have become the norm, and parents are working longer hours and bringing work home. Organized youth sports have expanded tremendously to the point where many three or four-year old children are playing in town recreation leagues. Children are faced with increased pressure to succeed academically with the push for longer school hours, more homework, and higher standards resulting from globalization, rapid advances in technology, and high stakes testing. All of these changes have resulted in reduced time for children to take part in outdoor play. Over the same time period a corresponding increase has been noted in regard to childhood obesity, childhood type II diabetes, high blood pressure in children, the number of children with significant mental health problems, and the amount of children who are prescribed medication because they can't focus in school or who are disruptive in class.

The importance of outdoor play with children cannot be overstated. Outdoor play allows children to engage their senses, explore the world, learn about themselves, increase physical activity, increase neurotransmitters that improve mood and increase happiness, improve concentration, focus, and problem solving, increase creativity, and use their imagination. Children take part in the grand adventure of childhood when they play outside. They are able to discover how the world works and where they fit in. They can experiment and learn from the results; if they fail they can try again. Outdoor experiences teach children the scientific method and how to persevere. This is not the same as watching television and being fed someone's version of how the world works or how it should work. Children who play outside tend to have a deeper, more meaningful understanding of events.

Children can watch a television show of people sledding down a snow-covered hill. The people are smiling and laughing; they are dressed warmly in winter coats, snow pants, boots, hats, and gloves; their cheeks are rosy red. The bright yellow sun glistens off of the freshly fallen snow; they hop aboard their sleds and seem to pick up speed as they go down the hill leaving tracks in their wake. At the bottom of the hill they laughingly get off their sleds and trudge back up the hill with them to repeat the process. A child who views such a show would have a general understanding of sledding down a hill however; children who play outdoors and experience these events might have a different understanding of them. These children would understand the struggle of getting into layers of clothing, the feelings of warmth and heaviness of the winter coat, snow pants, and boots. They would know how difficult it is to put on that second glove and either ask for help or use their teeth to pull it up over their coat sleeve. At the top of the hill these children would feel the light, cold breeze blowing against their face and experience their cheeks tingle as the coldness enveloped them. They would smell the clean emptiness of winter and have to cover their eyes due to the sun's brightness. Their boots would crunch on the packed snow as they awkwardly carry the sleds to a starting point. They would feel the thrill of anticipation as they prepare to push against the snowy ground, realizing that their gloves are now slightly damp. After propelling themselves forward, their feeling of excitement would grow, they may scream or shout, their hearts pounding and adrenaline flowing as the wind rushes unfeelingly past them while they bump their way to the bottom of the hill. Finally, they triumphantly reach they bottom of the hill feeling exhilarated by the thrill of the experience. They excitedly jump off their sleds, boots sinking into the snow with some falling in resulting in a sudden iciness on their sock; it is ignored as they grab their sleds and climb up the hill, feeling the strength of their legs and the excitement of the day as they repeat the process. The children who experience the activity outdoors are going to come away with a richer and fuller understanding of sledding. They will have an emotional, physical, cognitive, and social understanding of sledding. In essence, it will be a multidimensional understanding of the activity, winter, and the people who sled with them.

The Importance of Outdoor Play for Mental Health and Behavior

There are an increasing number of students who have mental health and behavior concerns that attend public schools. These students may seem lethargic, overactive, belligerent, anxious, unmotivated, depressed, angry, frustrated, or uncaring. Outdoor play is especially important for these children. Playing outside increases children's physical activity; increased physical activity has been linked to increased levels of neurotransmitters that affect mood, anxiety, and stress. Therefore, outdoor play has positive physiological outcomes for these children as it reduces stress, anxiety, and depression while improving mood and happiness.

Outdoor play is also beneficial for these children as it provides them with a sense of mastery. These children often feel little control over events in their lives, and they are frequently unsuccessful academically and socially. Outdoor play experiences afford these children an opportunity to be successful and experience the world on their terms and at their pace. The success they experience in their outdoor play often translates into increased academic and social confidence.

Overall, outdoor play is an important childhood experience. It impacts all cognitive, emotional, physical and social development while fortifying children against stress and other negative life events. Outdoor play allows for multidimensional experiences and understanding of the world. Childhood, as is life, is a journey. Tell children to spruce themselves up, go outside and play, be ready for anything, and let it be a grand adventure.

