Parenting Survival Tips

Homework vs. Competitive Game Commitments?

Hi Parents,

There was a little controversial debate going on in our community this past weekend and I would love to get other parent's insights on this topic.

My older son is on a competitive soccer team in which all the kids were hand selected to be one of the twelve on this team. Last weekend we had an out of town soccer tournament (2 hours away) with 2 games on Saturday and depending on how well they performed, more games on Sunday.

Our team was doing well and had an opportunity depending on how the first game on Sunday went to be in the play-offs on Sunday afternoon. One parent took her son home on Saturday night after the games and then Sunday morning decided not to bring her son back for the Sunday games because he did not finish all of his homework on Saturday night after they got home.

Questions the parents debated were:

1. Did this parent's decision cost the team the opportunity to be in the play-offs and is that fair to the rest of the team members?

2. Is homework more important that teaching our children commitment and responsibility when they sign up for a team sport?

3. Do you have other ideas on how to find a compromise so that a child can get their homework done and still support their team commitments?

I would love to hear your parenting thoughts on this never-ending age old debate of homework vs. team commitments.

Julie
aka: Soccer Mom

aka:

 

Is CBS take it too far with our children on Kid Nation?

Hi Parents,

Did you hear about CBS's new TV reality show, Kid Nation? 

Unbelievable!

40 sets of parents signed a 22-page contract, virtually absolving producers from any responsibility for the children's well-being while they allow their very young children, ages 8-14, to go off for 40 days to run a town without any supervision.

Check it out at: Kid Nation Review

Is it only me, or is this irresponsible parenting to sell your child in exchange for fame?

There have been numerous reports of accidents and the children have to put in 14-hour days in front of the cameras. I have heard stories of kids falling out of buildings and 2-3 children drinking bleach - luckily they survived, but at what cost? How can this be legal?

Kim Talman, from the National Association to Protect Children, said: "Child labour laws were pretty lax in New Mexico, it's the reason they went there.

"In California and New York they never would have gotten away with something like this but the way they're skirting that issue is saying that the children were not actually employed."

There have been calls for the show to be dropped and some advertisers are keeping their distance, but CBS remains unfazed.

I would love to hear your comments on the parents that are allowing their children to participate and your views on CBS. 

Should CBS drop the show?
Would you allow your children to participate and at what age and what price?

Julie
aka: Concerned Mom

Why Are Boys Different?

Hi Moms,

Ok - I attended a parenting class entitled "Raising Boys" and being a mom of 2 young boys, I found this educational and would love to hear from you if you have boys:

• Aggressiveness is ok, but violence is not acceptable.
• Males pull away during tragedy and women become nurturing.
• Male brains cannot multi-task; women's brains are more flexible and adaptable.
• Males have 20x more testosterone that females
• Boys even dream aggressively with fighting, chasing, etc. (is that because of the design of their brain or is it because we allow them to watch/play that way?)
• Boys possess less of the seratonine chemical which allows one to become calm
• Males dominate in the drug/alcohol abuse, teret syndrome, and autism diseases

According to this expert, boys need nurturing, discipline, and structure more than girls. She also insists that you can't praise your child too much because society will hurt and knock them down enough so they need the home environment to raise them up.

She also preaches that right from wrong is learned in the home and by age 5 it is almost too late! Give them choices and every house should have 5 golden rules.

Top 5 rules in our home:

1) No hitting, kicking, touching or hurting another person
2) Respect everyone, but especially your parents - never talk back
3) Always tell the truth
4) Everyone that lives in the home, must help to keep the home nice - weekly chores and taking care of your things are for everyone!
5) Manners count - the only way to get what you want is by using manners - please and thank you go along way in our home! :-)

What are the top 5 rules in your home? I would love your comments!

Until next time...

Julie
aka: Mom

Elizabeth Edwards Hangs With the BlogHer Crowd!

