Apps for Busy Parents

Parenting has often been described as a full-time job. Moms and dads have to organize children’s schedules, find kid-friendly places to eat, and remember all the things that their family needs from the grocery store this week. Fortunately, there are apps that can help busy parents to keep track of everything. Here are a few to try. Mom Maps Mom Maps helps moms and dads find places that are appropriate for family fun. There are over 28,000 locations supported by this app. It gives you directions to parks, playgrounds, children’s museums, kid’s indoor play areas, kid’s restaurants and more (including … Continue reading →

Study Reports 77% of Kids 8-14 Help Parents With Online Tasks

Here’s an interesting new study I read about. It seems that 77% of kids between the ages of 8 and 14 are helping their parents with online tasks. You hear a lot about the rising number of adults who shop, make bill payments or complete other tasks online but it never occurred to me that kids, especially kids as young as 8, were also completing these same tasks. The study was conducted by Stars for Kidz and revealed that busy parents often turn to their kids when they need to make online purchases. A national survey of more than 6,000 … Continue reading →

Why Parents Need Support and Encouragement (And The Best Kinds We Can Get)

Sometimes, the very best thing people can do to help children is to help and support their parents. So much of our “focus on the children” efforts go toward providing programs, services, and attempts to change attitudes about kids. However, I think that children’s lives improve when the parents’ lives improve and there are plenty of things people can do to help and support all parents… I am really not talking about major political policies or big bureaucratic programs here—I’m talking about little ways that people can pitch in and support a busy parent—any busy parent. Instead of scolding, ignoring, … Continue reading →

Three-Level Method of Discipline

How many times do you warn your kids before you administer a punishment? Is it three? Five? Depends on how you are feeling? As you know, consistency is the name of the game when we discipline. Your kids have to know what to expect in order for any method to work. Dr. Jerry Day describes a corrective teaching method called the three-level method of discipline. The first level is a warning. This is done with no penalty attached. It’s when you tell your kids to stop tormenting the cat, bickering among themselves or climbing on the furniture. If they take … Continue reading →

Bartering for Time

Sometimes as parents, we have to barter with our kids in order to get what we want. This is especially true if we have young kids who demand a lot of our time and attention. Being a writer, I don’t work traditional hours. I am often waiting on callbacks that come after 3:00 when Tyler is home or on the weekend. Deadlines loom and if bills are to be paid, well, I have to meet them. What I have found useful is to trade off with Tyler. If I really need to get something done I will tell him that … Continue reading →

Making Good Friends

Friends can have an enormous influence in our children’s lives. These friendships can be for the good or have a detrimental effect upon our child. So as parents it is important that we help our children cultivate and maintain good friends. Good friends are invaluable, especially for teenagers. You might wonder how can you help your child choose good friends. Read on for some ideas. Talk about good friends. Help your child make a list of characteristics that a good friend has. Encourage them to be a good friend as well. This way they are more likely to attract good … Continue reading →

When You Want To Hit A Bully Follow-up

This week I posted a blog titled “When You Want To Hit A Bully” and I just wanted to follow up on the story. The other day we told my son to hit the kid who had been bullying him for the last year at the bus stop. We felt like we had exhausted all other possibilities. My husband remembered when he was in junior high and a certain boy constantly bullied him. But one day my husband went up to the bully and hit him. After that the bully left him alone. So we felt like the action was … Continue reading →

When You Want To Hit A Bully

I recently read a post to an article that Kori Rodley-Irons wrote titled “What if You Don’t Like Your Child’s Friend?” and I wanted to respond to it. Katie-Anne wrote “I’d like to see an article that advises us moms on what to do when you want to go slap one of your kid’s classmates because they were mean to your child and he’s cried himself to sleep for a week as a result! ROFL I can’t be the only mom to have these completely irrational thoughts am I?” No Katie-Anne you are not the only mom who has had … Continue reading →

Helping Children Deal With News Trauma

Every time you turn on the news you are confronted with stories of car crashes, murders, bombings, or the latest natural catastrophe. As adults we can distance ourselves from the tragedies playing out on the television screen. But for children the news can be confusing and scary. The kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, from her bedroom, received a lot of news coverage. My 6-year-old cousin saw some of the footage. As a result she was scared to sleep in her own room alone. For months she had to sleep in her older brother’s room, because she felt safer. Her parents did … Continue reading →

Playing In The Kitchen

If you are like me you spend plenty of time in the kitchen. This includes making meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even snacks. Then there is the clean up time, washing down the cupboards and stove, and putting the dishes in the dishwasher. (I love my dishwasher! My parents didn’t get a dishwasher until my sister and I were both out of the house in fact it was just a week after my sister got married. My dad’s reasoning: “Why buy a dishwasher when you already have two?” So I grew up doing my fair share of dishes by hand.) … Continue reading →