Celebrating You!

The new year is here so it's out with the old and in with the new, so why not celebrate you. Yes that's right how about you look at all the things that make you wonderful and uniquely you. The fact that you made it to 2013 is reason enough, many different people of all ages do not make it to see 2013 and you did! YYYYYEEEEAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

SAY YES TO YOU MORE

Yes and Yea or Yay, are two of my favorite words. We don't hear those words often enough. Why wait for someone to say yes to you or cheer you on. Why not do it for yourself? If you feel silly at first do it silently. The point is that you do it. After a while it will become second nature, a habit. It is sooooo good for you too. You will instantly feel a change in your mood for the better.

GETTING STARTED WITH SAYING YES TO YOU

I know this might not be an easy thing to do at first so I'm going to give you some examples of when to do it. Keep in mind that at first it might not be easy to start saying it to yourself first so you can start with other things like:

1. You see this beautiful dress and you know that you could rock it better than a rock concert with Mick Jagger, Marone 5 and Jimi Hendrix combined. SAY YES!!!

2. The car of your dreams is in a magazine. SAY YES!!!

3. The love of your life be it your spouse, mate or child just smiles at you. SAY YES!!!

4. You just made a delicious meal your family is raving about, or you put yourself together just so and are really hot to trot! SAY YES!!!

Are you getting the picture? You don't always have to say it out loud you can just say it to yourself, but even if you just say it to yourself there's only one requirement. You see those exclamation points at the end of the "yes". They are there to show excitement, emotion, feeling. So it can't be the kind of "yes" like someone is calling you and you say "yes". No sirree Bob that's not going to cut it. This is a celebration we are talking about here. So it has to carry some spice, some sizzle, some yeah I know I got it going on! It cannot, I repeat it cannot be a wimpy yes.

SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS

Once you've gotten in the habit of "Yes!" turn it on yourself, for any and everything you want for yourself and others. Any time you see, hear, or experience anything that makes your heart sing, makes you happy, feel divine or lovely or excites you give it a "Yes!" Also remember to "Yes" others as much as possible you will find that that makes you feel just as good. You are acknowledging to yourself all that is good and right with the world and yourself. Doing this will always make you feel good. Please try this and let me know how it turned out for you. I'd love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below.

Ready, Set, Sit! Helping New Teen Babysitters Find Safe Jobs

Your teen is ready to babysit. But are you ready to send her to a stranger's house to care for the children of people you don't know well or perhaps not at all? Most babysitters start out by sitting for relatives, such as younger brothers and sisters and cousins, or family friends. In fact, the most frequent babysitting job in the U.S. is babysitting for younger school age siblings. Another good first babysitting job is having your teen watch a relative's or close neighbor's child while the child's mother is at home, but doing other work. This allows new sitters to practice babysitting skills with a parental "safety net" in place.

However, what if relatives and family friends are not a source of babysitting jobs for your teen? In that case, as a parent, it's only natural you'd want play a role in helping recruit your teen for the best and safest babysitting jobs possible. Suggest his name to your neighbors and co-workers but be honest with yourself about your teen's limitations. If he's just starting out as a babysitter, he should start by babysitting for only one (One is ideal!) or two children at one time. More than two children (especially with the dangers in the environment) are too hard to guard. Short babysitting jobs are also best for new sitters. The job is too long if it's more than three hours when the children are awake and more than five hours when the children are sleeping.

Preschoolers (3 to 5 year olds) are the best age group for young babysitters to begin babysitting for. You shouldn't have your young teen start out babysitting for infants or toddlers. She shouldn't care for an infant less than six months of age until she's had at least two years of experience babysitting. An infant under six months of age involves too many risks with techniques and may lead to frustration. Even with experience, a newborn (an infant less than one month of age) is not an appropriate babysitting job for a teenager.

Your teen should also avoid accepting a summer babysitting job where she babysits every day. Even during the school year, she shouldn't accept jobs for both weekend evenings. As a young teen, she needs time to "be a kid" herself and allow time for spontaneous events with friends. Day-after-day jobs are just too demanding for a young teen's developmental level.