Hi Moms,

Do you blog? Have you ever thought about blogging? If not...YOU WILL! :-)

It is one of the best ways to keep in touch with other moms, to tell your stories to protect your sanity, to share your tips to save others' sanity, and to perhaps make some money working from home...so many reasons that blogging and in particular the "mommy blogs" are taking over CyberSpace!

According to TechCrunch, there are already 93 million active blogs in the world and 175,000 new bloggers are joining the race every day!

BlogHer, www.blogher.org,  is one of the leading blog networks for females and I had the pleasure of attending their annual conference, BlogHer07, this past week in Chicago where 750 female bloggers soaked up the latest blogging technology, tips, trends, and networking sites.

I attended the conference representing Simply Hired, www.simplyhired.com, who recently launched a new free product called Job-a-matic, www.jobamatic.com, that allows bloggers to add relevant and valuable content that they can monetize to their site(s).  If you are a blogger today - check it out and start making money today!

Elizabeth Edwards (wife of presidential candidate John-yeah, that one) took to the stage for her keynote speech with Lisa Stone and then graciously joined us at our cocktail party. The woman hung out with us bloghers all night. She met everyone and answered questions about anything and literally was one of us. She impressed me with her genuine grace, passion for community involvement and the sheer fact that she writes all of her own blog posts without an editor is simply the icing on the cake for this amazing influential women!

Many of the bloggers asked Elizabeth advice on how to make change regarding more prominence for blog sites via the major search engines.  Elizabeth passionately suggested that all bloggers need to rally together (see photo) and email the major search engines like Google and Yahoo! and as a united voice insist that blog search become more prominent on their sites. Even though Google was a sponsor of this event, Ask.com is the only major search engine that I am aware of that is already doing this today and we hope the rest will follow to acknowledge the importance of this growing media channel.

Check out the event photo in my photo album here!

Please comment here on what blogs you are reading and if you are a blogger please share a description and link to your site so others can benefit!

Thanks,

Julie
aka: mommy blogger

 

Who Are The New MySpace Moms?

Hi Moms,

Do you have a MySpace profile?

The media is all over the fact that MySpace is just for the under 25 crowd and infiltrated with "bad guys" , but in a recent MySpace survey, it appears there is a growing network of MySpace Moms that are extremely active in the social network and for a variety of reasons.

Here are the top reasons moms joined the most popular social networking site:

• 37% to keep in touch with their friends
• 23% to meet new people
• 26% to keep an eye on their kids

This astounding feedback indicates that 37% of the MySpace Moms visit the site 3 or more times daily and spend more than 30 minutes on the site every single day.  Ninety-two percent of the moms also indicated they would recommend the site to other moms.

43% of the MySpace moms are reading friend's blogs and 45% take time to post comments.

These stats show that MySpace is not just a teen fad, but it is a revolutionary social network medium for all generations and all lifestyles and it is here to stay and that Moms are becoming a growing and increasingly active segment of this network!

The MySpace Moms survey consisted of moms 35+ years of age with a majority having 2 children under age 18 and only 25% are stay-at-home moms.

I would love to hear from you if you are a MySpace Mom and why you joined or if you think this is something you might consider in the future?

GO Moms!

Julie
aka: mom

Scrapbooking Online - The Latest Mommy Craze!

Hi Moms -

I am part of a scrapbooking club and it has been a passion of mine for many years to make sure my kids have endless memories to treasure aobut their younger years.

I was just introduced to a new site called www.scrapblog.com which is the new craze for moms who love to take photos and create memories!

Scrapbook is amazing and they wanted to go beyond sharing photos and videos online. They made Scrapblog drag-and-drop-easy so that everyone can tell their stories and create beautiful multimedia scrapbooks.

Their goal is to enable everyday people to express themselves online in a creative way.  What you see online today is only the beginning of creating and sharing memories online.

Part of the appeal of my scrapbooking club is the girl's chatter that goes on whenever we get together. Will this be lost when we move to scrapbooking online? I would love to hear your comments on how this new online experience will change your life and are you willing to give up the tangible albums?

Check it out and please comment on your experience at www.scrapblog.com!