You can help your teen help himself! Suggest that he tell his teachers he's started to babysit. Or have him ask his friends or an older brother or sister to give his name as a substitute when they're not available. (References still need to be checked!) Your teen sitter can also volunteer to babysit with familiar families in the nursery at your church or synagogue. When parents pick up their children, they will have the opportunity to see how he interacts with their child. Showing how much he likes the children is the best way to get a parent's attention and a babysitting job.

With your assistance, your teen can also garner attention by safely marketing her availability. Help her make a flier, letter, or business card, including name, telephone number, hours available to babysit, curfews on school nights, fee rate, and if she has taken a babysitting preparation class. If she distributes flyers, it's always better to deliver them in person rather than just putting them in mailboxes. (It gives the adult a chance to ask questions and for your teen to meet the parents.) Do not allow her to post her name and telephone number in a public place or online! She should not give out any personal information by phone, flier, or internet that endangers her safety. Accepting babysitting jobs from strangers should not be allowed! Remind your teen sitter that she should not be in such a hurry to get a job that she puts herself at risk.

The first time young teens babysit can be an exciting milestone for them but a stress-inducing one for their parents. However, assuming the new role of babysitter doesn't have to mean immediately jumping into sitting for strangers. Young sitters can get the confidence they need and the experience they want by easing into childcare jobs with family, friends and neighbors. With some careful marketing and assistance from parents, young sitters can also safely introduce themselves to other potential employers and grow their new babysitting business!

Taking Care of an Infant Within the First One Month

It is important to understand that the care of the baby begins from the point of pregnancy. The expectant mother has to visit the clinic so that they can have checks to confirm that all is well. There are a host of vaccines that the mother has to take to safeguard the unborn child from some potential illnesses that can affect the healthy development of the baby during pregnancy and even soon after delivery.

The First Week after Delivery

The first week after delivery is always very challenging for many. First time parents often have lots of difficulty because they may not even know how to breastfeed the kid. While many people assume that breastfeeding a kid is a natural thing that every mother must know, the truth is the exact opposite.

Every first time mother needs education on how to hold the child when breastfeeding as well as how best to handle the nipples. These lessons will go a long way in ensuring your baby gets the milk they need. You can get reliable information on these matters from the clinic or by reading medical journals on how to handle babies.

The first few days are very important for breastfeeding because the baby gets some immunity against common complications from the breast milk. Babies who miss out on this stand a higher chance of contacting different kinds of health problem along the way. Besides the feeding aspect, there are other things as well that are very important. It is good to realize that you will be required to lift the baby from time to time. There is a specific way of doing this. Newly born kids are very weak and must be handled with care.

How to Lift a Newly Born Child

When you have to lift the baby up, you should always make sure you hold them with both hands. The first hand should hold the baby from the back of the head around the neck area. The other one should hold around the waist so that you give the entire weight of the baby is supported.

Many people may be tempted to hold the kid from the arms because it comes naturally. This should not be the case. It is also important to make sure you do not try to put the baby in a sitting position. Keep the baby in a straight position as if they are lying on the bed at all times.

At birth, the placenta which is the link between the child and the mother while in the womb has to be cut. A wound always results from this cut. This wound is often closed using a special peg. Once the peg is in place, it is supposed to remain in place until the wound dries out and it falls off on its own.

You must however take some time on a daily basis to clean the area, sterilize it and make sure it remains dry at all times. During these few days when the peg has not yet fallen off, you should watch out to ensure you do not hurt the area. Diapers should be handled with care by giving the area enough room. These steps are vital because it is very easy for a child to get ill due to contamination from the wound.

Giving the Baby a Warm Bath

During the first week, it is very difficult to give the baby a good bath. In many cases, the nurses are supposed to give the kid a birth as soon as it is born. If you are not sure on the best way to clean the baby, you can simply avoid it during the first week. During this time, the wound from the placenta should heal.

You will know the wound has healed when the peg falls off. You should at no time try to pull off the peg because that may worsen the situation. It is better to avoid giving the kid a bath for this one week than to do it and create more problems with the unhealed wound. The baby will not develop any problems because they have not been bathed for a few days.