Julie
aka: Mom

Where are all the female bloggers?

Chicago!

800 femal bloggers rally together at the third annual BlogHer, www.blogher.org,  event in Chicago this week and it is truly amazing to see the long list of Mommy Bloggers that are sharing their stories and tips online. I have met some amazing women and some have millions of readers visiting their site which calls out the need and demand for such sites to exist.

I find it interesting that most bloggers are spending 40+ hours a week on researching, writing for their blogs, etc. and even though it is truly a full-time job, less than 10% are actually monetizing their blogs. Many of the mommy blogs started as a hobby, a journal of the live of their little ones, a sanity break from the mommy world, etc. and have never thought about making money from their site.

It has been fun to share with them the cool product launched this year by Simply Hired called job-a-matic, www.job-a-matic.com, which allows bloggers for free to set up a job board on their site and to start earning money for their efforts! Everyone I met has been extremely interested and exciting about adding relevant jobs to their site as valuable content for their readers while making some money in the process.

Some of the cool moms I met at this conference are running the following mommy sites that you may want to check out as we are all "sisters" in making a difference in the lives of our children.

http://fishygirl.typepad.com

www.scrapblog.com

www.plainjanemom.com

www.simplyrecipes.com

www.svmoms.com

www.chicagomomsblog.com

www.schulala.com

http://wheresmycape.blgospot.com

www.amommystory.blogspot.com

www.momready.com

www.WIMonline.org

What do you do with all the McDonald's toys?

Hi Parents,

If you are a normal family you probably have a nice collection of small toys from McDonalds, birthday party goody bags, festivals, and the numerous other places that like to pass out small plastic objects, but you may not know what to do with all of them. Are you concerned they are taking over your house? Are you looking for ways to redistribute them?

You can certainly share them with your recycling bin or donate them to your favorite charity or tie a few to each kid's birthday present you wrap to add a little decor, but here's another idea of how I put all of this plastic to good use in our home.

I collect all of the small toys from fast food, birthday party goody bags, fairs, etc. and put them into a sturdy 16 in. x 16 in. wicker box with a lid on it. The box is covered and looks trendy so it fits right in as decor in my front room.

Then whenever my kids have friends over to play we play games or go on a scavenger hunt and at the end we let them pick a prize from the wicker "treasure chest".  It is worth it to save and recycle the plastic just to see the smile on their friend's face for just a few seconds when they pick a prize.  The neighborhood kids think we have a really cool house and always want to visit since we pass out prizes! :-)

Once all the toys are collected into the box, I let each of my kids select 2-4 items that they really want to keep and otherwise they are not allowed to go into the box unless friends are visiting. This rule keeps the house picked up while making it a special time whenever their friends are over.  My kids haven't looked in the box for awhile so many of the items seem new to them as well, so it is a win-win experience every time without the expense!

I would love to hear your ideas on how you "recycle the hundreds of small plastic toys" that are taking over your house!

Julie
aka: Mom

BlogHer's Coming - Female Bloggers Unite! Join us!

Hi Moms,

I wanted to let you know that next week I will be blogging LIVE from the BlogHer conference that is taking place at Navy Pier in Chicago July 27-29th. BlogHer is the leading organization for pulling together female bloggers on a wide variety of topics. If you are currently a blogger or if you are interested in started a blog you won't want to miss this event!

Read on to enter to win a FREE TRIP to this amazing event!   

Win a trip to BlogHer Conference ‘07! Scrapbog will pay for your airfare, hotel and conference admission!

Sound too good to be true? Not if you are in touch with your inner scrapbooker. BlogHer has partnered with Scrapblog, the premiere multimedia scrapbook creation tool, to offer BlogHers a chance to win a trip to BlogHer

Visit blogher.scrapblog.com to participate!

Entering the sweepstakes is easy. Simply create a scrapblog, publish it, and tag it with “blogher07”. The more views your scrapblog gets, the more entries you have in the sweepstakes. Simple enough, right?

Ready to jump in? Here’s how to get started…

1. Go to blogher.scrapblog.com and create a scrapblog. The step-by-step instructions make it easy or you can take a quick tour.
2. Publish your scrapblog and tag it with “BlogHer07”. You will be automatically entered into the sweepstakes.
3. Go back to blogher.scrapblog.com and list the link to your scrapblog in the comments section, start generating buzz around your scrapblog, and let your friends know that you’ve posted it.

Since you are the first to know about this sweepstakes, Scrapblog would also like your feedback on the experience of creating a scrapblog. Feel free to offer your feedback in the comments as well. Scrapblog will start selecting outstanding entries and posting them to a contest page on Scrapblog.com and Flickr.

Keep checking back at BlogHer.org, as they will be linking announcements regarding the official contest rules, outstanding scrapblogs, and the winners which will be announced on July 17!

What are you waiting for...enter today...and I hope to see you in the Windy City next week!

Julie
aka: Mom

Are You Raising Responsible Children?

Hi Parents,

I was raised in a traditional home in the Midwest, so it seems so natural to me that Saturday mornings are designated as "chore days", (maybe because in the Midwest it is cold and gray six months out of the year so no one seems to mind doing the chores?). Every Saturday every member of the family had a list of chores to complete before they could do their own thing and it was just the way of life, but I believe being raised in this structure has helped me to be more organized, disciplined and successful in the workplace today. 

The more I talk to other parents these days, I am amazed at how many parents do not give their children the responsibility of regular chores. Do you?

I have heard replies such as "Well they are just too young what could they possibly do?", or "I ask them to help but then they end up finding something else to do", or my personal favorite "Why ask them to do chores if I am just going to have to spend my time to go behind them and do the same chore over again to get it done right?".

I am sure these are valid concerns, but I will counter the argument that it is the parent's responsibility to raise responsible children, and I believe by the age of 2 all kids should begin to be accountable for regular chores.  Even if it is a small task it is teaching your child that being in a family and living in a home is a group responsibility and everyone needs to pitch in and help out to maintain the home.  I also believe it is a good idea to separate regular chores (responsibilities for being a member of the family) from the extra chores that can be tied to a weekly allowance.  By giving your child an allowance you are teaching them to manage their finances and allowing them to make discretionary spending choices with their own money when they really want that cool new toy and it is not their birthday.  If you are consistent in this practice, not only will you contribute to raising responsible children, but you will begin to see great pride in your children when they successfully accomplish a task!

Remember - it does not have to be done perfectly - this is a parental exercise for raising responsible children and it is not about having a squeaky clean house!  Here are 30 quick suggested chores for kids - why not pick two or three that are appropriate for your child's age and get started this week?

Sample Chores for Children:

1. pick up toys
2. make bed
3. set table for dinner
4. clean up the table after dinner
5. wash dishes
6. dust
7. feed the pet
8. brush/walk - take care of a pet
9. get the mail everyday from the mailbox
10. take out the garbage
11. fold clothes
12. wash the car
13. sweep out the garage
14. pick vegetables in the garden
15. organize the books on the bookshelf - by size or alphabetically
16. vacuum
17. water plants
18. if they are young - line up their plastic bath toys with 2 tubs and ask them to help you wash the toys
19. roll their coins so they are ready to take to the bank
20. help plan and write down the meals for the coming week
21. wipe down the kitchen cabinets or counters
22. if they are old enough - mow the yard
23. My six year old's favorite - identify and put batteries in the flashlights or toys that have dead batteries! - Yes - a future engineer I do believe! :-)
24. organize a closet or drawer
25. collect all of the towels in the house into one basket for someone to wash
26. organize the DVD/movie or games
27. again for the little ones - have them find every ball in the house or garage and put them into 1 bucket or basket
28. clean their bedroom
29. put the stamps on your bills/letters that are ready to go out or write the return address on each envelope
30. help prepare a meal or help to prepare the grocery list

I would love to hear from you if you have other chores that your kids are doing today!

Good luck and know that your effort is worth the reward!

Julie
aka: Mom